Muisca agriculture

The Bogotá savanna, location of the agricultural fields of the Muisca
Maize was the main agricultural product for the Muisca
Avocados are a sub-tropical fruit, traded with indigenous neighbours who inhabited cooler areas
After the conquest of the Muisca lands, barley was introduced quickly and grew well on the fertile highlands
The cubio; a tuber cultivated in the higher altitude areas of the Muisca terrains
Quinoa was a plant originally from Peru, but cultivated in the highlands of the Muisca territories
Chivatá means "our outside crop fields" in Muysccubun

The Muisca agriculture describes the agriculture of the Muisca, the advanced civilisation that was present in the times before the Spanish conquest on the high plateau in the Colombian Andes; the Altiplano Cundiboyacense. The Muisca were a predominantly agricultural society with small-scale farmfields, part of more extensive terrains. To diversify their diet, they traded mantles, gold, emeralds and salt for fruits, vegetables, coca, yopo and cotton cultivated in lower altitude warmer terrains populated by their neighbours, the Muzo, Panche, Guane, Guayupe, Lache, Sutagao and U'wa. Trade of products grown farther away happened with the Calima, Pijao and Caribbean coastal communities around the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

Important scholars who have contributed to the knowledge about the Muisca agriculture have been Pedro Simón, Marianne Cardale de Schrimpff, Carl Henrik Langebaek and Sylvia Broadbent.


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