Editing Muisca (section)

== Sources on the Muisca and scholarly research ==
{{see also|List of Muisca research institutes|List of Muisca scholars}}
[[File:Mulder-nueva_granada.jpg|thumb|[[Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita]], ''Historia general de las conquistas del Nuevo Reyno de Granada'', 1688]]
Writings on the Muisca have a long tradition, dating from the conquest era with Spanish chronicles, colonial-era Spanish religious and civil administrative records, the findings of modern archeologists and anthropologists, and revised interpretations by scholars in recent years.  Unlike the Indigenous peoples of [[Mesoamerica]], the Muisca did not have a system of writing before the Spanish invasion in the sixteenth century and during the colonial era, so that the understanding of Muisca history and culture has largely been based non-native sources. A Spanish document named “Epítome de la Conquista Del Nueva Rieno de Granada” (Summary of the Conquest of the New Kingdom of Granada) provides what is considered the most complete description of Muisca culture. The author is unknown but is believed to be Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.<ref name=OriginElDorado></ref> 

Spanish cleric [[Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita]] authored a major work the New Kingdom of Granada, the ''Historia general de las conquistas de; Nuevo Reyno de Granada, a la S.C.R.M. de D. Carlos Segundo'', 1688, which has shaped colonial era and, until recently, modern understandings of the Muisca. This work creates an image of the [[Precolombian]] Muisca, with powerful political structures and a unified religion and priestly hierarchy.<ref>Juan F. Cobo Betancourt, (2024). ''[[doi:10.1017/9781009314046|The Coming of the Kingdom: The Muisca, Catholic Reform, and Spanish Colonialism in the New Kingdom of Granada]]''. Open access. Cambridge University Press, pp. 23-24</ref> Recent scholarship has re-examined early published writings and sought new sources in a variety of archives to posit a different understanding of the Muisca. The Muisca have been integral to the formation of national identity in Colombia,<ref>[[Carl Henrik Langebaek|Langebaek, Carl Henrik]]. ''Los herederos del pasado : indígenas y pensamiento criollo en Colombia y Venezuela''. Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes: Ediciones Uniandes 2009</ref> with Colombian scholar [[Carl Henrik Langebaek]] describing them as "the official 'tribe' of the Colombian nation" and "a local version of the [[Aztecs]] and [[Incas]]".<ref>quoted in Cobo Betancourt, ''The Coming of the Kingdom''. 25</ref><ref>[[Carl Henrik Langebaek|Langebaek, Carl Henrik]]. ''Los herederos del pasado : indígenas y pensamiento criollo en Colombia y Venezuela''. Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes: Ediciones Uniandes 2009</ref><ref>Lleras Pérez, Roberto. "Los Muiscas en la literatura histórica y antropolgía: Quién interpreta a quién?" ''Boletín de Historia y Antigüedades ''. 92, no. 829 (2005), 307-338.</ref><ref>Muñoz Arbeláez, Santiago. ''Costumbres en disputa: Los muiscas y el Imperio español en Ubaque, siglo XVI''. Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Departamento de Historia 2015.</ref> The interpretation of the sixt,eenth-century Spanish invasion has received new attention which departs from a Eurocentric, triumphalist narrative.<ref>Cobo Betancourt, ''The Coming of the Kingdom'', 25</ref><ref>Francis, J. Michael. 2007. ''Invading Colombia: Accounts of the Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Expedition of Conquest''. University Park: Penn State University Press 2007</ref><ref>[[Jorge Gamboa Mendoza|Gamboa Mendoza, Jorge]]. ''Los muiscas y su incorporación a la monarquía castellana en el siglo XVI: Nuevas lecturas desde la Nueva Historia de la Conquista''. Tunja: Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia 2016</ref><ref>Muñoz Arbeláez, Santiago. "The New Kingdom of Granada: The Making an Unmaking of Spain's Atlantic Empire, 1530-1620". PhD dissertation, Yale University 2018.</ref> 

Since independence in the early nineteenth century, investigations into Muisca culture as part of national identity formation began. In 1849 president [[Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera]] invited Italian cartographer [[Agustín Codazzi]], who led the Geography Commission with Manuel Ancízar and did descriptive studies of the national territory and an inventory of the archaeological sites. The result of the expedition was published in Bogotá in 1889 as ''Peregrinación Alfa''.<ref>Ancízar, Manuel; ''Peregrinación Alfa'' (''Alpha Travels''), Bogotá, 1889: Comisión Coreográfica Agustín Codazzi</ref> Argüello García pointed out that the goal of that expedition in the context of the new nation was to underline the pre-Hispanic societies and in that sense, they centered on the Muisca culture as the main model. A similar tendency can be found in the works of [[Ezequiel Uricoechea]].<ref>Uricoechea, Ezequiel; ''Memorias sobre las Antigüedades Neogranadinas'' (''Memoirs of the Ancient Neogranadian Cultures''), Berlín, 1854</ref> An objection to that point of view came from Vicente Restrepo: his work ''Los chibchas antes de la conquista española''<ref>Restrepo, Vicente; ''Los chibchas antes de la conquista española'' (''The Chibcha people before the Spanish Conquest''), 1895</ref> showed them as barbarians.

[[Miguel Triana]], in his work ''La Civilización Chibcha''<ref>Triana, Miguel; ''La Civilización Chibcha'' (''The Chibcha Civilization''), 1924</ref> suggested that the rock art symbols were writing. Wenceslao Cabrera Ortíz was the one who concluded that the Muisca were migrants to the highlands; in 1969 he published on this<ref>Ortíz, Wenceslao Cabrera; ''Monumentos rupestres de Colombia'' (''Colombian Rock-art Monuments'') in ''Cuaderno primero: Generalidades, Algunos conjuntos pictóricos de Cundinamarca'', 1969</ref> and reported about excavations at the [[El Abra]] archaeological site. Those publications opened a new era in the studies of the pre-Hispanic cultures in Colombia.<ref name=Arguello>Argüello G., Pedro María; [http://rupestreweb.tripod.com/colombia.html History of the Investigation of the Rock Art in Colombia]</ref>

Recent archaeological work has also concentrated on the creation and composition of Muisca goldwork, with this data being made available for wider research.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Martinon-Torres |first1=Marcos |last2=Villegas |first2=Maria Uribe |title=Typology, technology, composition and context of Muisca metalwork (Colombia, AD 600-1800): a database |journal=[[Journal of Open Archaeology Data]] |date=15 March 2012 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=e4 |doi=10.5334/4f60dd6baa298 |language=en |issn=2049-1565|doi-access=free }}</ref>