Identificación de fauna en las piezas de colección arqueológica zenú del Museo del Oro

As part of the research that was undertaken in connection with producing the museographic script for the Zenú Gold Museum in Cartagena de Indias (inaugurated in 2023), 1227 objects with zoomorphous representations on them in the Gold Museum’s archaeological collections from the plains and marshes between the middle and lower basins of the rivers Sinú, San Jorge and Cauca, the lower Magdalena region and the Montes de María, in northern Colombia, were reviewed. An attempt was made with the stone, shell, pottery, bone and metalwork objects to identify fauna subgroups or species by comparing biological information with details of the pre-Hispanic representations. This text brings together a sample of the species identified, from both aquatic and terrestrial habitats: mallard, ibis, howler monkey, great anteater, opossum, guinea pigs and shellcrackers.