(23 Apr 2008) SHOTLIST

1. Various of excavation site
2. Wide of anthropologist Luisa Veronica Ramirez excavating cemetery
3. Human remains
4. Close-up of skull
5. Various of Ramirez excavating
6. Various of remains with sign showing date
7. Ramirez excavating
8. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Luisa Veronica Ramirez, Anthropologist:
"We have identified two populations, one of them from the first centuries AD and the other has its beginnings in the tenth century AD. The first one is the Herrera population and the latter is the Muisca."
9. Various of remains excavated at the site
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Luisa Veronica Ramirez, Anthropologist:
"We have found burial sites as well as living spaces here and we have identified various sectors. This area where we are now has a lot of graves and up there there is evidence of living spaces."
11. Various of Ramirez cleaning remains
12. Wide of Ana Maria Groot, Director of Anthropology Research at Bogota National University and others
13. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Ana Maria Groot, Director of Anthropology Research at Bogota National University:
"This site allows us to investigate the conditions of life of those who lived here. Child mortality has already been registered in other sites in savannahs of Bogota, but it is also probable that some of these burials could be the result of ritual practices, to some type of sacrifice that was carried out with some children and some women."
14. Remains being labelled

STORYLINE

Remains found in an indigenous settlement on the outskirts of the Colombian capital date back more than 2-thousand years, local anthropologists revealed on Wednesday.

The anthropology department of Bogota's National University concluded the first phase of research this week on the remains which were discovered in early 2007.

The excavation site, which lies in the prehistoric necropolis of Usme (south of Bogota), is divided into what anthropologists believe to be living quarters and a burial site.

"We have found burial sites as well as living spaces here and we have identified various sectors. This area where we are now has a lot of graves and up there there is evidence of living spaces," anthropologist Luisa Veronica Ramirez said.

According to Ramirez the remains, found in more than 1,500 graves, date back to two different populations which lived a few centuries apart.

"We have identified two populations, one of them from the first centuries AD and the other has its beginnings in the tenth century AD. The first one is the Herrera population and the latter is the Muisca," she said.

The findings are expected to shed light on life during the Herrera period (from the first to the fifth centuries AD) and the early Muisca period (fifth century AD) - two periods about which relatively little is known.

Based on the remains found at the burial site, anthropologists believe the area could have also served as a place of worship where women and children would have been sacrificed as part of a common ritual of pre-hispanic cultures.

"This site allows us to investigate the conditions of life of those who lived here. Child mortality has already been registered in other sites in savannahs of Bogota, but it is also probable that some of these burials could be the result of ritual practices, to some type of sacrifice that was carried out with some children and some women," Ana Maria Groot, Director of Anthropology Research at Bogota National University said.

Aside from human remains, pottery and other artefacts were found at the site.


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