"Colombian anthropologists said on Monday (April 21) they had discovered a giant sacrificial tomb used by the ancient Muisca people. The tomb contains an estimated 1,500 bodies, all stacked tightly together in a series of rows.

"It was discovered in the town of Usme, located some nine miles (15 km) south of Bogota and appears to have been used for centuries before being shut up some 2,000 years ago.

"Becerra said that early evidence from the tomb suggests some of the first burials may have even been from the Herrera people, who lived in the area years before the Muiscas arrived.

"There are very few cultures in the world where we have seen such extensive use of the same burial place over centuries and centuries. What we have here -- as I am sure you realized during the tour -- a huge variety of burials. It is a buried library of about one thousand years of pre-Hispanic culture," said Jose Virgilio Becerra, director of the Colombian National University Anthropology department.

"Oral tradition suggests that every Muisca family had to send one child to live with the local priests. These children were then cared for until the age of 15, before being sacrificed for 'Sue', the Sun-god.

"But these sacrificial rites appeared to have died out before Spanish conquistadors came across the Muisca some 500 years ago.

"It is not so much a burial site where the dead are put into the ground, it is a site where life is reborn. It is a place to give thanks, a
place of sacrifice so that life can continue. The people sacrificed themselves so that life continued," Becerra said.

"Descriptions from the early Spanish explorers said the Muisca were an agricultural society that used mountains of gold and emeralds in their arts and handicrafts.

"Becerra said several examples of shell necklaces, stone implements and ceramics had been found in the tomb, but not even an ounce of gold was found."
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