Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 2021, 5(1), 89-110 https://www.hillpublisher.com/journals/jhass/ ISSN Online: 2576-0548 ISSN Print: 2576-0556 Monumental Architecture, Settlement Landscape, and Climate Change at El Infiernito, Colombia Michael P. Smyth The Foundation for Americas Research, Inc., USA. How to cite this paper: Michael P. Smyth. (2021) Monumental Architecture, Settle- Abstract ment Landscape, and Climate Change at El The ancient Muisca in the Valley of Leiva of the Eastern Andean Cordillera were Infiernito, Colombia. Journal of Humani- ties, Arts and Social Science, 5(1), 89-110. monument buildings strongly influenced by climate change. Research at El In- DOI: 10.26855/jhass.2021.01.010 fiernito, the Stonehenge of Colombia, examined socio-environmental contexts related to the impacts of drought, flooding, and erosion vital to the development Received: February 12, 2021 of past chiefdom societies. Chiefly elites responded to adverse water-related con- Accepted: March 18, 2021 Published: April 14, 2021 ditions by engineering a hydraulic landscape but also modified their built envi- ronment employing stone architecture and stone monuments that embodied reli- *Corresponding author: Michael P. gious and celestial cosmology. Investigations at a rare stone building and the dis- Smyth, The Foundation for Americas covery of nearby human burials begin to show evidence for a chiefly compound at Research, Inc., USA. El Infiernito. Reconnaissance nearby also located new irrigation works and astro- Email:
[email protected] nomical-related monuments that appears to correspond to a quintuple planetary grouping visible in 710 AD. These data show that elites employed both tangible and intangible responses to overcome limitations posed by the natural and cultural environments.