"The Caribbean lowlands are an area of marshes, estuaries and grasslands susceptible to seasonal flooding. Between around 200 BCE and 1000 CE, the Zenúes successfully lived here by constructing half a million hectares (almost two thousand square miles) of ditch-and-raised-field systems, which are still visible today (see photo).
  
Artwork includes intimately detailed representations of animals in cast tumbaga (gold-copper alloy), which provide a glimpse into the abundant world the Zenúes built, inhabited, and observed. Also notable are the frequent and refined ceramic representations of women, which scholars often mention in the context of reports by Spanish chroniclers about a female ruler who presided over Finzenú, a town and cemetery where elites were laid to rest. However, very little is known for sure about how these ceramic effigies were used or what they represent."

Image: Zenu ditch-and-raised-fields systems, Photo credit: Jorge Alberto Escobar Vargas, Archivo Museo del Oro