Eliécer Silva Célis

Biography

Eliécer Silva Celis was born in Tobasía, vereda of Floresta, Boyacá on January 20, 1914. He became an orphan at young age and worked as street vendor and at the construction of the railway of Antioquia. With the finding of the location of the temple, he founded the Parque Indígena del Sol, present-day site of the Archaeology Museum in Sogamoso. The museum hosts more than 5000 pieces of the Muisca civilisation. In this museum he also reconstructed the Sun Temple.

In 1944, Silva Celis studied the famous Tierradentro culture of Huila, findings from La Belleza in Santander and in the following years the Lache of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy.

The mummy from Sativanorte, named SO10-IX belongs to the collection of Silva Celis in the Archaeology Museum of Sogamoso. It has been studied in detail by various researchers. The mummy has been donated to Silva Celis by Abraham López Ávila in 1962.

Silva Celis was co-founder of the UPTC in Tunja, Boyacá in 1953. Silva Celis has written more than 400 articles.

Eliécer Silva Celis died on July 4, 2007, at an age of 93 years, after dedicating more than 60 years of his life to knowledge about the Muisca and other indigenous groups in Colombia.