Artigo

IT’S BEEN A LONG HISTORY

 

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Human occupation in the Iron Quadrangle region dates back many years. For at least two millennia, prehistoric populations inhabited the forests, the cerrados, the quartzite and ferruginous fields as well as their caves. The occupation of individuals in the place crossed historical periods such as pre-colonial, colonial, reaching the contemporary. Diverse ethnic groups such as indigenous peoples, enslaved Afro-descendants and Europeans passed through this region. These individuals exercised different professions over time, such as prospectors, artisans, travelers, drovers, farmers, among many others.

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PREHISTORY

We call prehistory the period that precedes writing, but it marks the most remote existence of human beings on Earth. The records of prehistoric peoples found in the Park's insertion region indicate that their occupation dates back to more than 1,500 years ago. There are many testimonies of ancient occupations in this region. In addition to cave paintings, fragments of ceramic utensils, stone chips (quartz and hematite) used as tools were found, as well as charcoal used to make fires.

COLONIAL PERIOD – THE HINTERLAND ROAD

The Brazilian Colonial period extends from 1530 to 1815, when the current Brazilian territory housed colonies of the Kingdom of Portugal. At the end of the 17th century, the path followed by the flag of Fernão Dias Paes reached the Vale do Paraopeba region, towards Sumidouro. As the flag advanced, gardens were created for food production and many of them gradually became population centers and even villages. In that period, the territory that encompassed the valleys of the rivers Paraopeba, Pará and Velhas and the mountains of Mantiqueira and Espinhaço was known by the pioneers as Sertão das Conquistas. What is now the Park, is part of the path widely used at that time, which was called Estrada dos Sertões (Hinterland Road).

THE FALSE MINT HOUSE

In the village of São Caetano da Moeda are the ruins of a clandestine mint factory, created around 1720 by Inácio de Souza Ferreira, known as Fábrica de Paraopeba. There, gold bars were made with fake royal mintmarks and coins with legitimate ones. The inputs for the manufacture of the coins were stolen from the official foundry houses, considered unusable. Inácio, forger and smuggler, operated in connection with a wide international network, and his associates were officers and people directly connected to the King. The fake mint worked until 1731, being denounced later. Most of those directly involved were arrested in the same year that the fake Casa da Moeda was closed. The clandestine manufacture of coins gave rise to the name Serra da Moeda, as well as the town of Moeda in Minas Gerais State. Moeda, in Portuguese, means coins.