In the view of Zerda, the Muisca were a neolithic culture and their ancient roads were built by an earlier, superior civilisation. Deeply influenced by the ethnological works of Lubbock, De Mortillet and Broca, Zerda proposed a long chronology of the history of the Muisca. He defended the period of Spanish conquest to educate the primitive Muisca to a higher level. Zerda proposed the sacred Siecha Lakes were the actual site of "El Dorado", later found to have been Lake Guatavita.