Tairona
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The Tairona, Tayrona, Teiruna in Sanca Language, Teijua or Tairuna in Kankuamo Language, Teruna in Ifca Language, meaning "Males" in English was a Chiefdom level society from the region of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the present-day Magdalena and La Guajira Departments of Colombia, South America which goes back at least to the 1st century AD and showed significant demographic growth around in the 11th century. The Tairona people formed one of the two principal linguistic groups of the Chibcha family and were pushed into submarginal regions by the Spanish colonial system during the 16th and 17th centuries. The indigenous Kogi, Wiwa, Ijka and Cancuamo people who live in the area today are believed to be direct descendants of the Tairona.
Although the term Tairona may be an inaccurate way of depicting the societies that inhabited the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta during the contact with the Spanish empire, it has become the most common name for a hierarchical network of villages that developed around 900 ACE. Initially the term Tairona was used in reference to the inhabitants of a valley and probably a chiefdom named Tairo on the northern slope of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in time the Spanish used the term to classify the whole group of complex [chiefdoms] in the area as Tairona as early as on in the 16th century. To the eyes of the Spanish the groups within the northern and western part of the Sierra Nevada were indistinguishable from each other in great measure; in a similar way they have become indistinguishable to archaeologists in more modern times. The archaeological sequence of the region spans from approximately 200 BCE. to the 1600’s ACE when the Tairona were forcibly integrated into the Spanish encomienda system. The available C14 dates show that the coastal sites started to be occupied much earlier, perhaps as early as 200 BCE, than the ones at higher elevations. It would seem as if some the largest centers, located at 1200 m above sea level, only emerged in the later part of the sequence. The coves and inlets on the Caribbean coast, like Chengue, Nehuange, Gayraca, Cinto and Buritaca where villages have only more modest architecture, show the longest occupations, spanning the whole 1800 years of the sequence.
Knowledge sources about the precolumbian Tairona civilization are limited to archaeological findings and a few written references from the Spanish colonial era. One of the first descriptions of the region were recorded by Pedro Marty Angheira from Vespuccio and other explorers who visited the region between 1505 and 1524, and was published in 1530. In his description, he portrays the Tairona valleys ase densely populated, with extensive fields irrigated in the same manner that those in Tuscanny. He mentions that many villages were dedicated to fishing and traded their marine goods for the rest of their needs with those living inland. He also describes how they would aggressively repel the Spanish when they attempted to take women and children as slaves in the first contacts. It would appear that as a result the very first contacts with the Tairona were very violent and the Spanish suffered great losses, which resulted in a more diplomatic strategy from the first governor of Santa Marta Rodrigo de Bastidas.
A major city (about 13 hectares in the "core")is one of the best know Tairona nucleated villages and archaeological sites known as Ciudad Perdida (Spanish for "Lost City"), it was discovered by looters in 1975 but is currently under the care of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History. Recent demographic studies suggest that "Ciudad Perdida" has inhabited by approximately 1500 to 2400 people that lived in at least 11,700 square meters of roofed space in 184 round houses built on top of stone paved terraces. However, this was not the only Tairona town, there are many other examples of sites of similar or greater size. A larger site, Pueblito is located near the coast, according to Reichel Dolmatoff´s research it contains at least 254 terraces and had an estimated population of about 3000 people. Regional archaeological studies in the area show that even larger nucleated villages existed towards the Western slope of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, like Posiguieca and Ciudad Antigua. However, the Tairona did not only live in dense villages, there were smaller villages and hamlets that were part of a very robust exchange network of specialized communities that were connected with stone paved paths. Villages specialized in salt production and fishing, like Chengue in the Parque Tairona, are evidence of a robust Tairona political economy that was based on specialized staple production. Chengue contains at least 100 terraces and had population of about 800 to 1000 people by 1400 ACE in 15 hectares. The Tairona are known to have built terraced platforms, house foundations, stairs, sewers, tombs, and bridges from stone. Use of pottery for utilitarian and ornamental/ceremonial purposes was also highly developed as a result of fairly specialized communities.
The Tairona ceramic chronologies range from 200 BCE until 1650 ACE, although the Caribbean coast of Colombia has evidence of ceramics from at least 2500 BCE. Recent investigations in Chengue, Parque Tairona by the Colombian archaeologist Alejandro Dever, show that there are significant variations in the ceramic that allow for a chronological division of sequence into at least 5 phases. The first phase called Nahuange 1 appears to start at around 200 BCE and ends at around 500 ACE where there appears to be a peak in the population. Another phase, that was called Buritaca after the detailed excavations made by Jack Wynn in the 1970´s, can also be called Nehuange 2 and spans from 500 AD to about 900 AD. From ca. 900 ACE is what is commonly called the Tairona period which is characterized by an impressive increase in the variation, size and number of ceramic forms, many conserving the styles from the Nehuange or Buritaca phases. The Tairona 1 through 3 phases span from 900 ACE to 1650 ACE show significant local variations as shown by numerous works done in the 1980´s by Colombian archaeologists Augusto Oyuela, Carl Langebaek, Luisa Fernanda Herrera and Ana Maria Groot among others. During the Tairona period, the evidence for exchange increases as does the population of the entire region. The causes for this population increase are not fully known but what is evident is the robust local exchange networks that emerge at this time.
The Tairona civilization is most renowned for its distinctive goldwork. The earliest known Tairona goldwork has been described for the Neguanje Period (from about 300AD to 800AD) and its use within the Tairona society appears to have extended beyond the elite, however little proof of this exists. The gold artifacts made comprise pendants, lip-plugs, nose ornaments, necklaces, and earrings. Gold cast Tairona figure pendants (known as "caciques") in particular stand out among the goldworks of precolumbian America because of their richness in detail. The figurines depict human subjects - thought be noblemen or chiefs - in ornate dresses and with a large animal mask over the face. Many elements of their body posture (e.g., hands on their hips) and dress signal an aggressive stance and hence are interpreted by some as evidence for the power of the wearer and the bellicose nature of Tairona society at that time.
At the time of the conquest, the Tairona Indians are known to have had different traditional cultural practices than those of the modern native American populations. Ethnographic sources highlight freedom to divorce and acceptance of homosexuality, that differed significantly from their Catholic conquerors. However, the references to homosexuality are probably a misinterpretation of their religious practices. The Tairona religion as does to some extent the modern Kogui religion, separates many of the domestic life between genders. The descriptions of Tairona homosexuality are probably an attempt from the catholic extablishment to abolish the Tairona male meeting house, which was the site of intense and permanent religious activity. If we assume that these rituals are similar to the Kogui (modern descendants of some of the Tairona chiefdoms) many of the adult men would have been involved in long rituals, sometimes lasting days, where deliberation, coca chewing and meditation were the prevalent activities. However, the most forthcoming evidence for the 1599 final Tairona revolt against the Spanish seems to be the economic and religious pressure from the Spanish had become intolerable. The main aggression against the Spanish in 1599 was de killing of priests and travellers allong the roads that connected the Spanish city of Santa Marta and the Tairona centers of Bonda and the villages of Concha and Chengue. The secondary target were the churches and houses of known bureaucrats of the colonial administration. This of course, are data that are derived from Spanish testimonies from the trial against the Tairona chiefs in 1602. Not surprisingly, the Chiefs of Chengue and Bonda were sentenced to death, their bodies dismembered, their villages burned, the populations relocated and incorporated into the Encomienda system. By the middle of the 17 th century many of the Tairona populations were completely abandoned and the region was engulfed by forest.
