A Lost City
Lost and found. The Tairona culture of Pre-Colombia and their most famous city, under a microscope.
The context
Three days walk into the centre of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an isolated mountain range in the North of Colombia, one may come across an intriguing sight on the banks of the river. Set back from the bank and half-hidden with moss and vines but still very much recognisable, is a set of rough-hewn stone steps leading up the steep incline of the mountain and disappearing round a bend into the jungle above. If so inclined, the curious traveller may follow them.
Climb to the Lost City - mind your step.
What you will find, after a breath-takingly sharp climb up a total of 1200 steps, is Ciudad Perdida - the Lost City - formally known as Buritaca-200, or Teyuna.
Up here, a cleared expanse of jungle reveals a site consisting of 169 circular stone terraces, constructed via a combination of packed earth and masonry, built onto the side of the mountain. The terraces are interconnected by tiled roads and adjoin small circular plazas. The roads vanish off into the thick vegetation, which conceals still more terraces and leads eventually to what were once tiered agricultural fields. When the site was first discovered the terraces' distinctive shape and seeming lack of further architectural remains led archaeologists to believe they were used for cock fights, a popular form of entertainment in the region at the time, but now we know that they are the foundations upon which long-decayed wooden houses were built.
The people that lived in these houses? The Tairona; a pre-Colombian culture native to the Sierra Nevada. The Tairona built the Lost City in 800 AD, making it over six centuries older than Machu Picchu, its Peruvian cousin. Like the rest of South America, Colombia has a rich history of advanced societies who had settled the region long before the Spanish Conquest. The Tairona people built stone houses, terraces, bridges, sewers and tombs and grew indigenous crops including maize, beans, sweet potato and avocado. They also developed a prolific crafting culture, predominantly stoneware and ceramics (lesser known than precious metals but equally important as a craft medium of Colombia) that dates from at least 2500 BCE; and of course gold played an extremely significant role both in craft and spirituality, though it had no monetary value within the society. Archaeological evidence suggests the Tairona people preferred methods of exchange over payment for goods.
Upon arriving in what is now Santa Marta at the turn of the 16th century, the Spanish colonists quickly discovered that the Tairona was exceptionally difficult to overthrow, more so than their Inca and Mayan counterparts. Part of this was geographical. The Tairona had retreated far into the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, perhaps in response to initial contact with the Spanish. This allowed them to evade much of the Spanish colonial system. However, the Tairona are also remembered for their war skills, and gained notoriety among the Spanish for their strong resistance to the colonial system. Much of what we know of the Tairona’s culture and way of life is thanks to contemporary sources from the Spanish, who note their cosmopolitan townships, their trading systems and the significance of gold to their religious practices (of particular note, as gold held no monetary value for the Tairona - a trait the European newcomers could not understand).
So what today is a serene and peaceful location for visitors was once an important cosmopolitan hub for the Tairona people, in fact one of the largest pre-Columbian towns in the Americas. It was a nucleus for the dense cluster of surrounding villages spread across the mountain range: used as a meeting place and for ceremonies, though it may not have been lived in full time as a residential centre itself.
The city was completely abandoned around the mid-17th century, though the exact reasons for this remain unknown. In fact, this mysterious exodus is the origin of Teyuna’s famous nickname, ‘Lost City’; in this case referring to the settlement being left to nature, rather than the location being a mystery - in actuality many signposts along the trek path point out the way to the city, an experience you likely wouldn’t get at the mythical City of Z rumoured of in neighbouring Brazil. In fact, the local tribes still living in the area never actually forgot Teyuna’s existence or location at all, and had come to regard the site as a sacred place, taking regular pilgrimages to the area. At the time of this author’s visit, one of the only people living at the site was the Shaman, a head of the local Wiwa tribe.
In any case, after the Tairona people left the city sat uninhabited for nearly 300 years until its rediscovery in 1972 by looters from nearby Santa Marta. Now Teyuna is managed by the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History and operates primarily as a tourist attraction, with treks to the site being led by a few select tour operators with the blessing of the local indigenous population, to which the site is sacred.
So, fancy a trip to Columbia?
Who do you think you are?
The Tairona people were a significant ancient culture who inhabited the Sierra Nevada region of Columbia from at least the 1st century AD, with evidence of rapid growth around the 11th century. They leave behind a wealth of archaeological remnants, and the local indigenous tribes of the region: Arhuaco, Kankuamo, Kogi, and Wiwa, all are supposed to have been descended from them, and carry some of their rituals and ways of life through to the 21st century. In this way, the Tairona culture could be said to be the only pre-colonial South American culture that still lives on.
Paradoxically then, relatively little is known about this pre-Colombian culture compared to its more famous South American contemporaries: the Incas or the Aztecs. The Tairona did not develop a written language, but the culture can be partially pieced together by the archaeological artefacts left behind, contemporary sources from the Spanish settlers and remnant activities from the four local indigenous tribes. Anthropologists and archaeologists have used recovered artefacts to categorise the early Tairona culture into three distinct phases.
The first available evidence indicates that the Tairona predecessors lived on the Caribbean coast in fishing communities as early as 200 BC, during what is now referred to as the Nahuange period. During this time society was divided by Chiefdoms, probably alliances between small towns of a few families each. Much of what we know of this period relies upon surviving crafts, which utilises materials such as sea shells and gold. The gold artefacts in particular indicate high levels of craftsmanship, evidence suggesting the Nahauange people intentionally treated the metal to turn it pink and orange, thereby ‘colouring’ more sophisticated designs, possible to adhere to fashion trends at the time. It is from this period that archaeologists have discovered plentiful polished stone winged pendants, the use of which is not known. Though the present-day Kogi tribe uses similar objects as rattles or tinklers, where they are known as máxalda. Suspended in pairs from the elbows of dancers during ritual practices, the plaques produce sounds when striking each other.
Eventually the Nahahuange people began settling further inland and up into the Sierra Nevada mountains around 550 AD, around 300 years before the city Teyuna was built, a period referred to as Buritaca, which lasted until 950 AD, when the Tairona became a complete ethnic group. Here crops like maize were propagated in more humid climates, and agricultural developments led to larger populations.Though the Tairona had no knowledge of the wheel, and did not use draft animals, they were prolific farmers, using tiered terraces to cultivate crops to aid irrigation and prevent soil erosion on the steep slopes. It was in this period that an increasing level of social hierarchy began, which eventually led to a religious elite that dominated Tairona culture for the rest of its existence. The Buritaca period also saw the rise of stone in building construction and the development of infrastructure such as pathways and roads that connected the town of the chief, or Shaman, with the surrounding villages under his control. It was in this period that Ciudad Perdida was built in 800 AD, the largest town within the region.
A Tairona map - might need to brush up on your cartography.
The Tairona period began in earnest around 1000 AD, when the regions were consolidated. There followed the development of towns, paved road systems, stone canal walls to support irrigation, strengthening agricultural production and leading to further population increases. Tairona architecture is unlike any other in South America, informal and spacious, rounded rather than set into rigid rectangles like contemporary urban centres like Machu Picchu or Teotihuacán. The free-flowing circularity and open spaces between buildings meant there was little difference between personal and private space, and movement around the cities was likely dictated by socio-cultural norms that we have no way of knowing. Evidence of this can be seen at Teyuna, where there are surviving contemporary ‘maps’ of the area carved into stone slabs, depicting roads, rivers and settlements across Sierra Nevada.
Construction was clever, terraces would support each other as the settlements were built upwards, and when finished surfaces exposed to water runoff were then covered with flagstones to prevent water from puddling, avoiding erosion by oversaturation. The characteristic terraces were a sensible solution to the uneven terrain and architecture mostly follows the natural forms of the mountains. Additionally, building on the steepest sections meant those on a more even keel could be saved for crop cultivation.
Alongside this urban development, the Tairona also developed a complex system of chiefdom hierarchies, culminating in the tribal priests: Shamans, or Mamo’s. Distinctive stone temples in a half-egg shape were built, and these permanent ceremonial spaces allowed a spiritual class to develop, aided by the newly-formed sedentary culture brought on by agricultural and urban development. From this came the development of a cosmology and an evolution of complex religious symbolism and rituals. This also affected the arts and crafting techniques, which diversified considerably due to local variation.
Villages began to specialise in production, for example Chengue, a village in what is now Tayrona Natural Park, appears to have been a fishing and salt production community. This increase in the regional specialisation of food and artifact production (pottery, gold, beads, axes, and other lithic artifacts) led to an increase in exchange in turn.
Circular terraces are a unique characteristic of the Tairona architectural style.
This variety of products and hierarchical society is reflected in clothing. Tairona are recorded in Spanish accounts of their meetings as wearing cotton skirts, complex mantles, colourful feathered headdresses and jewelry made from gold or semi-precious stones, presumably attributing to an individual's status. Contemporary Spanish records also reveal status symbols that would not be obvious from artefacts remains, such as accomplished warriors being permitted to wear their hair a certain way. The Spanish also described the Tairona as ‘astute’ and ‘imperious’ and noted the care they took over their appearance.
Furthermore, culturally the Tairona seems to have been a surprisingly modern society, though domestic tasks were still separated by gender. Sources suggest the right to divorce and an acceptance of homosexuality that was far removed from the Catholic conquerors soon to land from the West. Perhaps instigated by religious practices at the time, though this may have been an attempt by the Spanish settlers to understand the male meeting house, a site of intense, ongoing religious practice for the Tairona.
Tairona were also known as a war-like people. Some have interpreted the contemporary depictions of powerful individuals, likely chiefs or Shamans, in figurines known as ‘caciques’, as a representation of this, indicating their aggressive stances and fearsome visages as proof. Large Tairona settlements were governed by their own chiefs, but there doesn’t seem to have been one overall leader in the vein of an Incan Emperor. Within Tairona culture war between chiefdoms likely served to display the power of the attacking chief and to benefit them practically through the taking of resources, rather than the European model of war meant to dominate and subjugate the defending group. We can certainly assume that the Tairona made liberal use of the bow and arrow, recorded by the Spanish as a weapon of choice and often kitted out with poisoned arrow heads.
In fact, it is more than likely that the image of the Tairona as an aggressive people has endured because of misrepresentation in contemporary Spanish sources. It is worth noting that these observations by the Spanish were usually obtained when they forayed to Tairona territory to put down uprisings or steal gold; some have posited that this depiction is an attempt by the Spanish to justify the understandable hostility the Tairona exhibited to colonisation attempts, which culminated in a violent rebellion. Pedro Martyr d’Anghiera, an Italian historian working for the Spanish, described the violent first meeting between the colonialists and the native people in the 1530’s, wherein the Spanish rightly ended up with heavy losses after attempting to take Tairona women and children as slaves. This aggression left the Spanish with no choice but to try a more diplomatic approach to local relations.
The artefacts of art and religion - Not materialism, but faith.
Like the other indigenous cultures of South America, the Tairona had a strong tradition of stylistic arts and crafts in a multitude of mediums. To understand the art produced by the Tairona people, we can read the context within which the producers lived; for example urban development like road and irrigation systems can imply community labour, and differences in graves or tombs can reveal social hierarchies. For the Tairona, it appears hierarchical systems were based on religion, with Shamans and chiefs as the elite. Shamans were involved in everything from religious practice to crop cultivation and this trait is shared by local indigenous tribes like the Kogi today. Settlements like Teyuna reflect this social hierarchy, acting as spiritual centres and controlling smaller communities.
As such, the art and religion of the Tairona are irrevocably intertwined and the complex socio-political organisation that we have seen evolve is manifested in their metallurgy. Tairona religious faith centered around the creator goddess: Gaulcovang (Great Mother); it was believed that “The sun was created out of her menstrual blood, and she brought in existence the demons who caused illness". Gold, mirroring the sun in its luminance, took on spiritual significance as a creation of Gaulcovang, therefore gold is a sacred metal. In Kogi belief, the sun is called ‘mama nyui’ and gold ‘nyuibu’ signalling an enduring connection between sun and precious metal, and gold retains a supernatural capital associated with cosmic power and knowledge (Kogi today hold gold artefacts up to the sun to ‘recharge’ them). As such, priests are known as ‘Mamos’, meaning sun. Interestingly, it does not appear that Gaulcovang is ever directly represented in Tairona craft.
Gaulcovang is also said to have created ‘Aluna’, a word which refers to several supernatural elements of Tairona belief, but most importantly to another dimension of existence where spirits and ancestors reside and to the life force responsible for creating form. In Aluna, thoughts could become real. Mamos could gain special knowledge from the cosmos by sending their souls out of their bodies to Aluna through ritualistic song and dance that could last hours if not days. As they had access to knowledge no one else had the ability to possess, mamos were regarded with great respect and considered the heads of the tribe.
Cacique figurine - courtesy of the MET.
A similar process allowed shamans to send their souls out to nature and commune with animals, who were thought to be closer to nature and therefore possessing greater wisdom and spirituality than humans. This process is one of the core tenants of their beliefs, known as transformation, so integral that it carried over into everyday life. It is possible that certain social groups had a mythical or ancestral relationship with certain animals, and totemic clans related to a specific animal could well have divided Tairona society. Animals include jaguars, alligators, snakes, tropical birds, monkeys and bats. In particular the bat seems to have been a particular conductor of Aluna. Known as a mysterious winged creature that flies at night, and has the ability to venture between worlds or dimensions.
Transformation is depicted regularly in both Tairona ceramics and metalwork, often showing men and animals combined in anthropomorphic figures. Most prominent is a representation of a shaman in this state of symbolic and spiritual transformation (assuming the features of a helping animal spirit), This transformation is often evident in cacique figurines.
Caciques can either be fully human or have the head of other characteristics of an animal, such as the nose or ears of a bat or the teeth of a jaguar. They all wear large headdresses, often decorated with the profiles of tropical birds, like hawks or toucans. They wear ritual jewelry on their face and body representing the attire worn by priests, which was also an attempt to mirror the characteristics of a certain animal through body modification and jewelry. Archaeological evidence records that this is accurate clothing.
Cacique figures represent the top tier of Tairona metalwork, largely created using the lost wax method, wherein a model is created using wax and covered with a non-flammable material, the wax is then melted and an artefact created by filling the mould with an alloy of gold, silver and copper called Tumbaga. This process allowed for extremely intricate designs to be created. So advanced was the metallurgy that items that impressed the arriving Spanish in the 16th century could have been made as early as 1000 years beforehand. Tairona artisans finished the objects using depletion gilding, a controlled corrosion which would remove copper from the surface of the object to give the appearance of solid gold.
Tairona use of gold alloys with copper known as tumbaga suggests that gold ore was not as plentiful as in other parts of Colombia. Indeed there are multiple complaints from Spanish sources that Tairona gold was of a low grade value, a rage likely incited by the fact that Tairona figures were gilded and polished to a high degree, making the discovery of an alloy beneath all the more crushing.
All that glitters is not just gold however. Lesser known but equally as significant to Tairona culture was ceramics, and the objects discovered from this era testify to their excellent knowledge of clay techniques. Spanish accounts even note the existence of expert potters within Tairona society. As much of the Tairona’s culture can be gleaned by the wealth of ceramic evidence that remains, as the highly symbolist crafts produced by the Tairona are an excellent reflection of the rich worldview of the culture.
Unlike gold, ceramics had functional use as well as spiritual, the difference indicated most commonly though ceramics used for ritual use being predominantly black. The ceramics were of three types distinguished by color: thin, highly polished black clay ‘alcarrazas’ allowing for differentiation from practical objects, which were thicker and made from red or terracotta clay decorated using applique. Tairona ceramics are also highly diverse in shape, style and decoration, indicating a complex evolution through the centuries. The depiction of both human and animal within Tairona craft ranges from the faithful to a symbolic figuratism that seems far ahead of its time.
Tairona funerary urn - note the bling.
One item which survives in large quantities is the ‘ocarina’, a flute-like whistles with zoomorphic or anthropomorphic forms which likely had a ceremonial use, perhaps aiding priests in the journey to the spiritual realm. Unfortunately the relation between an ocarina's form and function remains unknown. Perhaps the most significant ceramic form for modern researchers is the funerary urn, as the burial customs of the Tairona is responsible for much of what we know about their culture. Almost all Tairona artefacts have been recovered from funerary burials.
There are a few modes of burial attributed to the Tairona, possibly indicating changing traditions as society advanced. Dissection and burning of the deceased is apparent, as are burials of corpses trussed up and seated in stone vaults, holding weapons or food and dressed in traditional jewelry. The urn is by far the most frequent method of burial found however, though it appears to be a secondary, a first internment to break down the corpse happening elsewhere before the deceased is permanently laid to rest. Funerary urns are large bulbous vessels made of coarse red clay; they are often anthropomorphic, and it is possible that the figure represented in ceramic mirrors the individual interned within. Ornaments, tools and food are sometimes found alongside the remains in the urns, or in smaller pottery vessels alongside. Ocarinas are frequent burial finds, as is metal or carved stone jewelry such as nose or ear rings. It is these urns, and what they held which became of great concern to the Spanish and modern-day looters.
The first assumption is that the jewelry buried is of ritual or spiritual significance, but perhaps not. Spanish records from the 17th century indicate that graves excavated in the hopes of exhuming buried treasure did not often yield rich rewards, and while excavating building material for the Santa Marta fortress many graves discovered were devoid of gold. More elaborate artefacts like caciques are missing altogether from burial sites. They are likewise absent from representation on the ceramic urns, which traditionally display figures in a ceremonial burial ‘outfit’. Figures with puffed-out cheeks are thought to represent chewing coca leaves, a male-only ritualistic pursuit. Modern excavations at Teyuna have found domestic complexes of tombs within the circular terraces, suggesting that individuals were interred where they had once lived, a practice that could lend further credence to such an interpretation. Perhaps these more sophisticated objects remain undiscovered in the tomb of important chiefs, Tutankhamun-style, perhaps they were taken by the Spanish in unrecorded events, or perhaps the artifacts were considered unfit for burial for spiritual reasons. The reason remains unclear.
It would appear then that the buried jewelry is instead personal items of the deceased, with many showing signs of frequent use and the items an individual is buried with is a reflection of their wealth and status rather than a ceremonial practice. Similarly the discovery of ritual paraphernalia in certain graves indicates the individual may have been a priest. There was enough to spark the attention of the new colonists however, and that’s only half of the trouble caused from then on.
The end (featuring special guests: the Spanish)
All in there was about a century dividing the initial contact between Spanish colonials and the Tairona people and the eventual conquest, ending with Tairona forced integration into the ‘encomienda’ system, a grant by the crown to a colonial settler of a specified number of indigenous people living in a particular area to forced labour. As noted, much of the observations from the Spanish, our only written record of Tairona daily life, came during their forays to Tairona territory, ostensibly to steal gold or put down risings, but what did this actually entail?
It was 1500 when European boats first laid eyes on the north coast of what is now Colombia.
Initial contact between the indigenous population and the Spanish settlers indicate the newcomers presence was tolerated, but tensions grew when in 1525 Santa Marta became the first permanent settlement established by the colonists, who could then free themselves to get on with the grim business of conquest. This meant the occasional visits by Spanish groups into Tairona territory increased in frequency and became more forceful in nature, as the colonists attempted to subdue the population and push Christianity upon them.
The going was slow however, and attempts were largely unsuccessful however, and the colonists only succeeded in controlling the settlements immediately surrounding Santa Marta. The Tairona saw how the Spanish enslaved their coastal populations and the ransacking of villages and burial sites for indigenous gold and retreated further into the Sierra Nevada mountains to evade Spanish control, reacting violently to attempts to integrate into the colonial system, choosing instead to live off the land in isolation. Tairona architecture was also by nature very easy to defend without the need for fortifications, built as it was on steep slopes and accessible only by a single file narrow staircase. It is little wonder that the Spanish conquistadors in their heavy armor would have had trouble scaling these hills in the tropical heat. These factors kept the Tairona people out of the Spanish colonial system for the better part of a century, far longer than any other South American indigenous population.
This was so successful that the initial violence gave way for a period of peace when the two opposing cultures set about reestablishing trade relations, an indication that the Spanish had failed utterly in their conquest, both failing to establish new towns or subjugate the locals. In fact the Tairona enjoyed such freedom that there are records of their trade relations with French and English pirates, swapping gold for European weapons, tools and exotic wines to increase their own status and authority within chiefdoms.
It was during this time that we get the majority of Spanish accounts which are the only written record of Tairona daily life. It is through these that we can learn about more social aspects of the culture, and that which does not appear in the archaeological record, such as the importance of colourful bird feathers, which were used for headdresses, crowns, blankets, mounted on gold or made into flowers.
By far the most significant historical context of relations between indigenous and colonists however is the Spanish unrelenting pursuit for gold, which funded their conquest and helped build their new settlements. Colonists took a staggering amount of gold from all over South America and Mexico from the time of conquest, over one hundred tons in half a century. This turned Spain into the richest country in the world. The gold, intricately crafted with extreme skill and possessing great spiritual value, was melted down and repurposed as coins and ingots. The conquistadors massively reduced the number of artefacts which may have otherwise survived to this day, artefacts which could have spoken of the religious, cultural, and artistic significance their creators had once given them. Forever lost. Though the Tairona did try to appease the Europeans with gifts of gold, they would soon realize that it would never be enough.
The eventual abandonment of Tairona settlements in the Sierra Nevada mountains is not known, but is likely that there is no one cause. Spanish records mention frequent epidemics from new diseases like influenza and smallpox introduced by the European settlers ravaged the population of towns, whose isolation in the mountains meant they were especially susceptible. Equally, towards the end of the century relations with the Spanish also grew worse as their economic and religious pressure grew and the indigenous towns of Bonda, Macinga and Jeriboca finally revolted in 1499.
The revolt was initiated when three friars sent to convert the Tairona population were killed, then travellers on the roads between Santa Marta and the Tairona cities were targeted, along with churches and the homes of colonial administrators. Spanish revenge came swift and ruthless. The governor Juan Guiral Belón executed the chiefs of the towns and burnt their settlements. The surviving population was resettled into the colonial encomienda system and forbidden to return home. Any survivors in the Sierra Nevada may have migrated to areas outside of Spanish control, presumably eventually becoming the four tribes now native to the Sierra Nevada mountains.
It was only in the 17th and 18th centuries that colonists were able to establish permanent settlements in the mountains, and with no one to maintain its terraces and farmland, Teyuna was abandoned for the last time; the wooden structures falling into ruin and the stone terraces and winding roads gradually reclaimed by the thick jungle vegetation. The most important city of the last true South American people was eventually forgotten by living memory and lost in the mountain ridge. The Tairona people had no written language, and their resistance so effective that detailed descriptions of their daily life and society does not exist, they are destined to be remembered through stone and ore. And here the Lost City will remain for the next 400 years. But let's fast forward a few centuries, where the story starts to become more clear.
The rediscovered city
The year is 1972. In Colombia organised crime is on the rise, led by the drug trafficking ring that made the country synonymous with cocaine. The civil war has made the republic unstable, and the government has pronounced a ‘state of siege’ that gives the army carte blanche to suppress paramilitary groups. The leftwing guerrillas known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ran rampant, kidnapping wealthy landowners and politicians for ransom, trafficking cocaine to fund operations and amassing wealth and arms off the back of the drug trade. Ordinary people are suffering, victims of the destruction of infrastructure, violent conflicts and loss of productivity nationwide, they make up 80% of deaths caused by the conflict. And in the coastal city of Santa Marta, there’s a rumour spreading of an ancient settlement in the mountains as gold figures and ceramic urns begin to appear on the black market.
Archaeological evidence of the Tairona civilization began to paint a clearer picture of these lost people when researchers began studying the coast around Santa Marta in the 20th century, but up until this point no evidence of large settlements in the mountains had been discovered. Indeed no archaeologist had ventured far enough into the Sierra Nevada range to look. Of the five archaeologists on the case from the 1920’s to the 60’s, all kept to the coast, studying settlements such as Pueblito, the largest known Tairona town before the discovery of Teyuna. There was hope for more to find elsewhere however; 19th century logs by travelers like the French geographer Elisée Reclus reported inexplicable stone staircases and paved roads winding through the jungle, indicating that ancient people had settled and built up and away from the coast.
It was only in the 1970’s that research in the mountains began in earnest. From 1973 until 1976, the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología-ICAN (Colombian Institute of Anthropology) began a project led by the archaeologists Luisa Fernanda Herrera and Gilberto Cadavid to survey as many river basins as possible with the aim to of locating Tairona settlements. That same year, three Cambridge students, Paul Bahn, Richard Luckyn, and Patrick Jacquelin, organised an expedition to survey the Mendihuaca. Buritaca and Don Diego rivers. The American archaeologist Jack Wyn was also on the scene in Sierra Nevada, conducting fieldwork for his dissertation on the lower-Buritaca river. Any of these expeditions had the potential to find Teyuna. None of them did. Though Herrera and Cadavid’s expedition found almost 200 Tairona towns and villages, no archaeologist can claim the discovery of the Lost City.
Instead, in 1975, Julio César Sepúlveda, the son of a professional ‘guaquero’ (looter) named Florentino Sepúlveda, was shooting birds along a jungle river when one of his prey landed on an exposed stone step. At this time, Tairona gold was at a premium and consequently the hills of Sierra Nevada were regularly scoured by jobbing thiefs, many backed by wealthy patrons in Santa Marta. When Julio saw where the stairs he had found eventually led, he came back with his family and in the footsteps of the Spanish 500 years ago, they began to quietly and systematically loot Tairona tombs to relieve the city of its golden burden and sell their findings on the black market. The Sepúlveda family could not keep this secret for long however, as others in Santa Marta began to ask questions, and eventually followed the family as they embarked on trips to replenish their stock in the city.
The ensuing firefights over the area and its treasures resulted in the death of Julio César Sepúlveda. Word spread that the gold was good enough to kill for. Teyuna soon earned the nickname "el infierno” (hell) among the guaqueros due to its remoteness, isolation and bloody conflicts. However, a patron of the looting expeditions in the Sierra Nevada, Jorge Barón, did something unexpected in the aftermath of the conflict; he contacted the director of the Gold Museum in Bogotá and proposed a ‘joint venture’, wherein they would share the profits of the finds. Faced with this audacious offer, the museum contacted the ICAN, who employed Luisa Fernanda Herrera and Gilberto Cadavid on another expedition to the city.
The two archaeologists, along with two colleagues from ICAN, began the arduous journey to the lost city in the company of two looters, “El Negro” Rodríguez and Franky Rey (credited with revealing the discovery of Teyuna to the authorities), who were familiar with the site as their guides. A situation which on paper seems like a pretty uncomfortable arrangement for the researchers. There was no choice however. Before the introduction of guided tours, the journey to Teyuna was intimidating. Even today, lasting around four days through uninhabited tropical forest, multiple river crossings and the tropical weather made getting wet and cold inevitable and the mountainous terrain can exhaust the most experienced trekker. However, there was no clear path and the repetitive jungle could make getting lost easy. Only the guaqueros knew the way to hell. Originally an army helicopter was chartered to avoid the journey by foot, but upon arriving above the city, it soon became clear that there would be nowhere to land safely. Walking it was.
After ten challenging days of hiking three of the archaeologists and their guides reached the stone steps to Teyuna. The group camped for three days, gingerly clearing parts of the site to take stock of the layout and picking around the mess left by the looters. As stone walls and terraces, paved walkways and staircases began to take shape from the thick foliage, extending endlessly up the mountain ridge, the group began to realise what they had found was something special. Back in Bogotá the significance of the find was stressed to the director of ICAN with the assistance of a hand drawn map of the site. By 1976, the organisation had set up a five-year major research and conservation project.
There were complications along the way however. In 1976 as the researchers returned to Teyuna, it was clear word had reached the guaqueros that the Lost City would soon be closing for business. They had ripped through the city like a hurricane and all but destroyed some of the most important structures in their hurry to take what treasures they could carry before ICAN closed the site. Though the site is so large that many structures were unaffected, working backwards from the looted sites has revealed that the objects taken were likely gold and pottery objects associated with single burials located within the rammed earth and stone masonry terraces; disappearing into the private market in Santa Marta, these surely spectacular artefacts have never been recovered. In fact, intervention from the Colombian army itself was necessary to stop the graverobbing in Ciudad Perdida, where looters had a union, ‘Sindiguaqueros’, that allowed them to operate illegally while protected by the law.
Excavation was also hindered by the growing drug trade encroaching on the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the seclusion and ample farmland had attractive prospects for cocaine production. Therefore the ICAN’s project and its workers had to be overseen by the army for personal protection. There were also protests from the local Indigenous populations in the area,
The site was named Buritaca-200, being the 200th Tairona settlement in Sierra Nevada, but Bernardo Valderrama, the ICAN architect and map-drawer on the first trek, coined ‘Ciudad Perdida’ (Lost City) and the name stuck. Uncovering efforts revealed the extent of the city, as well as 200 kilometers of roads that link the archaeological complex. After five years of research onsite, the Teyuna Ciudad Archaeological Park opened to the public in 1981, with further research, conservation, and management still ongoing today.
Much of the manpower at the complex was undertaken by former looters and gravediggers under the supervision of ICAN professionals. Franky Rey, one of the two guides from the first expedition, became the eventual first foreman and site administrator for the archaeological park.
In addition, the first guided tours to the Lost City started in 1984, under the company name Guias y Baquianos. An agreement was reached that the local tribes would allow tourists access to the Lost City, as they considered it good for awareness and their economy, but only through five selected tour companies. No tourists are permitted to hike the trail without a guide. This rise in tourists has allowed many locals who once depended on coca cultivation to now work as guides, food providers, or transport assistants.
The work carried out was not in a vacuum however, and present-day Colombia’s problems affected the work of uncovering its past. The drug trade had slowly encroached into the Sierra Nevada mountains, and workers now had to employ the help of the Colombian army for protection at the archaeological site. Up until 2007, the area was under the control of paramilitary groups and most farming families were involved in the production of coca. This culminated in the kidnapping of eight tourists on the trail to the Lost City by the ELN insurgent group (Ejército de Liberación Nacional), who were only released three months later. The incident understandably curtailed all tourism, and the archaeological complex was left unmanned and fell into disrepair, even after tourist hikes resumed in 2005. After the 2007 demobilization agreements between the Colombian government and the paramilitary groups, ICAN finally created a management plan for the city and in 2009 the Global Heritage Fund stepped in to manage the site alongside local indigenous communities. They now play an active role in decision-making about the territory due to the historical and ancestral value of preserving their past heritage.
So, almost 50 years after Julio César Sepúlveda shot a bird in the mountains of Santa Marta, visitors can now see almost 80 acres of the 400 acre site, a product of care and research against the odds in a fractured nation. A city rediscovered for generations to come.