Tayrona

The Tayrona were a Chibchan-speaking network of chiefdoms on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia, linking coastal fishing villages with stone towns on terraced mountain slopes. Their tradition took shape around the tenth century; the terraces of Teyuna, the Lost City, were first laid around 650 and multiplied from 1100 to 1600. The name Tayrona descends from words meaning sons of the jaguar in the surviving languages of the sierra.

First contact with the Spaniards came in 1498, and Rodrigo de Bastidas founded Santa Marta on their coast in 1525. The Tayrona burned Santa Marta more than once and in 1551 shattered Pedro de Ursúa's expedition at the Paso de Origua.

Between 1599 and 1600 Governor Juan Guiral Velón broke the chiefdoms, executing their caciques and parceling out captives to encomenderos. The survivors withdrew into the sierra, where their descendants preserved Tayrona traditions.