The High Cultures of Sierra Nevada. Territory and Population. An overview of the ancient residents of La Sierra

Abstract

The groups that constituted the Tairona cultural complex would have reached their maximum technological, social, political and economic development between the years 1100 and 1500. The first Castilians who arrived at the coasts of the region understood them as two differentiated groups, one that occupied the coastal strip and the other located on the north and northwest slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Today we can conclude that those who inhabited the hillsides and mountain heights were closely related to the coastal peoples, and much more linked to the Caribbean See than it had been assumed. It is also a very populated region. The first written testimonies already mention a very high and dense population, and soon the occupants and neighbors of Santa Marta stated that there were between 15,000 and 40,000 natives in those provinces. Peoples in touch, vigorous and numerous.