All language subtitles for BBC.Lost.Kingdoms.of.South.America.3of4.Lands.of.Gold.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

South America is the perfect
place to keep secrets.

Its jungles, mountain ranges
and river systems

are daunting obstacles
for any explorer.

It is a continent that has
beguiled adventurers for centuries.

"Something hidden. Go and find it.
Go and look behind the Ranges -

"Something lost behind the Ranges.
Lost and waiting for you. Go!"

Kipling's poem is especially apt
because this is Colombia,

the land of El Dorado.

Home of the legendary kingdom
of gold that, in the 16th century,

lured the conquistadors ever deeper
into the heart of South America.

I'm Jago Cooper

and, as an archaeologist who
specialises in South America,

I've always been fascinated
by the secrets and mysteries

buried deep in these awe-inspiring
and forbidding landscapes.

The history of this continent

has been dominated by stories
of the Inca

and the Spanish conquistadors...

..but in this series,

I'll be exploring an older,
forgotten past...

..travelling from the coast
to the clouds

in search of ancient civilisations

as significant an impressive
as anywhere else on earth.

Here, in what's now Colombia,

lived two of the most extraordinary
societies in the New World.

The Muisca and Tairona
shared language and beliefs

that underpinned their cultures
for 1,000 years,

but it was their exquisite
gold artefacts,

infused with intriguing meanings,

which drew European invaders
into their remote lands.

In this programme,
I'll be discovering

how two extraordinary
cultures rose to power,

what the gold that so bedazzled
the Spanish conquistadors

really meant to these people,

and how it was that fate
and circumstance

would see the Muisca and Tairona
take very different paths

into the future.

The beaches of Colombia's Caribbean
coast are beautiful -

almost a cliche
of a tropical paradise...

..but, for me, its rich past is what
makes this place so special.

History flows through Colombia.

For 12,000 years, it was a corridor
connecting the Pre-Colombian

populations of Central America,
the Caribbean, Amazon and Andes,

and 1,000 years before
the Spanish arrived,

the Chibcha-speaking culture
from Central America

spread southwards to this land.

Chibcha was a language shared
by different communities

scattered across part of Central
America and what is now Colombia.

Around 700 AD, two of these
communities expanded

into highly organised societies,

skilled in agriculture
and gold working.

One of those cultures, the Tairona,

established themselves in the
mountains of the Caribbean coast.

Another, the Muisca, settled
500 miles to the south.

They developed independently
for centuries,

free from outside interference,

but in 1492, that began to change.

Christopher Columbus discovered
the New World for the Spanish,

and, in the years that followed,
the Conquistadors' influence spread,

threatening the existence of the
continent's indigenous cultures.

In 1537, conquistador Jimenez
de Quesada set off in search

of an overland route to the newly
discovered Inca homeland of Peru.

With an army of 800 conquistadors,

he struck deep into the heart
of Colombia...

with no idea of what
he was about to find.

The expedition took more than a year
to carve its way through the jungle,

up to the high plains and valleys
of the interior.

One of Quesada's men described
the journey like this...

"We endured a great many hardships
on the journey to the new kingdom.

"As much from having
to slash new paths

"through the mountains and hills,

"as from hunger and sickness.

"And we arrived in this kingdom
naked, barefoot

"and burdened by the weight
of our own weapons,

"all of which had caused the deaths
of a great many Spanish."

Three quarters of the Spaniards died
on the nightmare journey...

..those that survived found
themselves in a new and alien world.

The Muisca were one of the largest
indigenous societies

in the whole of South America.

From the mountain tops,

their territory stretched
beyond the horizon,

occupying an area larger
than Switzerland...

..a land where gold seemed
to be everywhere,

but a society unlike anything
the Spanish had seen before.

The Muisca weren't ruled
by a supreme leader

in the same way as the Inca
and Aztec empires.

In the Muisca world, no one person
had absolute control.

Instead, the Muisca territory was
organised

into two large federations -

one in the north and one here,
in the south.

When the conquistadors arrived,

the Muisca population is estimated
to have been about

half a million people,

most of whom were living
in small villages.

The Spanish chose one
of those villages

as the site of their first town,

and that town has grown into
Colombia's sprawling capital city -

Bogota.

In the 16th century,

Muisca settlements were spread
all across this valley,

but little evidence of them
is left here today.

So if I'm really to understand
how Muisca society operated,

I need to look outside the city
and travel 30 miles to the north,

to one of the few remaining
Muisca sites still standing.

One of the big problems
with trying to understand

how the Muisca society operated

is the fact that very little remains
of their architectural structures.

They built with wood,
which has since rotted away,

so there simply aren't
the houses, temples

and meeting places left to find

that we can study
and understand them better.

Except in this place, where the
Muisca broke from tradition

and built from stone.

The Spanish named it El Infiernito -
Little Hell -

because they believed
the rituals practised here

were the work of the devil.

Archaeologist Carl Langebaek
has carried out many excavations

around El Infiernito.

Walking through this site,
it is a very strange place.

It is indeed a unique place
in Muisca culture -

there is no place like this.

There's some indication that in
the last years before the Conquest,

the Muisca elite was beginning
to relate itself with the sun,

and there are evidences here
of an astronomic observatory

that probably had something to do
with following the path of the sun.

Standing in the site,

you can't ignore these giant phallic
symbols in the landscape -

what do you think the origin
and meaning behind those is?

Well, there is a lot of speculation,
but I think it is safe to say

that it has something
to do with fertility,

which, of course,
is also related to the sun,

and it's also related to the
activities of the chiefs

and religious specialists.

Carl's investigations indicate
that there was a deep connection

between the Muisca
and their environment.

And while there was no king ruling
over all Muiscan people,

it seems each community
did have leaders...

..and the relationship between
ordinary people and their chiefs

appears to have been
an intriguing one.

Spanish documents clearly
point to the fact

that there was no notion
of private property.

There was the notion of communal
property, yes -

the lands belonged to the community.

I think the chiefs were
the guardians of precious objects -

gold, precious stones, food,
cotton, things like that -

but I think that there are no good
evidences of properties...

in the hands of chiefs.

What do you think that tells
us about day-to-day life

of the Muiscans here?

Well, the prestige of the chief
was very much related

to the ability of providing good
feasts to the community.

When the Spanish arrived,
they described this...tradition

among the Muisca to pay taxes
to the chiefs,

but when we investigated about what
the meaning of paying taxes...

was providing food that, actually,
was transformed by the family

and the wives of the chief,

to provide feastings, feasts,
to the members of the community.

Carl's excavations have revealed
another, unexpected, twist

to the unusual relationship between
the people and their leaders.

At his lab, he showed
me two skeletons,

unearthed at a Muisca site
south of Bogota,

dating from the 1300s to the arrival
of the Spanish in the 1500s.

Altogether, some 700
skeletons were found,

and genetic analysis of the remains
has helped archaeologists understand

how Muisca society operated.

We have focused our analysis
on trying to identify differences

between the so-called rich people
and the so-called poor people.

People with a lot of stuff in their
burials, like sea shells and gold,

and things like that,
and other people without offerings.

And what lessons do you think you've
started to learn from that?

Well, I think one of the most
important lessons is that,

yes, there was social
differentiation, of course,

but it was not inherited.

We have carried out genetic studies
on the members of the elite,

the members of the community
buried with stuff,

and there are no relatives among
them, and that's very interesting.

If you are telling me that it's not
genetic and not inherited,

how do you think power is earned?

Well, I think every single
shred of evidence

points to the fact that power
was negotiated.

Powerful people had to convince
other people with good arguments,

not just by inheritance
or the use of force.

This remarkable research
makes the Muisca

seem almost democratic,
to modern eyes.

There must have been an incredible
sense of community,

but this site also points
to a society whose every move

was governed by their relationship
with their gods.

Legend tells, that here
at the Tequendama Falls,

the Muiscan god, Bochica,

saved the people from drowning
during a rainstorm

by splitting apart the mountain and
letting the flood waters drain away,

but what Bochica could not prevent

was the Spanish onslaught that
was just about to rain down

on the Muiscan people.

What had caught the eyes of Quesada
and his men was Muiscan gold.

Everyone, commoner or chief,
in every village and town,

seemed to have artefacts crafted
from the precious metal.

Rumours quickly spread
far beyond the New World

that there was a vast city of gold,
somewhere in the mountains.

The legend of El Dorado was born,
and, in the years that followed,

waves of treasure-seekers
descended on South America

in search of the fabled land.

But El Dorado wasn't a place -
it was a person.

The literal translation
is The Golden One - a ruler so rich

that it was said he covered himself
in gold dust every morning

and washed it off in a sacred
lake each night.

One conquistador told
the story thus...

"He went about all covered
with powdered gold,

"as casually as if it
was powdered salt.

"For it seemed to him, that to wear
any other finery was less beautiful.

"And to put on ornaments or arms
made of gold, worked by hammering,

"stamping or by other means,
was a common and vulgar thing."

If El Dorado was a person,
did he exist?

In the heart of Bogota's
bustling streets,

one place offers a clue to the
origins of this most enduring myths.

So we're just going
to the Gold Museum,

which, over the years,
has built up the largest collection

of pre-Colombian gold artefacts
in the country.

Bogota's gold museum is packed
with fantastic treasures,

but perhaps the most
incredible of all

is the magnificent
golden raft of the Muisca.

Archaeologist
Juan Pablo Quintero explained

that it appears to capture a moment
in an ancient waterborne ceremony -

the very embodiment
of the El Dorado legend.

Who do you think that character
is in the centre of the raft?

It is probably the chief,
a representation of a chief.

It's well dressed,
you can see the ornaments,

it's bigger than the other
characters -

it's a high-ranking character,
so, probably, it was the chief.

The chief stands
in the middle of the raft,

surrounded
by 12 smaller characters,

all of them are adorned in gold
ornaments and feathers.

Some carry musical instruments
or wear jaguar masks.

The smaller ones on the edge
of the raft appear to be rowers.

So if we start to think about
the El Dorado myth,

this myth of a man
dressed in gold,

do you think this raft proves
that to be correct?

It does not prove it directly.

I mean, that's not direct evidence

or archaeological evidence
of the myth,

but it is very suggestive
that it's a raft

and it represents
an important ritual.

So you cannot think anything
else but El Dorado myth.

But other, less literal,
interpretations of the myth

are held by the descendants
of the Muisca.

They keep ancient traditions
alive at Laguna Guatavita,

a sacred lake in the heart of Muisca
territory, northeast of Bogota.

Watching over the lake today,
and waiting to greet me,

is one of those descendants,
Enrique Gonzalez.

To welcome me to the lake,

Enrique performed a greeting
by blowing on a conch shell.

Shells like this come from the coast
more than 500 miles away

and were highly prized
by the ancient Muisca.

As the sound of the conch
reverberated around the lake,

I asked Enrique what the golden
raft meant to him.

Para usted, piensa que esto estuvo
una cosa que ha pasado aca?

HE SPEAKS IN SPANISH

Evidence supports Enrique's
explanation,

Spanish chroniclers described
ceremonies taking place here,

and small amounts of gold have
been discovered in the area.

Like many myths, El Dorado may
contain a kernel of truth.

It supports the suggestion that the
Muiscan people, unlike the Spanish,

valued gold in spiritual rather
than monetary terms.

HE SPEAKS IN SPANISH

It was great talking to Enrique.

He gives a real sense of connection
between the ceremonies,

which were carried out here at the
lake, and the people of the Muisca.

In a way, the way he talks about
the Muisca of the modern day

and the connection they feel for
the ancient Muisca,

it provides a sense of identity that
is completely connected to place,

and it makes you feel like
this place is special.

Whatever the truth about El Dorado,

archaeologists have discovered
another dimension to the role

that gold played in the culture.

When the Muisca raft was found in a
cave south of Bogota, in the 1970s,

it was inside a pot containing
small, flat, gold figurines,

known as Tunjos.

Many of these objects are displayed
behind glass at the Gold Museum,

but Juan Pablo has arranged
for the vaults to be opened

so I can take a closer look...

..and it's immediately obvious
that each of them

represents a different character.

I really like that level of detail

you can see on each
particular artefact,

and each of them is very individual
in how they are made.

How do you think the different
elements that you see

is representative
of different people?

You can see, like, the chiefs,
you can see the priest...

Here, this one have, if you see,

it has a head in their hand...

so that's telling you
that's a warrior.

There are other noticeable
differences in the Tunjos.

You see the difference between
that colour and that colour.

Here you can see there is more gold,

but in this more brown one is
because it has a lot of copper,

more than this one,
and that is not by chance,

they decided to do that way.

Mixing gold with copper
in different proportions,

Muisca goldsmiths could vary
the colour of the finished Tunjo,

and, unusually for gold artefacts,
the Tunjos have flaws,

spurs of excess metal
and unpolished surfaces.

What were these Tunjos for

and what was their real value
to Muisca society?

If the Muiscans had valued Tunjos
as ornaments or jewellery,

you would expect them
to have a fine finish

and you might also expect to find
them buried with their owners

as grave goods.

Archaeologists studying Muisca
gold face a common problem...

..most of the gold
was acquired from looters,

in the years when selling
to the Gold Museum was legal.

As a result,

much of the archaeological context
has been lost,

but the looters' stories
are consistent.

The Tunjos weren't found in tombs
but in rivers and lakes,

on mountain tops and in caves.

The land north of Bogota
is riddled with caves -

just the sort of place where
Tunjos were found.

I met archaeologist
Roberto Lleras Perez,

an expert on Muisca gold-working
and belief systems.

Thinking about metal
within Muisca society,

what were the Muiscan
using gold for?

Well, gold was all-important
for Muisca,

especially for votive offerings.

They were thrown into lakes,
inside caves,

like the one in which we are now,

or placed in fields,
sanctuaries, temples,

the foundations of houses -

wherever it was important
to place an object

that would restore
equilibrium in cosmos.

Try and explain Muiscan
cosmology to me, then.

Well, try to imagine the world
as composed of opposite principles -

opposite and complementary.

So, first of all,
you have man and woman,

then you have day and night,
then you have up and down.

So if you understand
the world in this sense,

you understand also that
there is an equilibrium.

Now, the point here is to understand
that this is made by the gods,

but you, as a man, you can
intervene in this equilibrium.

So if there is any sort
of alterations,

say, for example, that you
have three years in a row

where there is no rain,
you can intervene there.

How do you do that?

With votive offerings, because this
is the way to restore this principle

that has been lost or diminished
in the earth,

and then you have the equilibrium
and the conditions for life again.

So it seems the Tunjos'
actual purpose

was as a shining gift to the gods
to redress the balance of nature.

Do you think Muisca
metalworking is unique,

in the way that it's created
in South America?

No other society, as far as I know,

dedicated over 50% of their
production for votive offerings.

I think it's quite unique.

It's incredible that,
with Muiscan metals,

the entire lifetime of one object
can be just days,

cos it's created
for a particular purpose,

to go straight into the ground.

It seems to be a waste of time,

but then if you think that this were
so important for society,

much more important than having
a beautiful woman

wearing these objects,

then you understand why so much
trouble had to be assumed

in order to produce these objects.

To the Muisca, gold appears not
to have had any intrinsic value,

and if its value
was purely spiritual,

it seems likely that every aspect
of its creation -

its shape, colour
and what it represented -

would have been part
of a sacred process.

How it was made was therefore
critically important.

Today, the secrets
of that ancient craftsmanship

have been preserved in a highly
unlikely setting.

Goldsmith Omar Hurtado doesn't
so much take his work home with him

as live with it.

In his apartment, in central Bogota,

he has mastered the art
of Muisca metalworking.

It appears that the real skill
is not in manipulating gold

but in knowing how
to mould beeswax -

a process known
as the lost-wax technique.

Omar starts to shape the wax
into a flat figurine.

Muisca Tunjos were 2D
representations of the human form.

I asked Omar why the Muisca
made flat Tunjos.

Was it easier than making
a 3D figure?

The flat Tunjos were
made more complex

by adding on the intricate details
of face, arms, legs

and bodily ornaments
with wire-like threads of wax.

Omar told me something
really interesting -

these coloured waxes are industrial
and represent different properties,

different malleabilities
that the wax has.

To make one of these pieces,
you need different types of wax

with different types
of malleability,

and the Muisca used a whole range
of different bees

with different properties
in their wax.

Omar's just using this one,
which is industrial,

because he doesn't have time
to go out on Sunday

and collect bees from
all over Colombia,

but it's a really interesting fact

that the Muisca were cultivating
different types of bees

specifically for this process.

Once the beeswax figurine
is completed,

Omar bends it over and adds
a network of little tubes.

The Tunjo will then
be packed in clay

and placed in an oven
to evaporate the wax,

leaving a mould into which
the molten metal can be poured.

The network of tubes ensures that
the metal travels

into every intricate
detail of the figure.

Meter en el horno. Perfecto. Ponemos?

So our lovely little wax creation
is now inside this piece of clay,

which is going to go in the oven,

and the wax will evaporate,
leaving the mould.

Once the wax has gone, molten metal
can be poured into the empty mould.

The Muisca could control
the colour of the final piece

by varying the relative quantities
of copper and gold in the alloy.

I love it that in an anonymous
apartment block in Bogota,

there's a guy wielding his acetylene
torch, ready to burn the place down.

Research suggests that the Muisca
used fires rather than blowtorches!

But it also tells us that those
in charge of making these Tunjos

were far more than just
simple craftsmen.

It's possible that the Tunjos
were actually being made

by the priests themselves -

that Muisca priests were
masters of both ritual knowledge

and practical skill.

Un poco caliente!

So there's our little piece.

The wax has all melted away and also
it's still flexed right round,

and these tubes of metal,

which have been used to pour
in the metal into the mould,

we'll have to cut those off

and then we'll bend him back out
and finish him off.

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

Seeing this process up close,
you can see why the Muisca pieces

had these rough edges

and these little bits of metal still
stuck on the sides -

the remnants of those tubes of metal
coming down to fill the cast.

Gold's malleability made
it the ideal material

for creating a wide variety
of small but intricate objects.

Offerings to the gods were frequent,

and so vast amounts of gold
must have been needed.

Given the importance of gold,

the Spanish expected to find mines
throughout Muiscan territory,

but it doesn't occur naturally here.

All Muiscan gold had to be brought
in from elsewhere.

So how did they acquire
so much of it?

In Villa de Leyva's market,

people from the surrounding area
come to buy food and other produce.

500 hundred years ago,
the scene would have been similar...

with the difference that
the Muisca didn't use money.

Spanish chronicles describe
a thriving barter system.

Trade was crucial
for Muiscan society.

It gave them the chance to get
the produce they needed,

of gold and cotton
from the lowlands,

and bring it up here
to the highlands,

where they could work it into
secondary products

that they could sell on.

The Muisca economy was geared
towards transforming raw materials,

brought in from outside,
into finished products.

Cotton was used to make blankets

that could then be traded
in gold-producing regions,

beyond Muisca territory,
for the precious metal...

..but there was one commodity that
the Muisca did have in abundance...

a precious mineral so valuable

that it could be exchanged
directly for gold.

In the hills north of Bogota
are the mines of Nemocon,

where deep below the ground
lie rich deposits

of one of the Muisca's
greatest assets.

Not precious gems or coal but a
mineral vital for life itself...

salt.

Deep underground
and far from the coast

isn't where I would expect
to find salt,

but 100 million years ago,
an ancient sea existed here.

When the waters evaporated, they
left behind vast plains of salt.

Tectonic activity later raised
these mountains,

and the salt flats were folded
into the rocks,

trapping huge pockets
of the mineral beneath the earth.

Y entonces, tienes esta evidencia
de la tipo de mina

que esta...estaban
haciendo la Muisca?

Si, o sea, literalmente,
encima de la mina...

My guide Edwin explained
that in modern times,

miners bored deep into the mountains

in search of the salt,
but the Muisca didn't need to dig.

Rain would fall through hills
of salt, like this one,

and they would collect the salt
water from the streams

at the bottom of the hill,

pour the water into big clay jars

and heat them up to evaporate
off the water.

Gradually, these clay pots
would fill with salts,

and they'd smash them
and be left with a salt cake.

Salt cake production became a major
industry for the Muisca,

giving them the economic power to
amass the gold that they needed...

..but the Muisca's great strength
would also expose them to danger.

It was salt cakes being traded
up and down the Magdalena River,

and the sort of production,

the industrial production
that it showed,

that drew the conquistadors
up into the Muisca heartlands.

A Spanish chronicler recorded
the moment

when conquistador Jimenez de Quesada
decided to change course.

"Seeing the excellent
nature of the land,

"and how the Indians always
brought us salt...

"which they packed into large
blocks,

"Jimenez decided to try
to seek its source."

The salt trail led the Spanish
directly to the Muisca.

With a fragmented structure
of chiefdoms

in the northern and southern
confederations,

the Muisca were unable
to mount serious resistance

to the conquistadors.

In a little over a year,

the whole of Muisca territory
was under Spanish control.

Violence and Old World
diseases took their toll,

and the population crashed.

The Muisca were a people with
a completely different value system

to their Spanish conquerors.

A people in tune
with their environment

and the world around them,

communities held together
by rituals and celebrations,

and a society for whom
the real value of gold

was in what it could achieve
by being offered to the gods.

But the Muisca were so completely
overrun by the invaders

that contemporary echoes of their
past are hard to find -

unless you know where to look.

Buena! Buena! Buena, companiero!

THEY CHEER

This is Tejo.

It's actually the national
sport of Colombia

and one of the few pieces
of Muiscan identity

that has survived into
modern Colombia.

The idea is to get this piece
of iron within this circular ring.

But even this game is dominated
by a Spanish influence.

The Spanish decided to liven it
up by putting some gunpowder here,

which you've got to try
and hit and explode.

Today, in a country with around
85 different ethnic groups,

Muiscan blood and culture survive
only as faint echoes.

We lost this one, but I'll think
we'll start another game.

The Muisca had fallen,
but they were not alone.

Further north,
along the Magdalena River,

lived another connected culture -

the Tairona.

Their future would
be very different.

I'm making my way towards
the mountains

of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta,
along the Caribbean coast,

to find out how and why.

Rivers are the life blood of trade,

allowing goods to flow freely
between the coast and the interior.

For the Muisca, the Magdalena
had been the source

of much of their gold,

but some of that precious metal was
also traded north to the Tairona.

The Tairona shared
gold-working skills

and a language with the Muisca,

but they lived in a very
different environment.

Did they also share
the same beliefs?

This is the land of the Tairona.

From here, on the Caribbean coast,

the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
rises up to 5,700 metres -

the highest coastal range
in the world.

High up in those mountains
are scattered

the lost cities of the Tairona.

Archaeology in this sort of terrain,

where everything is covered
by a thick carpet of vegetation,

is enormously difficult.

New discoveries are rare,

but in the 1970s, a flood
of Tairona gold and other artefacts

started to appear
on the black market -

the first clues that looters were
working on a new Tairona site.

When archaeologists reached the
location, high in the mountains,

they were amazed.

It was the largest and most
impressive Tairona site

ever discovered.

It was given the name
Ciudad Perdida - the Lost City.

Getting to Ciudad Perdida on foot
is a three-day hike

through these
dense-forested mountains.

Today, I'm hitching a lift
with the Colombian army,

and it's giving me a wonderful
perspective on the Lost City.

From the air, I can really
appreciate the size

and remoteness of this site.

So many of the South American sites
are in straight lines,

but this site clings
to the mountainside,

using the contours of the hills.

I can see the terraces
covered in vegetation -

it only leaves to the imagination
how big this site must be.

To put Cuidad Perdida
in perspective,

archaeologists have estimated that
it is ten times larger

than the famous Inca ruins
of Machu Picchu in Peru.

Even though most of it is hidden
by thick vegetation,

it's still breathtaking -

when you consider the effort
that was needed

to build a city in this terrain.

Archaeologists have only just
begun to scratch the surface,

but they are finding some
really exciting evidence

of what this place was once like.

Santiago Giraldo is leading
the excavations.

What dates does this site
have do you think?

Well, the earliest date that
we have here is a 650 AD date,

and that's what I found
during my research.

Those dates really resonate with me,

this idea that we're getting lots
of cultures rising up,

these Chibcha-speaking cultures,

and it's a very similar time period
to when the Muisca rise up.

The time when these periods are
rising up maps out quite well,

say, with the classic period
of Mesoamerica.

The Maya collapse around
900 to 1,000 AD,

but these guys just keep on going.

It's thought that Cuidad Perdida
was occupied for almost 1,000 years,

existing in parallel
with Muisca society.

But while very little remains
of Muisca architecture,

here the Tairona structures
have lasted remarkably well,

leaving clear evidence of how
they were constructed.

So here we have a classic
Tairona wall.

The stone shows up really nicely.

You get this real nice-faced edge
coming down. Looks really good.

And this stuff goes
on for miles? Yeah.

Looking at the steepness
of these mountain slopes,

how do you think that the Tairona
coped with that,

with their architecture?

So, really, what's at a premium
here, for these societies,

is flat areas, and what they were
doing with all the terracing

was actually creating flat,
liveable space.

Now, one of the main difficulties
is that these people used no mortar,

so what they did was a combination
of masonry and rammed earth,

and that's what makes them
incredibly stable,

and also the fact that they
overlapped one terrace to the other,

so you create step-like platforms.

And that's what really
creates stability

in an area such as this one,

because you've got over 4,000
millimetres of rainfall,

and that means that a terrace
can be washed away

if it's not really stable.

Working in harmony with
the landscape,

the Tairona created a thriving city.

It's extraordinary that salt, cotton
and gold from the lowlands

were traded up here, around
1,000 metres above sea level.

These stone terraces provided
stable foundations

for large, wooden structures

that must have been at the centre
of communal life in the city.

These platforms look fantastic -
the size of them, the monumentality.

Do you think this a particularly
special part of the site?

Oh, absolutely. We've got the main
feasting gathering area over there,

and excavation work that
I did in 2006,

what we found was that most of the
trash that was being deposited

was drinking cups, serving jars
and big trays.

That pretty much spells out feasts
and feasting, for the most part.

Then you've got adjacent structures
that probably served as kitchens.

What do you think the role
of that feasting was here?

Do you think it's display
or chiefly status?

As in most human societies,

the politics of commensality
are exceedingly important.

They are extremely, extremely
important just for creating allies.

There's work feasts, there's...

When you've got a new trading
partner coming in,

of course, you want to impress him.

Ritual feasts strengthened
social relationships

within the Chibcha-speaking
community and beyond.

During the 16th century, we found
evidence that chiefs here

were actually trading
gold objects for wine

with French and English pirates
that were bringing in wine.

So feasting definitely played
a hugely important role

in these societies.

A variety of different produce was
grown at different elevations,

but these bountiful slopes were
steep and thick with vegetation.

Moving large quantities
any distance

must have been a real challenge.

To see how they did it,
I'm heading back down to the coast.

As with the Muisca,
the secret of Tairona success

came from their mastery
of their environment.

Centuries-old routes once connected
all Tairona settlements.

This network of pathways, hundreds
of miles long, allowed people

to transport goods back and forth
between the coast and the mountains.

The path I'm following leads
to Pueblito,

a Tairona settlement first inhabited
almost 1,500 years ago.

I've come to meet anthropologist
Lorena Aja Eslava, who has been

investigating the significance of
the paths and what they can tell us.

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

But the paths weren't
simply an indication

of population size and mobility -

they were designed to, literally,
support Tairona society.

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

So, like the Muisca, the Tairona
were perfectly in tune

with their environment,
knowing how to use its resources

without damaging
the world around them.

Evidence that this was
a spiritual connection

is preserved in one of the rocks
near the centre of the town,

where priests gathered
to predict the future.

These pools for divination were
used by the Tairona.

They would drop a bead
inside the water

and watch how the bubbles came up.

That would help them with complex
decisions they were due to make.

Archaeologists believe that many
of those decisions

would be connected to the Tairona's
worship of the natural world.

Just as there is evidence of sun
worship among the Muisca,

so too was the sun revered
by the Tairona.

All objects that captured

or reflected the light
of the sun were valued -

shimmering water, shiny stones,
snow-capped mountains

and the glinting colours
of the forest.

One material in particular
didn't just reflect light,

it was the same colour
as the sun as well - gold.

Just like the Muisca,

whose gold gave rise
to the legend of El Dorado,

the Tairona held the precious metal
in high esteem.

Under the guidance of archaeologist
Juanita Saenz Samper,

museum curators are cleaning
Tairona artefacts.

What's immediately striking
about these objects

is that they have been burnished
and polished smooth -

quite unlike the rough-edged
artefacts made by the Muisca.

Looking at these pieces
of Tairona metal,

what are the similarities
and differences

between Muisca
and Tairona metalwork?

Well, there are a lot of differences.

You know, because the Muisca people
didn't polish their pieces,

and these Tairona people were
so great polishing and finishing

every single detail, because they
just used it for another thing.

The Muisca Tunjos were not
used for wearing on you,

and these kind of...objects
were used to wear...

were used to say,
"Hey, I'm the boss!"

Muiscan goldsmiths made
offerings to the gods.

Tairona gold also had
spiritual value,

because it reflected the sun
that gave life,

but rather than make unique pieces,
like the Muisca,

the Tairona craftsmen
perfected symbols

that were reproduced
time and time again.

What were the important symbols
of the Tairona culture? Well, birds.

Birds with open wings,
which are these ones

and also the bat man.

The bat man is a very important
symbolic icon in Tairona iconography.

Creatures, like the bat man -
half human, half animal -

are common in Tairona art.

It feels like another illustration
of the close connection

between the human
and natural worlds.

So it seems that the link
between gold and nature

was just as important to the Tairona
as it was to the Muisca,

but Tairona craftsmanship
wasn't just restricted to gold.

At the University of Magdalena,
in Santa Marta,

archaeologist Angelica Nunez

is working on a collection
of remarkable ceramic objects.

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

Thousands of different pieces of
pottery have been collected here.

They provide an invaluable insight
into Tairona life and beliefs...

and some of the symbols I saw
in the gold artefacts are here too.

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

As ever, the connection with
the natural world is very evident,

but there's a particular piece of
pottery that captured my attention.

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

Angelica's understanding
of Tairona beliefs

isn't based on the artefacts alone.

She's been working closely
with indigenous people

who could be the last remaining
link with the Tairona.

I'm heading back into the Sierra
Nevada de Santa Marta to visit them.

The Kogi, an indigenous community
of around 12,000 people,

live in small mountain villages
not far from the Tairona sites

of Pueblito and Cuidad Perdida.

Living separately
from contemporary society,

they've preserved their
traditional way of life

and they guard their
independence fiercely.

So it's a huge privilege

to be invited into their
village for the day.

Most Kogi still speak a language
derived from Chibcha,

the tongue of the Tairona
and the Muisca.

My guide, Jacinto, is one of the
very few who also speaks Spanish.

I asked him if he felt
that his people

were connected to the Tairona.

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

Jacinto invited me to help
in the building of a new house

for the Mamas,
the Kogi spiritual leaders.

There's a deep cultural connection
here with the environment,

one that seems to echo
the philosophy of the Tairona.

I can easily imagine these houses
sitting on the round stone terraces

at Pueblito or Cuidad Perdida.

One of the ceremonies that will
be carried out in this house

is the initiation ceremony
when a boy turns into a man.

At that point, they will be given
a gourd and coca leaves,

and, as you'll see,
the men here all chew coca.

This is an essential
part of Kogi life.

It's impossible to know

whether the Tairona had the same
rite of passage,

but coca-chewing is recurs again
and again in their pottery.

The connections are clear to see.

When Kogi men meet,
they exchange coca leaves.

They're repeatedly extracting lime
from a gourd, known as a poporo,

and wiping it across the wad
of coca leaves in their mouths,

to release the active ingredients.

Cocaine is derived from the coca
plant, but raw coca leaves

don't have the same powerful
narcotic effect.

Kogi men chew it as a mild stimulant

that helps them to communicate
with their ancestors.

These traditions, passed
from generation to generation,

continue the Kogis' deep spiritual
connection with their environment.

Everything that goes into the
construction of these houses

has to come from a seed.

This is because they see themselves
as seeds of the Sierra -

that humans need to be nurtured
and grown, just like plants.

So in these houses we start
to see a connection

between how they are constructed

and the Kogi idea that people
and environment are one.

The Kogi assert a sense of their
own history and beliefs

that is inseparable from the land -

the same land that sustained
the Tairona.

SPEAKS CHIBCHA

Today, Kogi culture
is alive, in part,

because of the protection offered
by the mountains,

the same mountains that protected
the Tairona nearly 500 years ago.

Unlike the Muisca,

the Tairona were never completely
overrun by the Spanish.

The geography of their homeland
made it difficult

for the conquistadors to penetrate
far, but Spanish colonisation

of the valleys stifled trade between
the villages and the mountains,

and wave upon wave of Old World
disease decimated the population.

Eventually, all that remained of the
Tairona were dwindling communities

scattered in the mountains.

They, and the Muisca,
seemed to vanish...

..but they didn't -

from Bogota to the Sierra Nevada,

I have witnessed the legacy
of these cultures.

It's still living in the remains
of their architecture,

in their artefacts,
rich with meaning,

in the gold that connected
the Tairona and the Muisca

to their spiritual beliefs.

The Spanish, lured by the myth
of El Dorado, plundered the gold,

but they couldn't destroy the
beliefs shared by the two cultures -

beliefs that live
on with the Kogi today -

an unshakable faith in community

and the value of their environment
above all else...even gold.

For me, these are the treasures
Kipling wrote of,

hidden behind the ranges.

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