The Tairona culture flourished in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of northern Colombia between about 600 AD and the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. The culture is known from its archaeological remains at over 400 sites, as well as from historical documents from the time of the Spanish Conquest. The Tairona were farmers who lived in large villages of several hundred people and built stone buildings, agricultural terraces, roads and canals. They are best known for their impressive gold work and beautiful pottery. Tairona pottery includes many depictions of real or fantastical animals, known as zoomorphic representations. Bats are a common theme in Tairona art and can be found in carved stone, gold work and ceramics.The modern Kogi, who live in the same area of Colombia today, are considered to be the living descendants of the Tairona. Stories and myths collected from modern Kogi groups are often used by archaeologists to help interpret the images that are found on the Tairona pottery. In Kogi mythology, bats are the first animal of creation, and in at least one myth, the bat is considered to be the son of the sun. Bats are also responsible for female fertility and are often associated with death. Two of the Tairona ceramic vessels in the SFU collection portray bats. The 2006.003.255 bowl shows a small bat on the side of a bowl and the 2006.003.228 bowl has a larger bat head on each side of the body of the bowl.