The January 12th issue of National Geographic magazine features a story on recent excavations at the Gran Cocl� site of El Cano, one of the chiefdoms of central Panama. We know a lot about central Panama's chiefs largely to the efforts of Gaspar de Espinosa, a 16th century Spanish conquistador who visited the region beginning in 1516. Espinosa described powerful chiefs who ruled competing polities and held elaborate burial rituals.
The personal treasures of a chief include a seahorse pendant about three inches tall, ear ornaments, part of a breastplate, a necklace, and plaques. All were buried in a bag studded with the surrounding stone beads, which scattered as the fibers decayed. Artifacts courtesy National Heritage Office (DNPH), National Institute of Culture (INAC), Panama; Photographed at Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Photo �David Coventry/National Geographic.But as the National Geographic coverage shows, that's not all we know. Excavations at Gran Cocl� sites have been conducted for a century or so now, and remarkable finds at burials have included what Howard Carter would have called amazing things: gobs of gold artifacts, ceramic pots, stingray spines, shark teeth, and ivory, bone, quartz and emeralds buried with important individuals. The most recent excavations, led by Julia Mayo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and supported by the National Geographic Society, have unearthed several new elite burials.
Julia Mayo's excavations at El Ca�o are featured in the January 2012 issue of National Geographic magazineThe National Geographic coverage has, as usual, amazing photographs of the excavations, artifacts and monuments of the region, but I of course had to find out what I could from the literature about what other things archaeologists have discovered about the Central Panama sites of Gran Cocl�. One tidbit I discovered were some 1940-era experiments that proved that all that glitters is not necessarily 24-karat gold...
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