Photograph by David Coventry, National Geographic
Posted on 12/26/2011 6:35:46 PM PST by SunkenCiv
"Spectacular find" includes gold, jewels, and a small army of likely sacrifices.
Newfound tombs in Central America are yielding thousand-year-old gold, gems, and even hints of murder by pufferfish. But the real treasure is the excavation's clues to the unnamed civilization of the so-called golden chiefs of Panama, archaeologists say.
"It's really a very spectacular find. ... probably the most significant" for this culture since the 1930s, when the nearby Sitio Conte site, also in central Panama, yielded a wealth of gold artifacts, anthropologist John Hoopes said.
Until now, Sitio Conte provided the only major evidence of the golden-chiefs culture, which can be traced from about A.D. 250 to the 16th century, when Spanish conquerors arrived on the scene.
Dating to between A.D. 700 and 1000, the new artifacts were excavated about two miles (three kilometers) from Sitio Conte, at a site called El Caño.
Striking Gold, Second Time Around
El Caño's field of stone monoliths and sculptures had drawn treasure seekers in the early 20th century, but as luck would have it, they dug up only artifact-poor graves of common people.
A few years ago, after having worked at Sitio Conte -- also marked by ancient monoliths -- archaeologist Julia Mayo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute decided to reinvestigate El Caño.
Mayo's ground surveys, beginning in 2005, traced the circular outline of a series of burials, about 260 feet (80 meters) wide.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks Renfield. |
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;’)
Nephite archeology ping
Nice.
I thought Indie had found this years ago in the “Crystal Skull”.
Someone redefined "Central America" while I wasn't looking.
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica were always the definition of "Central America," as documented on the national flag of at least two of those countries.
Panama was part of Colombia, as late as 1903, hence part of South America. Still considered such.
I’ve never heard it considered as part of Central America until I read your post. Chiapas used to be part of the onetime republic which included nearly everything between Columbia (Panama) and Mexico (minus Chiapas).
I think that’s the group that built the Masonite temple.
Interesting speculation. Frankly it would not surprise me. This civilization grew and expanded about the same time that Mayan civilization was harmed by volcano and drought. Perhaps developed for the same reason as the find in the US state of George that SC posted recently.
Wow, good catch. I went back to the article, but it carefully didn't address the design - which probably means you nailed it.
Beautiful!
Around 200 AD? Isn't that what Mormons claim? That Jesus arrived in the New world in a ship?
Interesting, thanks for pointing that out. There’s an anecdote (I couldn’t find it with a cursory web search) about one of the very first paintings on the wall of a tomb in Central America; it was of ships with sails.
Good point, T — also, it probably explains why we’re only shown a small bit of the whole piece.
That was apropos, and that’s the oddest tidbit in the story, really. :’)
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