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Home : Quarterly Archives : Volume 3 |
Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |
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Source: October 1940 Volume 3 Number 4, Pages 87–92 The archeological expedition of the university museum to Panama, 1940 (II) The site excavated was a pre-Columbian burying-place, but there must have been a large village nearby. We know little regarding the aboriginal inhabitants. The Spanish accounts of the region in the early years of the sixteenth century give a good idea of the life of the natives but we are unable to tie up this site with any of the names for villages or tribes mentioned in these old reports. Apparently every village differed slightly in culture and in language from any other, and this is verified by archaeological researches. The types of pottery and of the objects from places only twenty miles or so away are somewhat different and distinguishable. The closest relationships of the people were with Colombia, and on the whole, in culture and language, they were South rather than North American. The pottery types,as regards form and decoration, are very different from those of the well-known Chiriqui culture in the western part of Panama. There is practically no resemblance to the cultures of the Aztecs and the Mayas, and very little to those of Peru. They had no system of writing or permanent records, of any kind. While no European objects were found in the excavations, all the evidence points to the fact that the culture represented here continued up until the time of the Spanish Conquest, about 1515-1530. Dr. Lothrop has calculated that the period of occupation was roughly from 1300 to 1500 A.D. The contents and materials of the graves tie up closely with the accounts of the natives, and of their burial customs as given by the Spanish Conquerors. The use of gold also indicates that the period was relatively late, since apparently the technique of working gold was a relatively late discovery in America. Gold ornaments were practically unknown to the early Maya period in Guatemala, and not a piece, for instance, was discovered in the seven years of the Museum's work at Piedras Negras. The human remains found verify the reports of the Spanish that the men were of excellent physique, some of them six feet tall. The historical accounts of the natives indicate that burial was a rite reserved for the nobility, for the chiefs and their wives and servants; the bodies of the common people were apparently merely abandoned and left to the vultures. In accord with the almost universal primitive custom of burying with a deceased person his regalia, arms and other possessions, it was naturally, therefore, expected that a cemetery in this region would contain a wealth of fine aboriginal objects, and this expectation was fully realized. In addition to the chief, they buried with him a number of others, sometimes his wives, but as most of the skeletons seem to be of men it is probable that they represent mainly slaves or captives, sent to serve their masters in the future world. The accounts of the time of the Conquest indicate that these sacrifices were first stupefied by some intoxicant. In the "richest" grave found by the expedition there were twenty-three skeletons, one of whom probably supplied at least half of the gold objects found by the expedition as well as the finest in quality.
The gold adornment of a great Indian chief as found in the grave The burial of such a chief must frequently have been postponed for a long time. The very rich graves are very deep and extend practically to the level of the water-table in the driest season of the year, and in the floods the entire field is covered with water. These deep graves could have been dug only at the height of the dry season, and therefore the bodies must have frequently been kept for many months until it was possible to dig the grave. The deep graves are therefore probably below water level the greater part of every year. On this account the human bones are so fragile that it was impossible to preserve any for scientific study, and extremely difficult to excavate carefully. The water, of course, has no effect on stone or gold objects, but the pottery is often soft, and the fragile objects such as those of carved bone so very fragile that the greatest care had to be taken in their excavation. The colors on the painted pottery are not very firmly fired in and wash off very easily so that it is better not to wash the pottery vessels until they are quite dry. The task of digging these graves must have been a tremendous one for people without any iron tools, as they are of large size and depth. The deepest of them extend to twelve feet from the surface and some of them are ten feet square in size. So numerous are the graves that in digging one of the deeper ones they were almost certain to cut through one or two at a higher level, and sometimes the finer objects in the graves that were cut through were kept and placed in the lower new grave. This renders scientific study of the sequence of types extremely difficult. The extent of this burying-place has not been fully ascertained but it apparently covers four or five acres, of which only a very small part, has been excavated to date. The trench dug by our expedition was fifty-four feet in length by twenty-seven in maximum width. For half the length it was not over twenty feet in width and it was not everywhere carried down to water-level at about thirteen feet from the surface. In this space about thirty graves or caches were encountered, ranging from groups of a few vessels to graves of ten feet square containing hundreds of pottery vessels as well as objects of stone, carved bone, gold, and other materials. The practice seems to have been to place the pottery vessels and other objects in the grave and then to dance upon them or trample them down so that almost all of them are broken into many pieces, and rarely is an intact vessel found. The expedition saved practically all of the broken pottery and shipped home sixty-four boxes containing over sixty-six hundred pounds of objects, mainly broken vessels which, it is hoped, will be restored in the Museum, though this restoration will naturally take a long time for a large group of workers. A large part of the pottery is painted in polychrome, generally conventionalized animal design. The shapes are variant, but most common are large round plates, and small carafes. Some of the pottery is very large and beautiful and will be very striking when restored. According to the contract with the owner of the property the Museum retained all unique specimens and gave Sr. Conte half of the duplicates. As so few intact pottery vessels were found the expedition brought back all the broken pottery but will return a representative collection to Sr. Conte.
Unbroken pottery The bottoms of practically all the graves are flat or very slightly concave, but the largest, richest and deepest ones tend to be bowl-shaped. The large grave in which the majority of the gold and other fine objects was found. No. 11 was a very extreme example of the bowl-shaped type. The upper edges of the bowl were found five feet below the surface where the diameter was fourteen feet. The sides connected with the middle floor level of this grave which was six feet lower with a diameter of eight feet. This made the sides of the grave very steep, about sixty degrees, and even more perpendicular near the top. Yet these sides were thickly plastered with, pottery, mainly broken but with a few intact vessels imbedded in the clay. On the floor of the grave, covered with more pottery vessels, broken or intact, were twelve skeletons, in six pairs. As the space was small each pair consisted of an upper and a lower member. All of these persons were apparently of some social importance, as almost all of then had some gold ornamentation, and one, presumably the chief, chiefs or warriors, probably not sacrifices but possibly all slain together in one great battle. There were two other interment levels in this grave but not connected with the pottery-covered sides. Eighteen inches above the main middle level was one on which lay eight more skeletons, and one foot lower than the main level was another with three skeletons. Those on the lower level were accompanied by quantities of pottery vessels and some gold ornaments, but those on the upper level had little grave furniture and were presumably sacrifices. All three levels had the same diameter of eight feet. Only one foot below the lowest level, at a depth of thirteen feet from the surface, water-level was struck; as this was the driest time of the year the water-table was probably at minimum height. Although it is not impossible that these three interment levels were made at different times, the grave filled up and subsequently reopened after each, it is more likely that all were made at one time. Probably a large excavation was first made to a depth of twelve feet and three men of moderate social rank interred with offerings. A foot of earth was then added and twelve men of higher rank interred. The quantity of offerings was so great that many had to be imbedded in the sides of the grave. A foot and a half of earth was placed over these and the final interment of eight others, probably sacrifices, made with few offerings. The grave was then filled up entirely. Of course, the most spectacular objects encountered were those of gold of which over one hundred troy ounces were found. Most of these are of relatively pure gold and of exquisite workmanship. Among the objects found were large plaques or disks, ear-rods, nose ornaments, cuffs and anklets, pendants, chisels, bells, and beads. The technique is of a quality hardly surpassed by any goldsmith. Two principal techniques were apparently used: casting and hammering. The most exquisite small ornaments were made by casting, probably by the cire perdue process. By this technique the form of the object desired was carved in wax and covered by an envelope of clay or some similar material in which an orifice was left. This was heated and the melted wax ran out, and was then replaced by melted gold. Gilding and the use of sheaths or onlays (sic) were also employed but seldom in pure form, and most of the copper objects are badly oxydized. An alloy of gold and copper, known as "tumbaga," was in use here as throughout much of the Isthmian region. Many large plaques were made of this alloy, and traces of many were found but they were generally too much oxidized to be saved. The Spanish Conquerors secured tremendous quantities of these beautiful gold ornaments but practically every piece that they obtained was melted and shipped as metal to Spain. The most impressive of the gold ornaments are eight large plaques or disks of heavy, almost pure gold. These are from eight to ten inches in diameter and contain very ornate ornamentation in high repousse relief, probably made by hammering over forms of carved stone. The decoration is very involved and probably illustrative of the aboriginal theology or mythology of which we know practically nothing. Most of them show mainly anthropomorphic figures and apparently represent the crocodile-god, though in one example birddogs
Plaque of solid gold found in PreColumbian grave in Panama, about 10 inches in length are represented. These were apparently sewn to the clothing of the chiefs, and five of these were found on the body of the principal occupant of grave No. 11. The other three were found with other skeletons in the same grave. The reports of the Spanish Conquest state that the chiefs wore such gold disks in battle. The richly adorned chief in Grave 11 also wore five smaller disks of thinner gold but also with ornate pictorial repousse ornamentation, and thirty snail thin gold disks with simple designs that were probably worn on the clothing as sequins or medallions. All these are in the Museum collection with the exception of half of the thirty simple disks. The same richly adorned chief also wore some of the others of the finest gold objects obtained by the expedition. On his breast lay an exquisite pendant of heavy gold over four inches in length in the form of a very ornate animal figure, probably a conventionalized crocodile, with an emerald of about an inch in diameter set in its back. This is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary gold objects ever found in America. The use of precious stones,in a setting of gold is extremely unusual in America and very few examples are known. The emerald is not of great commercial value and was probably obtained in Colombia. He also wore several wristlets and anklets including a beautiful pair of cuffs of solid heavy gold seven inches in length decorated with repousse ornamentation. One of these was retained by the Expedition. The beads are of many different types, shapes, and sizes. The most beautiful small ornaments with exquisitely fine decoration of cast gold, often in animal form, are the nose-clips, bells, and pendants. The ear-rods are a very typical group of objects averaging five to six inches in length, and are sometimes made in several parts. Some are entirely of tubular gold, others have shafts of green stone with gold ends, and others apparently had wooden shafts as only the ends were found. The tips are extremely artistic and of many different forms. Among the most interesting objects found were animal and human figures of carved bone, ivory or rosin, with features such as feet, tails, wings and heads of gold applied to them as onlays. These are very fragile though very beautiful and required careful Museum treatment before exhibition. The ivory employed apparently came from the teeth of the sperm whale, or manati ribs. Other typical objects are whale teeth with heads or ferrules of gold. Of objects of stone several hundred celts or axe-heads were found; these are generally made of hornstone and show many different types. Also several thousand projectile points were secured. The larger ones of these are of chert or other dark stones, but quantities of very small points of various types of chalcedony were found. These were buried with the bodies in caches of several hundred, frequently all of similar size and color. They were presumably originally contained in bags which have entirely disappeared. Some of these are of the green plasma, others of red jasper, and others of translucent chalcedony. Other semi-precious stones employed were agate, serpentine and quartz, as well as emerald. A number of pendent ornaments of agate in animal or plain forms were found as well as quartz crystals. The absence of jade is noteworthy. Necklaces generally made of drilled teeth were apparently very common and quantities of such teeth were secured. The teeth were mainly of dogs or other canines, or felines, shark and boar. Beads of bird bone and of stone were also found in addition to those of gold. The spines of the sting-ray were found frequently in caches. A few projectile or harpoon points of bone were found. An interesting discovery was that of several very large teeth of the fossil shark, which were apparently found in the Cretaceous strata and preserved as fetishes. Of course all fragile things such as basketry and textiles had entirely disappeared, but traces of them were found and some impressions made; traces, of bark cloth were frequently encountered. Although the excavations were made on privately-owned land the work was done with the full knowledge and permission of the Government of Panama. Fortunately for the interests of science, even when a "rich" grave is encountered the intrinsic value of the objects never repays the cost of the expedition, and the discovery of such a grave is so unusual that commercial excavations for the purpose of obtaining gold for sale do not repay their cost. |
