2024-03-14 05:08:00
(CNN) — Excavations of an archaeological site in Panama revealed the tomb of a religious leader buried more than 1,200 years ago along with a trove of gold objects, and numerous other human remains.
Researchers found the ancient tomb in El Caño Archaeological Park, a site in Coclé province known as a hotbed of pre-Columbian discoveries, particularly lavish burial chambers. The newly discovered enclosure, built around the year 700, is the ninth tomb unearthed from the park since excavations began in 2008, according to a March 1 statement from Panama’s Ministry of Culture.
The tombs, including the latest one discovered, are resting places for people who had a higher status within their societies, said Dr. Julia Mayo, leader of the excavation and director of the El Caño Foundation, a group that studies heritage. cultural of Panama through investigations at the archaeological site. The research team believes that the person found lying in the center of the tomb had a higher status, indicated not only by her physical position but also by the gold and ceramic artifacts surrounding the body.
The civilization of the region surrounding El Caño at the time treated the site as sacred and worshiped their “ancestors,” referring to those remembered for having done important things. “After the death of these people, (it was believed that) constant communication was established between the ancestor and his descendants,” Mayo said. “Our study (of the tombs) highlights the practice of ritual death in status-linked funerary rituals.”
The newly discovered elite leader was probably a man in his 30s or 40s, nicknamed “Lord of the Flutes” by archaeologists because he was buried along with a set of animal bone flutes that were probably used in religious ceremonies, he added.
The tomb is the ninth excavated by researchers in the El Caño Archaeological Park, known for its wealth of archaeological discoveries and luxurious burial chambers. (Credit: Julia Mayo/El Caño Foundation)
And as researchers continued to explore the tomb, they realized that the Lord of the Flutes may have had plenty of company on his journey to the followinglife, potentially up to a dozen companions whose remains were found buried beneath the offerings that They surrounded him.
“A representation of the social order”
Researchers found similar patterns between the grave and the eight graves previously studied that suggested the other bodies belonged to people sacrificed to accompany the deceased in the followinglife, Mayo said. It appears that the newly discovered remains were buried at the same time and also had signs of a ritual death, she added.
El Caño is divided into two sectors of burial chambers: a high-status sector that houses burial chambers with multiple bodies, and a low-status sector where the tombs include only one body per grave, Mayo said. The excavation is not complete, so it is unclear how many bodies are inside the newly discovered tomb, but the other eight tombs have revealed anywhere from eight to 32 bodies.
While the other tombs contained what researchers believe were military leaders, the Lord of the Flutes was probably more of a religious leader, as the body was “buried with flutes and bells and not, as in the case of other lords found in the same place, with axes, spears and objects made from the teeth of large predators. This draws attention to the importance of religion in this society,” Mayo said in an email.
Excavation of the ninth tomb is expected to be complete by this time next year.
Ancient funeral practices
Archaeologists found the body of the alleged religious leader buried face down and on top of the body of a woman, the statement stated. The relationship the man may have had with the woman is unknown, Mayo said.
“The prone mode of burial was common at this time in this region, but the position of the man over the woman is not,” said Nicole Smith-Guzmán, the curator of archeology at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City. , by email.
However, he added that other researchers reported the discovery of human remains dating back more than 1,000 years buried in a similar position at a nearby site called Sitio Sierra, in the same province as El Caño. At the time, investigators speculated that the pair represented a husband and wife, but the theory remains unconfirmed.
“However, it is likely that there was some type of social relationship between the two individuals during life that was important to maintain in death,” said Smith-Guzmán, who was not part of any of the discoveries.
Gold ornaments cemented powerful alliances
Among the artifacts found scattered over the burial chamber and surrounding the Lord of the Flutes were five pectorals, two belts made of gold beads, several gold bracelets and necklaces, as well as two earrings in the shape of human figures, and some pieces of jewelry. made from animal teeth, including earrings made from the teeth of a sperm whale, according to the statement.
These “exotic” materials are generally interpreted as the living leader’s strategies to gain more prestige within their territories, Ana María Navas Méndez, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Illinois State University, said in an email. Ancient Latin American chiefs often established political and economic relationships with leaders of nearby communities, allowing exchanges of precious and artisanal goods between them, she added.
Several of the artifacts found inside the tomb were “stylistically similar to those produced in the Quimbaya region (in Colombia),” Mayo said, adding that this indicates that there was a great deal of interaction and exchange of materials “between the populations that inhabited the central region of Panama and northern South America”.
city of the dead
Experts believe El Caño functioned as a regional ceremonial center or necropolis (city of the dead) for elite members of society, Smith-Gúzman said.
There have been two attempts, most recently in 2021, to discover who the various graves found at the El Caño site belonged to, Mayo said. But each attempt failed to find DNA in human bones, most likely because the region’s hot, humid climate is not ideal for preservation, she added.
“(This discovery) offers new evidence to continue studying the chiefdoms in Panama that might be compared with previous findings,” said Navas Méndez. “With this new evidence, archaeologists might raise new questions regarding the interactions between chiefdoms, regarding the political economy of pre-Columbian societies, regarding religious aspects, regarding gender, and so on.”
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