Male Narrator: In the early twentieth century, a heavy flood uncovered a funerary site in central Panama known as Sitio Conte. James Doyle:
James Doyle: The sheer concentration of luxury goods in the graves at Sitio Conte suggest that these were very, very powerful leaders in Ancient Panama. And we know that they were indeed trading with the Maya to the north and to the cultures in Colombia to the south. So they had wide-reaching networks of luxury goods.
[rhythmic percussion with native flute evoking period and mood]
Male Narrator: These splendid objects were found in the site’s largest grave, which belonged to a powerful male ruler who died more than a thousand years ago.
The two pendants that resemble insect-like creatures are perhaps the most unusual objects from his tomb. [music ends] One has an abdomen that’s made of lavender quartz, and the other is a 112-carat polished emerald that probably came from Colombia or Ecuador.
The larger gold plaque would have been attached to the ruler’s garments at the shoulder through the pairs of holes at the top and bottom. [rhythmic percussion with native flute evoking period and mood] Two stylized crocodiles face each other, teeth bared, dancing upright on their hind legs.
James Doyle: In ancient Panamanian art, alligators or crocodiles feature very prominently. And they’re often shown in poses that suggest they were dancing. Often this type of symmetry seen in hammered goldworks suggests that there were myths related to twin or paired beings.
[music ends]
Male Narrator: For years, the ancient cultures of the region were assumed to be less politically complex than their neighbors to the north and south. The discovery of Sitio Conte changed that.
James Doyle: They had different ways of expressing their wealth.
They were adorning themselves with all of these luxury materials, [rhythmic percussion with native flute evoking period and mood] but they weren’t necessarily building monumental buildings out of stone, for example. And so archeologists in the past have overlooked the luxury arts of this area because of the lack of monumental buildings or the things that we associate with the empires that the Spanish encountered in the sixteenth century.
[music ends]
