The Coclé culture developed near the Santa Marta River (in the central region of Panama), a warm and rainy area with extensive valleys ideal for developing agriculture and forests with a varied fauna of deer, jaguars, armadillos and snakes. This pre-Columbian civilization flourished between 500 and 1,000 AD and is especially known for fine polychrome ceramics, goldsmithing, and stone and bone works.
They were also expert miners who obtained abundant caches of gold from rivers or from superficial excavations in lands of the savannah or mountains. A good example of this skill can be seen in a recently discovered 1,200-year-old tomb where a Mr. Coclé was buried with a dazzling golden treasure.
The grave was found in the archaeological site of El Caño, in the district of Nata, 160 kilometers southwest of Panama City. The interior of the mausoleum contained ceramic artifacts and multiple pieces of gold, common in the funerary trousseau with which the dead of this civilization were buried.
Particularly noteworthy are five pectorals, two belts of spherical gold beads, four bracelets, two earrings in the shape of human figures (a man and a woman), an earring in the shape of a crocodile, a necklace of small circular beads, five earrings made of teeth sperm whale with gold covers, a set of circular gold plates, two bells, bracelets and a skirt made of dog teeth and a set of bone flutes.
The “important lord of Coclé” buried at the site probably lived at the end of the 8th century and would have been about 30 years old when he died, according to Julia Mayo, director of the El Caño Foundation. The “high-status adult male” of the Rio Grande chiefdom was buried face down, a common burial in this society, over the body of a woman.
The tomb was built around the year 750 AD and is that of a great lord, but also of other people who died to accompany him to the “afterlife.” As the excavation has not yet been completed, specialists cannot specify at the moment how many people were buried with him “to serve as companions.”
A few years ago, Mayo and his team discovered the remains of a warrior chief covered in extensive gold grave goods and buried on top of 25 other bodies. El Caño was discovered in 1925 and investigated in the 1970s, but it was not until 2008 that a more formal excavation of the area began, revealing a large necropolis.
The work carried out suggests that El Caño was a necropolis (or city of the dead) used by a pre-Hispanic society based on chiefdoms since 700 AD. until it was abandoned in the year 1000. The site is home to several well-known “monoliths”, as well as a ceremonial area containing wooden buildings.
“This discovery is important, among other things, because it presents a very special type of burial that we know as multiple and simultaneous burials and we call it that because they consist of burials of a variable number of people (between 8 and 32) in the same tomb. high status that were buried along with others previously sacrificed to serve as companions,” explained Mayo.
Members of the Coclé culture played a crucial role in establishing pre-Hispanic trade networks. In addition, they developed alloys of gold and copper (tumbaga), and sometimes with a little silver. Sometimes they even gave the pieces a bath to make them look more golden.
The metals were worked by cold hammering to make mainly breastplates and helmets with different decorations. They also made mold casts with the “lost wax” technique, to obtain three-dimensional figures. Laminate was also used to cover pieces of wood or bone with which figurines and flutes were made.
