Coclé goldwork (Sitio Conte)
Orfebrería de Coclé (Sitio Conte)
- Date
- c. 700-1000 · confidence medium
- Place
- Sitio Conte, Penonomé, Coclé, Panama
- Credited to
- Coclé chiefdoms (Greater Coclé)
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
The chiefs buried at Sitio Conte wore pectoral plaques, ear ornaments and figures of gold and tumbaga cast by the lost-wax method, hammered and embossed, along with rich polychrome ceramics. The cemetery, excavated in the 1930s, is one of the best displays of gold metallurgy in lower Central America.
Metallurgy reached Panama from Colombia around the turn of the era; Sitio Conte dates to c. AD 700-900. It was excavated by Samuel Lothrop (Peabody, 1930-33) and later by the University of Pennsylvania (1940).
What it led to
- an isthmian goldwork tradition that impressed the Spanish conquistadors
- exchange of techniques and pieces with Colombia and Costa Rica
- evidence of political hierarchy and ritual warfare in pre-Columbian chiefdoms