The history
behind the mounds and monoliths of El Caño is as intriguing
as that of Stonehenge in England. However, a number of clues at Panama’s
first in-situ museum have given archaeologists a partial picture of
one of the most prosperous pre-Columbian, Native American cultures.
Covering
an area of eight hectares, El Caño Archaeological Site (which
bears the name of a tiny community located 176 km southwest of Panama
City) was discovered by accident in the 1970’s when the tractors
and bulldozers of a sugar cane milling company unearthed a number
of pre-Hispanic artifacts. After almost a decade of excavations and
studies, archaeologists discovered a large number of mounds surrounded
by a circular row of huge stones. The mounds turned out to be Native
American tombs of "middle-class" individuals, buried there
between 500 and 1550 A.D.
El Caño
is the second major archaeological discovery in the province of Coclé.
The first one was at nearby Sitio Conte, when back in the 1920’s
Richard Cooke, a U.S. adventurer, discovered a similar site surrounded
by carved monoliths, most of which he unearthed and shipped to the
Museum of Indian Culture in New York.
The people buried at El Caño were mostly middle-class
individuals of the propsperous "Coclé culture".
Backed
by the information provided by Spanish conquistadors in the area around
the 16th century, historians have been able to conclude that the entire
region corresponding to the present-day province of Coclé was
an extremely prosperous Native American settlement with a history
covering over five millennia.
As with
other pre-Columbian cultures, members of the so-called "Coclé
Culture" buried their dead with their belongings. In the case
of middle-class residents (perhaps the leaders of the hunting, fishing
and agricultural groups of the tribe), bodies were left to rot for
a number of months and the bones were later placed in well-adorned
ceramic urns, some of which are on display at El Caño’s
museum. The gold ornaments and artifacts are on display at Panama
City’s Anthropology Museum, on Plaza Cinco de Mayo.
Archaeologists
now know that the mounds helped to preserve the bodies in a flood-prone
environment. The monoliths, however, are the source of much speculation.
Although there is strong evidence they were part of a Pre-Columbian
sport, others believe it was a religious-ceremonial site. The real
mystery is how those huge stones, some of which weigh several tons,
were transported there, since similar stones are only found in the
Central Cordillera mountain range, many kilometers away.
El Caño
Archaeological Park opens Tuesday to Saturday, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00
p.m., and from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Sundays. It is closed on
Mondays and holidays. Admittance is $1.00 for adults. Retirees, students
(with ID) and children pay 25 cents. For more information, call: (507)
987-9352
