Panama (Other Keyword)
1-15 (15 Records)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Documenting the Built Environment (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. An interesting assemblage of Chinese ceramics from the 16th and 17th century has been found in Panama. Many can be compared to pieces on the ceiling of a small dining room of the Santos Palace in Lisbon, which is now the French Embassy. There are 263 plates and 96 dishes, fastened by iron nails which had been made into...
Changing Interpretations of the Archaeology of Caribbean western Panama. (2017)
Recent field and laboratory archaeological findings in Bocas del Toro, Panama offer data that changes and amplifies our understanding of the prehistory of the region. Detailed paleoethnobotanical study, further zooarchaeological examination, preliminary ceramic thin-section analysis, and continuing ceramic analysis have all produced results that call in to question entrenched assumptions concerning the timing of settlement, the nature of the subsistence economy, trade, exchange and cultural...
Chinina, Panama. First evidence of pre-hispanic raised fields in Central America (2015)
Aerial photography has been known as an extremely useful tool of archaeological prospection for nearly one century. In recent years however it gained increasing importance by two reasons: First the availability of high quality aerial photographs via internet made it quite easy to start archaeological surveys even in remote areas. Second archaeological perspectives on past human societies changed in recent decades. Modern ecological problems caused an increasing interest in landscape...
Communities of Practice and Panamanian Majolica Production (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper deals with the production of Panamanian majolica in comparison with other colonial ceramics. Chemical and mineralogical characterization show the use of a distinctive recipe for the production of this colonial ware. These results are consistent with previous interpretations that imply the community of potters controlled the production of the...
Contributions of Richard G. Cooke, PhD, MBE, to the Study of Isthmo-Colombian Iconography (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Unraveling the Mysteries of the Isthmo-Colombian Area’s Past: A Symposium in Honor of Archaeologist Richard Cooke and His Contributions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Richard Cooke's pioneering studies in zooarchaeology of the Neotropics have redefined the way that archaeologists, art historians, ethnohistorians, and ethnographers utilize data from faunal remains, not only in the reconstruction of past environments,...
Imitating from Memory: Hybrid Vessels and Attempted Replications of Stylistic Elements from Central Panama in the Pre-Hispanic Ceramics of Costa Rica (2015)
The ceramics of Central America are replete with examples of stylistic influence that represent attempts by local potters to reproduce foreign styles from distant lands. Examples include attempts to reproduce elements of Late Classic Maya styles in ceramics of the "southern periphery" of Mesoamerica. This paper presents evidence for attempted but imperfect and even inept reproduction of elements from the opposite direction—territories far to the south and east—by identifying elements of...
Long-Distance Exchange of Emeralds in the Istmo-Colombian Area (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A group of translucent green stones have recently been found in the archaeological site of El Caño, Panama. It is not the first time that these types of stones have been found in the region. Stones with similar characteristics were found at Sitio Conte in the 1930s. The analyses carried out with pXRF in combination with spectroscopic techniques (FTIR,...
The Monagrillo Ceramic Complex of Panama in Subsistence and Social Contexts (2017)
The Monagrlon ceramic complex has been identified at myriad archaeological sites around Parita Bay, Panama. These vary widely in geography from costal, to inland, to riverine places. In these different environments, there is disparate and varied evidence of agriculture, indications of hierarchical social structures, and relationships with the creation of pottery at Panamanian sites. I theorize that maritime resources as opposed to cultivation formed the basis of these sedentary or semi-sedentary...
Mortuary Theatrics and Chiefly Power in Panama and Costa Rica (2016)
This paper explores the mechanisms by which sumptuary art was deposited in mortuary contexts in parts of southern Central America. Rather than signal the existence of ”eliteness” or chiefly office, it is argued that the production and procurement of mortuary art was one feature of a factionalized political landscape. The burial of staggering quantities of this artwork may be interpreted as deflationary attempts to limit the capital available to rivals. Such practices may have promoted a...
Nuestra Señora de Encarnación: Lost Ship of the 1681 Tierra Firme Fleet (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Plus Ultra: An examination of current research in Spanish Colonial/Iberian Underwater and Terrestrial Archaeology in the Western Hemisphere." , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1681, the Tierra Firme fleet departed Cartagena for Portbelo to eventually make the voyage back to Spain with goods from the colonies. En route, a storm struck the fleet, wrecking four vessels and killing more than 500 Spanish...
Preliminary Petrographic Analysis of Ceramics from the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama (2015)
Petrographic analysis of ceramic sherds can elucidate manufacturing techniques and exchange systems. We present the first mineralogical assessment via thin-section petrography of archeological ceramics collected from the Bocas del Toro province on the Caribbean coast of Panama. Examined sherds include surface finds collected from archaeological sites on Bastimentos Island and at Cerro Brujo on the mainland, and excavated samples from Sitio Drago, Isla Colon. Thin-section petrography of the...
Pueblos, Palenques, and Dual Organization in Sixteenth Century Costa Rica (2015)
Contact era Spanish descriptions from central Costa Rica through western Panama offer compelling evidence that many indigenous settlements throughout the region were arranged as two spatially discrete parts, implying that these societies were similarly organized as two social groups. Documentary sources further indicate that there were at least three regionally distinct spatial arrangements of villages. Spatial patterns of settlements recorded in these documents closely resemble those identified...
The Quest for Gold: An Examination of Socioeconomic Exchange and Autonomy in the Parita River Valley, Panama (2015)
Through the Parita Archaeological Research Project (PARP), we have investigated socioeconomic change in Central Region of Panama using several different scales of analysis. More specifically, we examined the relationship between episodes of social change and the following factors: sociopolitical organization, craft specialization and economic interdependence, and control and manipulation of trade goods, subsistence resources and ritual space. Despite the presence of some long-distance trade...
Trade, Exchange, Production and Consumption at Sitio Drago, Bocas del Toro, Panama (2015)
Sitio Drago is a large (18 ha) pre-Columbian settlement strategically located on the NW corner of Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro, Panama. Prior to the 21st Century Bocas del Toro had been characterized as recently colonized, poorly populated, having a relatively low degree of sociopolitical elaboration and isolated. Continuing research over the last 10 years on Isla Colon, focusing on Sitio Drago, illustrates that the site and by extension, the region, has a much longer population history, a...
The vast and secret museum of Chiriqui: Stripping the sharpness and beauty from obsidian (2015)
Prominent, recent explorations of the role of sensory data in archaeology detail the linkages of bodily senses, material objects, and remembering or forgetting to invoke the ‘vast and secret museum of historical and sensory absence’ in analyses. In this paper, I examine the residues and associations of chthonic power and senses that can cling in social memory to volcanic materials. This serves as a query for why an entirely useful material was not in use in the Chiriqui culture area that spans...