Long-Distance Exchange of Emeralds in the Istmo-Colombian Area

Summary

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, UV_Vis_NIR, Photoluminescence) on the samples from El Caño confirm that the stones are emeralds, and their geochemical fingerprint suggests that they come from Colombia, probably from the Muzo region. In this paper, the type and possible exchange routes are evaluated with the help of written texts, archaeological contexts, and traceology. Three possible routes through exchange networks are proposed, through the Magdalena River, the Cauca River valley, or the Pacific coast from the chiefdoms of the La Tolita-Tumaco culture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38155.0