Ancient Gold Artifacts in Tomb Are of Enormous Monetary Value

Experts believe they have uncovered the tomb of an ancient and exceedingly important person, as they were buried with an enormous amount of valuable gold and other priceless treasures.

After some digging, he found three burial sites. However, after Verrill left, the site of El Caño was left untouched for decades until the 1970s when the first formal investigation of the area began. Over the past 54 years, archaeologists have been carefully and diligently digging, and they’ve just found something that has made them stop in their tracks.

The announcement noted that these pieces, while certainly quite historically significant, were also immensely financially valuable. And that, subsequently, they believe that the skeleton in this tomb was a man of historical significance.

They have not yet completed the excavation, but Julia and the rest of the team are sure that this skeleton once belonged to someone powerful because of how they were buried, what they were buried with, and how this tomb differs from the others within the El Caño necropolis.

As well as a skirt made of dog teeth, a set of bone flutes, two belts made from gold beads, and a set of circular gold plates.

Linette Montenegro, the national director of heritage at the Ministry of Culture, explained that the artifacts found in the tomb added up to an “incalculable” value.

These finds were “stylistically similar to those produced in the Quimbaya region (of Columbia),” Mayo explained.

Because the Coclé people didn’t leave behind any writing, researchers often have to use artifacts to discover if they communicated with other civilizations. This tomb, therefore, suggests that they did.

The most poignant feature was that there were several skeletons within this tomb; one was clearly a powerful chief or lord, while the others seemed to have been specifically buried as companions for him. As Dr. Mayo explained, the tomb “contains the remains of a Coclé lord, but also has other burials who died to accompany him to the afterlife.”

Additionally, they found the skeleton of the powerful man buried face-down on top of the skeleton of a woman. Though it sounds strange today, this practice was actually quite common among the ancient Coclé people, as it ensured the deceased would have a sexual partner in the afterlife.

“The face-down mode of burial was common at this time period in this region, but the positioning of the male over the female individual is not,” Nicole Smith-Guzmán, an archaeology curator at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City, explained.

These tombs are located in Sitio Sierra, which is also in El Caño, and is near this current archaeological site. However, even these researchers aren’t aware of what this burial positioning could mean. Some believe it may indicate that the man and wife were husband and wife. However, this isn’t a confirmed theory.

“Nevertheless, it is likely that there was some sort of social relationship between the two individuals during life that was important to maintain in death,” Smith-Guzmán added.

Mayo and her team know that this Coclé lord was likely about 30 to 40 years old upon his death. However, the presence of musical instruments in the tomb suggests an interesting occupation for this lord.

However, Mayo and her team don’t believe this lord was a warrior. Because of these musical instruments they’ve discovered, they think he was more than likely some sort of religious leader.

This discovery has led to researchers now calling the man “Lord of the Flutes.”

This means that a likely very influential religious lord was buried in a tomb near many other important military leaders. This could indicate that this lord was highly respected and important in this society.

Today, archaeologists are able to identify burial sites and megalithic structures as remnants of the Coclé people thanks to both carbon dating as well as their extremely unique artwork, including pottery and gold artifacts.

Luckily, because these ancient people were such skilled artists and craftsmen and buried their dead in tombs which are amazingly specific to the deceased person’s class, experts have actually learned quite a lot about their culture.

They often worshipped their ancestors, such as those buried in these unearthed tombs, and recalled the important things these people did.

“After the death of these people, (it was believed that) a constant communication was established between the ancestor and his descendants,” Mayo told CNN. “Our study (of the tombs) highlights the practice of ritual death in funerary rituals linked to (a higher) status.”

However, anyone who does want to admire these intricate pieces will have to travel about 100 miles southwest of Panama City to the site’s museum.

But while they may find more gold artifacts, as well as other skeletons, it’s likely that no one will ever know for sure exactly who the tomb was made for. They can only confirm he was an extremely important member of the once powerful Coclé society.

Researchers even believe that anywhere from eight to 32 more bodies will be found once the entire excavation process is complete.