Page 293 - The Rough Guide to Panama (Travel Guide)

History CONTEXTS 291
History

Though the Republic of Panama is only a little over a century old, humans
have lived on the isthmus for thousands of years. Its location as a slender
bridge between two vast land masses has been as crucial to its development
as its eventual link between two expanses of ocean.

Pre-Columbian society
Panama’s scarce archeological remains give little clue to the societies that inhabited the
region, in part because many early excavations were poorly executed and finds were
damaged or looted. Lacking the huge structures and sophisticated carvings that epitomize
the Maya, Aztec and Toltec civilizations of Mesoamerica, the trading societies of Central
America have always taken a historical backseat. Yet central Panama boasts the earliest
traces of pottery-making in the Americas with ceramics from Monagrillo, in the northern
Azuero Peninsula, carbon-dated to 2500–1200 BC. A nearby fishing village in Sarigua is
considered to be the isthmus’s oldest settlement, dating from around 11,000 BC.
The most sophisticated societies inhabited central Panama, with the richest
archeological finds in the necropolis of Sitio Conté, outside Penonomé. Excavations
by American academics in the 1930s opened up around a hundred tombs to reveal
thousands of intricate gold pieces of jewellery alongside sophisticated polychrome
ceramics and other artefacts dating back to the first century, most of which were
shipped off to the States.
At El Caño, near Natá, lies a ceremonial site believed to have become a cemetery
dating from 500 to 1200 AD, though its original function and significance is unknown,
not helped by the fact that a US adventurer decapitated more than a hundred basalt
standing stones. In the Western Highlands, outside Volcán, another important site
indicates the existence of what has been termed the Barriles culture, at its apogee around
500 to 600 AD, whose curious stone statues of a figure wearing a conical hat carrying
another on its shoulders are on display at Panama City’s anthropological museum
GOLD PLAQUE, COCLÉ PROVINCE
(see p.63). A large ceremonial grinding stone, or metate, adorned with human heads –
also in the museum – has led to speculation about human sacrifice. Sprinkled round
Sitio Barriles and elsewhere in western and central Panama on moss-covered boulders
are numerous petroglyphs; the largest is La Piedra Pintada outside El Valle.

Arrival of the Spanish
The first European credited with setting foot on the isthmus was the Spanish aristocratic
notary Rodrigo Galván de Bastidas, who in 1501 made a low-key arrival, trading his way
peacefully up the Caribbean coast as far as present-day Colón. In contrast, Christopher
Columbus (Cristóbal Colón), who arrived a year later on his fourth and final voyage to
the “New World”, headed for the western and central Caribbean coast, keen to lay his
hands on the legendary gold. He attempted to establish the first European settlement on

11,000 BC 2500–1200 BC 500–600 AD
The first settlement is The earliest traces of pottery- An eruption by Volcán Barú is thought
established on the isthmus, a making in the Americas are to have brought an end to the Barriles
fishing village, in the Azuero also found in the Azuero culture – one of the most important
Peninsula. Peninsula. pre-Columbian societies.

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