Fifer Carles

Anyone visiting Tulsa, Oklahoma has unfortunately now missed their chance to visit the “To Capture the Sun: Gold of Ancient Panama” exhibition, which closed at the Gilcrease Museum on January 15th. However, the accompanying book, which explores the Gilcrease Museum’s collection of Pre-Columbian gold for the first time since its acquisition in the 1940s is still available. Much more than a beautifully illustrated exhibit catalogue, this volume includes essays by leading scholars who use the Gilcrease collection to discuss the rise of metallurgy in the Western Hemisphere, the symbolic significance of gold in Gran Coclé culture, and the influence of Pre-Columbian gold on world economies. The contributors also provide a survey of archaeological excavations in the region, including a discussion of Gilcrease’s important collection of Coclé ceramics

The collection, from the Gran Coclé culture of Panama, consists of more than 250 gold objects from early Panama, including effigy pendants, pectorals, cuffs, bands, ear rods, and bells, as well as a ceramics collection. Archaeologists use the term Gran Coclé to refer to the culture area of ancient Central America that extended from the Bay of Parita to the headwaters of the Rio Grande de Coclé in central Panama. The early inhabitants of this region lived along the inland river flood plains where an increasingly significant number of chiefdoms emerged during the first millennia of the Common Era.

“To Capture the Sun: Gold of Ancient Panama” explores the early scientific excavations at Sitio Conte, where archaeologists unearthed a treasure trove of gold artifacts and ceramics in the 1930s. However, the book sets these excavations and their finds in the context, both of the civilizations that created the tombs, and the archaeological work and studies that have taken place since the 1930s.

It is to be hoped that one day this exhibition (or similar from the holdings of US Museums) will travel to Panama, so that the Panamanian people can see more of their own heritage, but until that day, “To Capture the Sun: Gold of Ancient Panama” is a great substitute and would not look out of place on anyone’s coffee table or book shelf.

Related posts:

1. Panama’s Golden Chiefdoms
2. Sir Henry Morgan
3. Government Improving Tourist Access to the Interior
4. Petaquilla Gold and its Molejon mining project keep their promise
5. Petaquilla Gold, S.A. invested over 500 thousand dollars in support of La Pintada and Penonome Municipalities