Call Number:

1108

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives

Extent:

1.5 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Item name]. Box [Box number]. Sitio Conte, Panama expedition records. Penn Museum Archives. Accessed [Date accessed].

Date:

1939-1942 (bulk) and 1929-1970 (inclusive)

Creator:

Mason, John Alden, 1885-1967

Form:

Correspondence, Field notes, and Photographs

Abstract:

At the turn of the century, the Río Grande de Coclé changed course, revealing the site of a pre-Columbian cemetery when pottery and gold ornaments were washed out of the river banks. In 1940 the University of Pennsylvania Museum began to excavate Sitio Conte, which belonged to a private landowner, located in the province of Coclé. A very small portion of the pre-Columbian cemetery, estimated to cover four or five acres in its entirety, was selected for excavation. The expedition yielded 6,600 pounds of pottery and stone. The textual records consist of 1.5 linear feet of field notes, diaries, and object cards; correspondence; administrative records concerning contracts, expenses, transportation, and equipment; and unpublished and published reports and articles concerning findings. The arrangement of the records became apparent after some research, for the original order had been lost. Most of the original folder titles, however, have been maintained.

At the turn of the century, the Río Grande de Coclé changed course, revealing the site of a pre-Columbian cemetery when pottery and gold ornaments were washed out of the river banks. Gold ornaments from the site began showing up for sale in Panama City. Thereafter the Peabody Museum of Harvard University excavated the site between 1930 and 1933, securing a number of unique specimens from a previously unknown culture.

As a result of World War II major excavations were not possible in areas such as Egypt and Mesopotamia, freeing up funding for Americanist projects. In 1940 the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology decided to investigate Sitio Conte, which belonged to a private landowner, located approximately ten miles from the Pacific Ocean in the province of Coclé about a hundred miles west of Panama City. A contract to excavate the site was made between the Museum and Señor Miguel Conte, with the full knowledge and permission of the government of Panama.

Dr. J. Alden Mason, Curator of the Museum’s American Section, was director of the expedition. Robert H. Merrill was surveyor, engineer, and photographer. John B. Corning, a research associate in the Museum, was assistant director. Corning was trained in anatomy and was in charge of the preservation of specimens. He also made motion pictures. The directors of the former Peabody Expedition, Dr. and Mrs. Samuel K. Lothrop, assisted with arrangements and accompanied the University of Pennsylvania Museum expedition for several weeks. The work was carried out during the short, dry season beginning in January, 1940 through mid-April of that year.

A very small portion of the pre-Columbian cemetery, estimated to cover four or five acres in its entirety, was selected for excavation. The expedition dug a main trench 54 feet in length, 27 feet in width, and 13 feet in depth at its maximum. A second, smaller trench was dug also. About thirty burials and/or caches were encountered, ranging from grave lots with a few vessels to burials of ten feet square containing hundreds of pottery vessels as well as objects of stone, carved bone, gold, and other materials. In the most elaborate burial, No. 11, there were twenty-three individuals, one supplying at least half of the gold objects found as well as the finest in quality. The floor and sides of this grave were virtually lined with pottery. It included one arrangement of twelve individuals laid parallel and close together in six pairs, each pair consisting of upper and lower members. The identifiable skeletons were all males of some social importance as almost all had some gold ornamentation. The one presumed by Mason to be a chief was interred with a wealth of gold.

The expedition yielded 6,600 pounds of pottery and stone. The restoration of the pottery was eventually undertaken by a WPA project in the Museum. Much of the pottery was painted in polychrome. Designs are generally conventionalized animals, but vary from simple geometric to complex pictorial. Over 120 troy ounces of gold were found. Many gold objects are of exquisite workmanship made by casting (cire perdue), hammering, and depletion gilding. Gold objects included large plaques or disks, ear-rods, nose ornaments, cuffs and anklets, pendants, chisels, bells, and beads. Most impressive are eight large plaques eight to ten inches in diameter with very ornate decoration in high repousse relief. Most of them show saurian-human and avian-human figures. Five were found on the principal individual of burial No. 11. This individual also wore a pendant of heavy gold over four inches in length in the form of a very ornate animal figure, probably a composite creature including features of reptiles, the jaguar, and turtle with a low grade emerald set in its back. Among the most interesting objects found were almost thirty animal and human figurines of carved bone, ivory, or copal resin with features of gold applied as onlays.

Little is known about the indigenous inhabitants of the large village that must have been located nearby this cemetery. Such a village cannot be identified from sixteenth-century Spanish accounts, which were written centuries after the fact. The form and decoration of the pottery are very different from the Chiriquí and Veraguas cultures of western Panama. The Coclé culture bears practically no resemblance to the cultures of the Aztecs and Mayas, and little to those of Peru. The period of burial at Sitio Conte was from ca. A.D. 450 to A.D. 900. Burial No. 11 is dated to A.D. 700-900.

The textual records consist of 1.5 linear feet of field notes, diaries, and object cards; correspondence; administrative records concerning contracts, expenses, transportation, and equipment; and unpublished and published reports and articles concerning findings. This material has been divided into four series: Correspondence, Administrative Records, Field Notes, and Reports and Interpretive Materials. The arrangement of the records became apparent after some research, for the original order had been lost. Most of the original folder titles, however, have been maintained.

The correspondence consists mainly of letters from Mason to contacts and officials in Panama detailing the planning of the expedition and to University of Pennsylvania Museum Director Horace H. F. Jayne reporting on progress from the field. There is also documentation relating to a proposed second expedition to Panama for the following year (1941), and to the settlement of the contract with the Conte family. The Administrative Records include copies of contracts, and much logistical and financial information. The Field Notes include two field diaries (kept by Mason and Merrill), cataloguing notes, and object cards. Though Mason's diary represents a journal of the expedition, Merrill's contains the scientific notes and detailed measurements for all the excavations. It also includes many photographs, plans, and sections. The Reports series includes published and unpublished articles and papers by Mason on the results of the excavations, exhibit brochures, and notes on the motion picture taken in the field. Original news clippings found in this series were removed to Special Collections— Newsclippings and filed by date. Copies of these clippings have been placed in the Reference Collection under Expeditions— Sitio Conte, and Exhibits— "Panama Expedition." Duplicate copies of the exhibit catalogue for the 1940 "Panama Expedition" have been placed in Special Collections— Publications— Exhibit Catalogues and in the Reference Collection. For preservation purposes all highly-acidic carbon copies of correspondence were photocopied onto acid-free paper and the originals discarded.

Visual collections consist of more than 300 black-and-white safety film negatives made in the field; thirty-seven minutes of 16mm color and black/white motion picture film from the original field footage (as well as an edited copy on videotape); and twelve site plans in ink and pencil on paper. Many black-and-white prints are found in Robert H. Merrill's diary, which also includes an explanation of the cataloguing system for the field negatives (p. 11). Over thirty 4x5 glass lantern slides were produced for projection in stereopticon lectures. Additional object photography produced by the Museum's photography studio includes color transparencies, black-and-white negatives, and copy prints. The negatives, color transparencies, and motion picture film footage can be accessed through the computer database and card catalogue in the Photographic Archives. The site plans, photographic prints, and glass lantern slides are listed in this finding aid. In addition included in this guide is a list of Museum exhibitions in which artifacts from Sitio Conte were displayed (Appendix I).

Related collections are found in Administrative Records— American Section— J. Alden Mason (see folder “Section Reports”); Admininistrative Records— Exhibits Department, and Special Collections— Exhibits Photographs (see under the various exhibits as listed in Appendix I); and the J. Alden Mason Biography and Portrait files. The Peabody Museum at Harvard University houses the records from S. K. Lothrop’s excavations, including his visit to Sitio Conte with Mason in 1940 (Appendix III).