[Aztlan] Exhibit Opening; River of gold: PreColumbian treasures from the Sitio Conte

[michael ruggeri]

River of gold: PreColumbian treasures from the Sitio Conte

By Amy McRary (Contact)
Sunday, February 1, 2009



River of Gold: PreColumbian Treasures From Sitio Conte
What: Gold objects, pottery, other items created in Panama 700-1100 AD
When: Feb. 7-May 3
Where: Frank H. McClung Museum, 1327 Circle Park Drive, University of  
Tennessee
Museum hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday
Admission: Free
A river shifted 100 years ago to reveal golden treasures created, then  
buried, by an ancient people. Now those gleaming discoveries will be  
shown at the University of Tennessee's Frank H. McClung Museum.

"River of Gold: PreColumbian Treasures From Sitio Conte" is at the  
1327 Circle Park Drive museum Saturday, Feb. 7, through May 3.

Sitio Conte is an ancient cemetery in an area of Panama about 100  
miles west of Panama City. More than 150 gold objects, created by  
goldsmiths and artisans 700 to 1100 years after the birth of Christ,  
will be shown in "River of Gold."

The array of golden objects include hammered and embossed plaques,  
pendants, bells, beadwork, even nose ornaments and gold-covered ear  
rods. The exhibit also includes some ceramics and pieces of ivory,  
bone and precious and semi-precious stones. Many are decorated with  
animal motifs or figures that appear part human, part animal, and were  
made to be worn.

The exhibit comes from the University of Pennsylvania Museum in  
Philadelphia. That museum discovered the artifacts during  
archaeological excavations done almost 70 years ago.

What's shown was buried by the people whose artisans created it. For  
centuries the gold and the graves they adorned were protected by the  
lay of the land itself.

The people who lived in the region 700-1100 A.D. likely lived in a  
society made of strict classes. All would have been ruled by a chief.  
The most spectacular gold items in "River of Gold" were found on and  
around the grave of a chief.

The golden objects were made with sophisticated technology yet simple  
tools. Plaques and cuffs were crafted from hammered gold sheet. Some  
objects were made of a gold-copper alloy. A depletion gilding method  
dissolved away surface copper and left the gold color over the reddish  
alloy.

Animals or more mysterious figures appear on some pieces. One pendant  
features the figure of a large, toothy bat. Other objects show a  
figure with both human and reptilian features.

The cemetery and its treasures were missed by 16th-century gold- 
hunting Spaniards. Much later, at the start of the 20th century, the  
riverbed of the area's Rio Grande de Cocle shifted. When that  
happened, parts of the cemetery were exposed. Panamanians began to  
find gold objects on the riverbanks. Many items turned up for sale in  
Panama City.

Soon professional archeologists arrived. Representatives of Harvard  
University's Peabody Museum came first, excavating from 1930 to 1933.  
In 1940 archeologists from the University of Pennsylvania excavated at  
Sitio Conte for three months and returned with the objects now in  
their collection.

http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/exhibits.shtml



Mike Ruggeri's Ancient America Museum Exhibitions, Conferences and  
Lectures
http://community-2.webtv.net/Topiltzin-2091/AncientAmerica/