Panama City, Panama-Phys.org X-ray fluorescence, infrared spectroscopy and photoluminescence have been used to confirm that five green stones found at two archaeological sites on Panama’s Pacific coast are emeralds that were mined in Colombia more than 1,000 years ago, the report said. The emeralds were recovered from elite burials at the sites of El Caño and Sitio Conte in the Gran Cocal region, dated to around Advertisement 800 to 1000. These graves also contained artifacts such as gold, pyrite mirrors, and fossilized megalodon teeth. The chemical composition of the green stones from the graves was then compared with the composition of 22 emeralds from Ecuador and Colombia. Testing indicated that the five stones were likely transported from the Western Emerald Belt of Colombia and the Eastern Emerald Belt, about 435 miles north. “These items were not exchanged directly between the inhabitants of the Colombian mining areas and the Cocal chiefs,” said Carlos Mayo Torney of the Fundación El Caño. Rather, they suggest that the stones were frequently traded by people living along coastal and river communities. Torney said some of them were cut and prepared before reaching Panama, while others were drilled and cut by local artisans. “These repairs and reconstructions demonstrate the great importance of emeralds to ancient Coccal societies and the strong symbolic value of these objects,” he said. Torney and his colleagues plan to investigate possible routes through which the emeralds may have been transported. To read more about the tombs excavated at El Kano, visit “a golden magician” one of AarcheologyTop 10 discoveries of 2024.
Post Colombian emeralds identified in Panama burials first appeared on archeology magazine.