Cerro Juan Diaz Regional Chronology
- Folder Type:
- Archaeological Feature
- Primary Title:
- Cerro Juan Diaz Regional Chronology
- Summary Description:
- A multi-annual archaeological project (1992-2001) documented human occupation from about 2200 to 400 years BP or 200 BCE-1600 CE. A human presence in the vicinity (at La Mula-Sarigua and Vampiros-1) goes back to early Paleoindian (Clovis) times (ca. 13,000 ya). Most of the fieldwork conducted at LS-3 between 1992 and 2000 concentrated on the southern (Los Santos) bank of the La Villa River around a hill called Cerro Juan Diaz, which rises 42 m above the riverine plain, and is a prominent local landmark. For this reason, the archaeological site is best known in the literature as 'Cerro Juan Diaz'. The closest modern towns are Los Santos and Chitre. Most of the site's occupation corresponds to the Precolumbian period, which formally ended in Panama in 1502 CE when Columbus established a settlement at the mouth of the Belen River on the Caribbean coast. A small area around the central hill, however, contains scant remains of an early historic occupation, which archaeologists attribute to the ephemeral 'pueblo de Indios' of Cubita (active around 1575 CE). The locality is well known to local looters, called 'huaqueros', who targeted the site in search of polychrome pottery and gold-work to sell. Consequently, it has been severely damaged by random illegal digging. Since the archaeological project terminated in 2001, these activities appear to have ceased. The site was visited by French archaeologist during his research project in the southern Azuero Peninsula (1968-1972). Ichon designated designated it LS-3. In 1980 a Chilean archaeologist, Carlos Thomas Winter, conducted a field school here financed by the Organization of American States. The whereabouts of the materials collected is unknown. In 1991, Cooke contacted Oscar Fonseca, then a professor in archaeology at the University of Costa Rica, with a view to identifying Costa Rican licenciatura thesis candidates who would be interested in initiating survey and testing. Consequently, Luis Alberto Sanchez and Adrian Badilla opened test excavations in the dry season of 1992, supported by the Short-term Felllowship program of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. They began by using the walls exposed by looter pits to identify buried features, including the floors of dwellings and burials that penetrated well into the basal rock. The first mortuary feature contained human remains buried in secondary manner in "packets" cut through bedrock. Two burial features produced examples of gold-work that, stylistically, pointed towards a date of 400-700 CE, in addition to pottery and human and animal remains. These finds stimulated the search for additional funds from the Smithsonian Institution's Scholarly Studies Program and the National Geographic Society.
- Keyword Type: Topic
- Periodization
- Entity Type: Feature Type
- Regional Chronology
- Place: Region
- Country: Panama Province: Los Santos Site: Cerro Juan Diaz
| PID | Type | Title | Metadata | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| si_260993 | gran cocle time line.jpg |
| Download |