Early Greater Coclé

People. 'Population estimates are lacking for most of the region, but it seems likelythat the maximum community size prior to 1200 B.P. was no more than a thousand people.' [Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 102]

In the Early Chibcha tradition in general, 'The religious life appears to have been in the hands of mystics and trained specialists.' [Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 104] In Central Panama specifically, 'The principal evidence for religious practitioners comes from the iconography of goldwork and polychrome ceramics, especially from Sitio Conte ... Individuals with prominent fangs and menacing claws wearing deer antlers on their heads may represent shamans communicating simultaneously the essences of both predators and prey.' [Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 104] However, it is unclear whether such people would be full-time professionals: Hoopes speculates that Early Chibcha shamans may have 'assumed political roles'. [Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 104] If this was the case, a 'present' code would not be justified here, as ritual duties would be just one aspect of a more general leadership role.

For the considerably later precontact period, Helms has argued that 'Although the ethnohistoric data are very scanty, some degree of "internal" administrative associations and responsibilities surely existed between the commoner population of a given territory or "province" and the elite cabras, sacos and/or quevis of that territory, who at the very least accepted generalized stewardship of the overall well-being, socially and ideologically, of the population of a given ancestral territory'. [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] She believes cabras, the lowest-ranked elites, would have served as 'local administrators', [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] but does not speculate on whether they were full-time. The evidence is therefore not strong enough to justify coding full-time specialist bureaucrats present for the precontact period, and we know even less about this early period of Greater Coclé development (200-700 CE). Panamanian societies before Spanish contact produced no written records, [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14] so it is not clear how such administrators would perform their duties.

Metallurgical evidence indicates that professional goldsmiths were likely present. Gold ornaments found in graves at Cerro Juan Díaz were associated with human remains dated to 130-370 cal CE and charcoal dated to 120-530 cal CE. [Cooke_et_al 2003, p. 95] Cooke et al. are persuaded by the hypothesis 'that the manufacture of gold ornaments was in the hands of skilled artisans when metallurgy was introduced into Lower Central America ... Available archaeological data cannot determine whether local people traveled to Colombia or Ecuador to learn the trade ... or if itinerant artisans brought it to Central America'. [Cooke_et_al 2003, p. 95]

For the considerably later precontact period, Helms has argued that 'Although the ethnohistoric data are very scanty, some degree of "internal" administrative associations and responsibilities surely existed between the commoner population of a given territory or "province" and the elite cabras, sacos and/or quevis of that territory, who at the very least accepted generalized stewardship of the overall well-being, socially and ideologically, of the population of a given ancestral territory'. [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] She believes cabras, the lowest-ranked elites, would have served as 'local administrators', [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] but does not speculate on whether they were full-time. The evidence is therefore not strong enough to justify coding full-time specialist bureaucrats present for the precontact period, and we know even less about this early period of Greater Coclé development (200-700 CE). Panamanian societies before Spanish contact produced no written records, [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14] so it is not clear how such administrators would perform their duties.

For the considerably later precontact period, Helms has argued that 'Although the ethnohistoric data are very scanty, some degree of "internal" administrative associations and responsibilities surely existed between the commoner population of a given territory or "province" and the elite cabras, sacos and/or quevis of that territory, who at the very least accepted generalized stewardship of the overall well-being, socially and ideologically, of the population of a given ancestral territory'. [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] She believes cabras, the lowest-ranked elites, would have served as 'local administrators', [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] but does not speculate on whether they were full-time. The evidence is therefore not strong enough to justify coding full-time specialist bureaucrats present for the precontact period, and we know even less about this early period of Greater Coclé development (200-700 CE). Panamanian societies before Spanish contact produced no written records, [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14] so it is not clear how such administrators would perform their duties.

For the considerably later precontact period, Helms has argued that 'Although the ethnohistoric data are very scanty, some degree of "internal" administrative associations and responsibilities surely existed between the commoner population of a given territory or "province" and the elite cabras, sacos and/or quevis of that territory, who at the very least accepted generalized stewardship of the overall well-being, socially and ideologically, of the population of a given ancestral territory'. [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] She believes cabras, the lowest-ranked elites, would have served as 'local administrators', [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] but does not speculate on whether they were full-time. The evidence is therefore not strong enough to justify coding full-time specialist bureaucrats present for the precontact period, and we know even less about this early period of Greater Coclé development (200-700 CE). Panamanian societies before Spanish contact produced no written records, [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14] so it is not clear how such administrators would perform their duties.

'Markets are unknown for this [the Early Chibcha] tradition, but there is some evidence for merchants who may have carried gold and tumbaga artifacts.' [Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 103]

'In some parts of the world [agricultural risk-minimization] was accomplished through infrastructure such as dams and large-scale irrigation canals [...] but there is no evidence for such features among the regions of Central Panama.' [Berrey 2015, p. 207]

Helms commented in her 1979 book on the lack of unequivocal archaeological evidence for symbolic buildings in earlier periods as well as the immediate precontact period: 'The significance of the bohío as a visible symbol of the chiefly estate may be all the more noteworthy since Panama gives little evidence so far of distinctly ceremonial structures, such as temples or pyramids, that would also have served this purpose, although sacred shrines in interior mountains may have existed'. [Helms 1979, p. 9] Subsequent archaeological fieldwork has revealed carved basalt columns at El Caño that could be defined as 'symbolic buildings', but these date to the Conte phase (700-900 CE). [Menzies_Haller 2012, p. 454]

Excavations at the site of El Hatillo revealed a high-status household, dating to the Cubitá (550-700 CE) and Conte (700-950 CE) phases, with evidence of an unusually large building that Locascio argues 'probably served a more communal role' than other elite residences. [Locascio_et_al 2013, p. 147], [Isaza_Aizpurúa_et_al 2013, p. 27]

Gold deposits in streams were exploited: Hoopes writes of the Early Chibcha tradition (1500 BCE-800 CE) in general that 'We can surmise from 16th-century observations that the principal method for obtaining gold was collecting it in baskets or bowls from stream deposits'. [Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 103] Do these count as 'mines'?

Though her book is about Panama at the time of the Spanish conquest, one of Helms' statements seems to imply a lack of unequivocal archaeological evidence for ceremonial sites in earlier periods as well as the immediate precontact period: 'The significance of the bohío as a visible symbol of the chiefly estate may be all the more noteworthy since Panama gives little evidence so far of distinctly ceremonial structures, such as temples or pyramids, that would also have served this purpose, although sacred shrines in interior mountains may have existed'. [Helms 1979, p. 9] Subsequent archaeological fieldwork has revealed probable ceremonial structures at the sites of El Hatillo and El Caño, but these appear to date to the Conte phase (700-900 CE) or later. [Haller 2004, p. 177], [Menzies_Haller 2012, p. 454]

Cooke writes that the people of the Greater Coclé tradition from 200 BCE to Spanish contact 'buried their dead in earthen graves and low earth mounds'. [Cooke_et_al 2004, p. 271] There was an 'intentionally levelled graveyard' at Cerro Juan Díaz. [Cooke_et_al 2004, p. 274] Multiple interments, including probable human sacrifices, were excavated at the Venado Beach site, in use from c. 230 to 700 CE. [Lothrop_Ekholm_Willey 1966, p. 176], [Lothrop 1954, p. 229]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

Precious metals (gold and tumbaga, an alloy of copper and gold) were used to create elaborate ornaments, [Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 103] but did these objects serve as a medium of exchange? I have left this variable uncoded for now.

The sources I have consulted do not mention paper currency in Precolumbian Panama.

The sources I have consulted do not mention any form of coinage (either indigenous or foreign) in Precolumbian Panama.

The sources I have consulted do not mention any form of coinage (either indigenous or foreign) in Precolumbian Panama.

Panamanian societies were non-literate before Spanish contact. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14] Because this variable is concerned only with the presence of written (rather than verbal) debt and credit agreements, I have coded absent.

The sources I have consulted do not mention a postal service, and Precolumbian Panamanian societies were non-literate. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

The sources I have consulted do not mention a postal service, and Precolumbian Panamanian societies were non-literate. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

The sources I have consulted do not mention a postal service, and Precolumbian Panamanian societies were non-literate. [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]

The 16th-century Spanish historian Francisco López de Gómara (who did not visit the Americas personally) 'mentioned that among the Chibcha on the coast of Cartagena some system of weighing was employed'. [Guerra 1960, p. 343] Cartagena is in Colombia but Chibcha-speaking populations were very likely also present in Central Panama in this period. [Hoopes_et_al 2003, p. 56], [Hoopes_Peregrine_Ember 2001, p. 100] Besides this statement, I have been unable to find examples in the literature of good evidence for standardized weights in Precolumbian Panama. More information is needed to be able to code this variable.

According to Francisco Guerra, '[a] system of standards for volume and length can be established in Nuclear America prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, and, although these standards are not as detailed as those of the Roman system, they seem to have been fairly widespread in their application'. [Guerra 1960, p. 343] ('Nuclear America' refers to the region between central Mexico and the Andes. [Willey 1955, p. 571] ) However, Guerra does not specifically mention the populations of Precolumbian Panama, referring only to the Aztec, Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, Tarascan and Otomi. [Guerra 1960, p. 344] Moreover, even for the literate and more politically centralized cultures of Mesoamerica to the north, Freidel and Reilly note in a more recent publication that '[t]here is little evidence that the Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans used standardized weights and measures beyond the "vara" of cotton cloth'. [Freidel_et_al 2010] In all, I have been unable to find examples in the literature of good evidence for standardized measures of volume in Precolumbian Central Panama, so have coded 'inferred absent'.

According to Francisco Guerra, '[a] system of standards for volume and length can be established in Nuclear America prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, and, although these standards are not as detailed as those of the Roman system, they seem to have been fairly widespread in their application'. [Guerra 1960, p. 343] ('Nuclear America' refers to the region between central Mexico and the Andes. [Willey 1955, p. 571] ) However, Guerra does not specifically mention the populations of Precolumbian Panama, referring only to the Aztec, Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, Tarascan and Otomi. [Guerra 1960, p. 344] Moreover, even for the literate and more politically centralized cultures of Mesoamerica to the north, Freidel and Reilly note in a more recent publication that '[t]here is little evidence that the Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans used standardized weights and measures beyond the "vara" of cotton cloth'. [Freidel_et_al 2010] In all, I have been unable to find examples in the literature of good evidence for standardized measures of length in Precolumbian Central Panama, so have coded 'inferred absent'.