| Show olden golden 7 relies relics of old race disco discovery ery of ornaments I 1 and trinkets of a Long Past it period has aroused archaeologists archeologists to speculation as to the makers four or ar five years ago several poor and ignorant natives were poling their way in a canoe up the rio grande do dc code cocle a large river in western panama about DO 00 miles auth bethe of the panama canal the dry season had lowered louvered tho the river As the small craft made its ita way upstream the ke keen on eyes of one of the natives rioted noted something glittering in the bank T in a few minutes greedy hands were tearing at atthe the soll soil for fo they rithey had found pieces ot of gold the fact that the iho gold articles were objects of art beaten into curious and beautiful 1 by hands long dead did not interest the natives but it did interest scientists when word of the find end came to tho the peabody museum of df harvard university a party of went down to In incesti vesti gate eato tho the scientists worked la in secret for or three deais and havo have now returned with a store of oe gold objects worth a kings ransom in the opinion of dr g S KLo K lothrop leader of the expedition tay aliey represent the art of a civilization ih panama that has hitherto been unknown to science tile the chance which brought scientists to the spot waldue was due to a shirt shift in the bed of the klo do code cocle in thaD changing ging its ita course the stream ameant cut cui through an ancient burying place the gold ornaments which excited the interest of the natives were part df tile funeral dress dresa of some long forgotten chieftain burled buried not only with his richest possessions of metal ind and pottery but surrounded also by hla his wives retainers servants ana and 1 laves aves I the abundance of similar finds made hy by the peabody museum party in its three year sojourn in panama was almost without precedent describing the results of the expedition recently in the new york times Ha magazine gazle doctor lothrop reported that from one grave alone measuring no more feet more ilian 2000 objects were removed the grave contained a score of oodles I 1 laid out lorows in rows upon massive tone stone stabs slabs piled over and around the bones were 93 96 different objects of df gold including four our heavy pend ants set sef with semiprecious semi precious stones six alx lx gold necklaces containing thou biando of beads four largo and heave lly embossed golden discs twenty s tight eight 3 cinches inches wide which had once been sewn on a shirt four our pairs of gold got d cuffs and twenty four rods of gold with decorated tips for Vaser tion in the cars there were pottery vessels both bath for domestic service and for religious offerings there were 57 stone axe sand chisels five els 21 stone knives stone arrow points nine mirrors of hematite homa tite set in ih limestone discs pendants pennants pend ants and beads of agate statuettes arv curved ed from the ribs of the manatee manat eeor or sea cow some of them overlaid with gold wild baars boars tusks set in gold baing ray s spines pines and saw fish teeth used as aa spear points sharks tooth necklaces crystals glided gilded copper ornaments and many other objects such a list gives but a pale paid picture of tho the reality said doctor lothrop gold does docs not tarnish in the earth and it appeared gleaming in the sun as our knives and brushes removed the accumulated layers of dirt intricate designs beaten in high relief met tho eye huge breastplates breast plates embossed with mythological monsters gold cuffs running in sheets from wrist to elbow each pair stamped with a distinctive design or cr property mark corresponding to our coat of arms complex castings of strange anthropomorphic gods fashioned in molds over delicate delicate models in wax the richness variety and fine workmanship of these possessions indicate that a well established wealthy and highly organized culture produced them doctor lothrop and his associates believe from a study of the relles relics that the panama peoples were unrelated in culture elther either to their neighbors the mayas and aztecs azteca to the northwest or the incas to the south in short the discovery of these graves has brought to light remains of a hitherto unknown american civilization as aa great grea tand and important in its ilg way perhaps as anhof the others who were these people histories relate that a party in search of gold left the coast of pan ama in 1515 moving In inland larid they came to a district ruled by a powerful chief named carlta who by a stratagem administered such a crushing defeat to tile the spaniards eliat they were driven off several years later a band of spaniards Span laida searching for him found his body elaborately decked for burial surrounded by bound captives 1 who were to accompany him to itla ills graye ills body was adorned from head to toot foot with golden orna ments ment sand and many others othera were in baskets nearby stripping the body and robbing the baskets the spaniards returned to tile the coast with more than pounds of gold old carlta and his subjects were probably remnants of tho the once great civilization libation liza Iz tion atton which produced the orpa ments and relies relics recently uncovered by from froin the literary digest |
