Ancient priest’s tomb filled with gold and multiple sacrificial bodies found at archaeological site .

Archaeologists in El Caño, a town in Panama’s Coclé province, have discovered the tomb of an ancient leader filled with gold pectorals, belts and necklaces, as well as earrings in the shape of human figures. (Credit: Julia Mayo/Fundación El Caño)

(CNN) — Excavations at an archaeological site in Panama have revealed the tomb of a religious leader buried more than 1,200 years ago along with a trove of gold objects and numerous other human remains.

Researchers found the ancient tomb at El Caño Archaeological Park, a site in Coclé province known as a hotbed of pre-Columbian discoveries, particularly lavish burial chambers. The newly discovered enclosure, built around 700 A.D., is the ninth tomb unearthed at the park since excavations began in 2008, according to a March 1 statement from Panama’s Ministry of Culture.

The tombs, including the latest one discovered, are resting places for people who had a higher status within their societies, said Dr. Julia Mayo, leader of the excavation and director of the El Caño Foundation , a group that studies Panama’s cultural heritage through research at the archaeological site. The research team believes the person found lying in the center of the tomb had a higher status, indicated not only by their physical position but also by the gold and ceramic artifacts surrounding the body.

The civilization in the region surrounding El Caño at the time treated the site as sacred and worshipped its “ancestors,” referring to those remembered for having done important things. “After the death of these people, (it was believed that) constant communication was established between the ancestor and his descendants,” Mayo said. “Our study (of the tombs) highlights the practice of ritual death in funerary rituals linked to status.”

The newly discovered elite leader was likely a man in his 30s or 40s, nicknamed “Lord of the Flutes” by archaeologists because he was buried along with a set of animal bone flutes that were likely used in religious ceremonies, he added.

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The tomb is the ninth excavated by researchers at the El Caño Archaeological Park, known for its wealth of archaeological discoveries and lavish burial chambers. (Credit: Julia Mayo/El Caño Foundation)

And as researchers continued to explore the tomb, they realized that the Lord of the Flutes may have had quite a bit of company on his journey into the afterlife, potentially as many as a dozen companions whose remains were found buried beneath the offerings surrounding him.

“A representation of the social order”

Researchers found similar patterns between the grave and the eight previously studied graves that suggested the other bodies belonged to people sacrificed to accompany the deceased in the afterlife, Mayo said. The newly discovered remains appear to have been buried at the same time and also had signs of a ritual death, he added.

El Caño is divided into two sectors of burial chambers: a high-status sector that houses burial chambers with multiple bodies, and a low-status sector where tombs include only one body per grave, Mayo said. The excavation is not complete, so it is not clear how many bodies are inside the newly discovered tomb, but the other eight tombs have revealed anywhere from eight to 32 bodies.

While the other graves contained what researchers believe were military leaders, the Lord of the Flutes was likely more of a religious leader, as the body was “buried with flutes and bells and not, as in the case of other lords found at the same site, with axes, spears and objects made from the teeth of large predators. This draws attention to the importance of religion in this society,” Mayo said in an email.

Excavation of the ninth tomb is expected to be complete by this time next year.

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Ancient funeral practices

Archaeologists found the body of the alleged religious leader buried face down on top of a woman, the statement said. The relationship the man may have had with the woman is unknown, Mayo said.

“The face-down mode of burial was common at this time in this region, but the position of the man over the woman is not,” Nicole Smith-Guzmán, the curator of archaeology at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City, said by email.

However, he added that other researchers have reported the discovery of human remains dating back more than 1,000 years buried in a similar position at a nearby site called Sitio Sierra, in the same province as El Caño. At the time, researchers speculated that the pair represented a husband and wife, but the theory remains unconfirmed.

“However, there was likely some sort of social relationship between the two individuals during life that was important to maintain in death,” said Smith-Guzman, who was not part of either discovery.

Gold ornaments cemented powerful alliances

Among the artifacts found scattered about the burial chamber and surrounding the Lord of the Flutes were five pectorals, two belts made of gold beads, several gold bracelets and necklaces, as well as two earrings in the shape of human figures, and some pieces of jewelry made from animal teeth, including earrings made from the teeth of a sperm whale, the statement said.

These “exotic” materials are usually interpreted as the living leader’s strategies to gain more prestige within his territories, Ana Maria Navas Mendez, an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Illinois State University, said in an email. Ancient Latin American chiefs often established political and economic relationships with leaders of nearby communities, allowing for exchanges of precious and artisanal goods between them, she added.

Several of the artifacts found inside the tomb were “stylistically similar to those produced in the Quimbaya region (in Colombia),” Mayo said, adding that this indicates there was a great deal of interaction and exchange of materials “between populations inhabiting the central region of Panama and northern South America.”

City of the Dead

Experts believe El Caño functioned as a regional ceremonial center or necropolis (city of the dead) for elite members of society, Smith-Gúzman said.

There have been two attempts, most recently in 2021, to discover who the various graves found at the El Caño site belonged to, Mayo said. But each attempt failed to find DNA in the human bones, most likely because the region’s warm, humid climate is not ideal for preservation, he added.

“(This discovery) offers new evidence to further study chiefdoms in Panama that could be compared with previous findings,” Navas Méndez said. “With this new evidence, archaeologists could raise new questions about interactions between chiefdoms, about the political economy of pre-Columbian societies, about religious aspects, about gender, and so on.”