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Buried alive. Decapitated Boucherie Hacked. Mutilated Killed. Archaeologist Samuel K. Lothrop did not confuse by describing what he thought had happened to the 220 bodies that his expedition had discovered on the Playa Venado site in Panama in 1951. The only problem is that Lothrop was probably deceived. A new evaluation of the remains of the site by Smithsonian archaeologists has revealed no signs of trauma at the time of death or almost. The burial site probably tells a more culturally nuanced story.
Nicole E. Smith-Guzmán, a postdoctoral fellow, indicated that the long-awaited "re-examination" of the Playa Venado site, which dates from 500-900 AD and is located near the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, revealed no evidence from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). The erroneous interpretations of Lothrop are probably due to the era of "Romantic Archeology", underdeveloped methods for mortuary studies and literal readings of the Spanish accounts of indigenous peoples after European contact.
"We now realize that many of these Spanish chroniclers were motivated to show the indigenous people encountered as" uncivilized "and in need of conquest," said Smith-Guzmán, adding that many testimonies of sacrifice and cannibalism do not exist. have not been confirmed record. "Rather than an example of violent death and reckless deposition, Playa Venado presents an example of how pre-Columbian societies in the region of Isthmo- Colombia have shown respect and concern for their loved ones after death."
The article, co-written by archaeologist Richard Cooke, a staff member of the Institute, was published in Latin American antiquity. But Lothrop's article published in 1954, "Suicide, Sacrifice and Mutilations in Burials at Venado Beach, Panama," has marked the annals of Panamanian archeology. He has been cited more than 35 times as evidence of violence, cannibalism or decapitation of trophies. Some authors have used the article to suggest that Playa Venado is a mass burial place or manifestation of conflict.
In defense of Lothrop, who was an archaeologist at Harvard University's Museum of Archeology and Enthology, bioarchaeology (study of human remains from archaeological contexts) only existed 39 as a sub-discipline two decades after the conclusion of his work in Playa Venado. Today's practitioners also benefit from methods developed in the 1980s and 1990s.
The careful documentation of Lothrop and the preservation of the remains made possible the reassessment. The remains of more than 70 individuals from Playa Venado are found at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, sent by Lothrop for osteological evaluation.
On examination, Smith-Guzmán found only wounds that showed signs of healing long before individuals died, including blows to the head and a dislocated thumb. Lothrop probably explained the presence of various broken bones and disarticulated remains due to the normal processes of decomposition and secondary burial of the remains, which would have a common practice of ancestor veneration in pre-Columbian Panama.
Evidence suggests that the remains of some people have been preserved for long periods of time before being buried in ritual contexts. "At Playa Venado, we see a lot of traces of adults buried next to urns containing children, many burials, including a primary and a secondary, and the disturbance of previously laid tombs in order to prevent them. associate another person, "said Smith. Guzmán.
"The uniform positioning of the burial and the absence of peripheral (at the moment of death) trauma are at odds with Lothrop's interpretation of the violent death on the site," Smith-Smith said. Guzmán. as part of the investigation. "The trauma rates are generally low and the open mouths of the skeletons noted are more easily explained by normal muscle relaxation after death and decay."
The re-evaluation by Smith-Guzmán and Cooke of Playa Venado's burials suggests that ideas about widespread violence in pre-Columbian Panama need to be rethought. The research is part of a new, larger interdisciplinary site analysis that will be published by the Dumbarton Oaks Museum in Washington, DC.
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