Dr. Julia Mayo is a Panamanian Archaeologist who is responsible for one of the most valuable and exciting finds in Latin America: the El Caño Necropolis.
The El Caño site has been excavated erratically since 1925 when Hyatt Verrill first found it and removed sculptures and other artifacts to the U.S. Other archaeologists later uncovered burials with simple grave goods such as ceramics. It wasn’t until Dr. Mayo began her investigation in 2008 that the full extent and importance of El Caño was finally realized. In 2010, she and her team uncovered the first of the high-status tombs that date to 680 A.D. Between 2010 and 2016, the team excavated seven tombs containing individuals identified to be warrior chiefs and possibly shamans. They were identified as high-status for two reasons: the quantity of grave goods they were buried with, which included gold accessories, and the number of people that were also buried with them in the tomb. Family, slaves, and prisoners were sacrificed and executed to accompany the high-status person into the afterlife. It is due to this research that the tombs and the multiple simultaneous interments could be properly identified as representing a hierarchal society with inheritable status. Evidence was also uncovered showing the culture practiced sacrifices such as beheadings and disarticulation of the bodies prior to burial, in addition to self-sacrifice (suicide) by drinking alcoholic drinks containing the venom of puffer fish. These practices had been written about by the Spaniards in the early 1500s but no evidence had been found until the Foundation team uncovered these tombs.
National Geographic has called El Caño “one of the richest discoveries in the Americas in decades” and the work of the El Caño Foundation team led by Dr. Mayo has been featured on a Japanese public television program and depicted in the recent documentary “The Mystery of the Coclé Culture: El Dorado of Panama.” Dr. Mayo was also primarily responsible for the recent opening of a museum at the archeological park to display selected artifacts from the excavations to the public. This is currently the only open archaeological museum in Panama.
Dr. Julia Mayo received her doctorate in American Anthropology from Complutense University, Madrid, Spain. She has been the director of the El Caño Archaeological Project since 2008, in addition to being the president of the El Caño Foundation and director of the Isthmus Archaeological Research Centre.
Post by Alexa Hancock
Image courtesy the El Caño Foundation and used with permission.
