River of Gold: Precolumbian Treasures from Sitio Conte

At the turn of the 19th century, the Rio Grande de Coclé, a river in central Panama, changed its course, and people began to find precious gold objects on its banks. RIVER OF GOLD: Precolumbian Treasures from Sitio Conte tells the remarkable story of the University of Pennsylvania Museum’s 1940 excavation at an ancient cemetery discovered when the river changed its course. The exhibition, which travels to six U.S. cities following its Philadelphia opening, features almost 150 artifacts, including 120 spectacular Precolumbian gold objects more than a thousand years old—hammered repoussé plaques, pendants cast by the lost wax method, ornaments, bells, bangles, and beads. Site photographs and drawings, original color film footage from the excavation, plus ornate ceramics and objects of precious and semi-precious stone, of ivory and of bone, found in the cemetery, help shed light upon the little-known culture of that ancient time and place. Dr. Pamela Jardine, Research Associate in Penn Museum’s American Section, is curator of the exhibition, and co-editor, with American Section Curator Dr. Robert Sharer, of the 1992 Penn Museum publication by the same name.