4,000-year-old shaman's stones discovered near Boquete, Panama

Archaeologists have discovered a cluster of 12 unusual stones in the back of a small, prehistoric rock-shelter near the town of Boquete in Panama. The cache represents the earliest material evidence of shamanistic practice in lower Central America.

These are stones found in precolombian shaman’s cache, Boquete, Panama. (Credit: Composite photo by Ruth Dickau)

 Ruth Dickau, Leverhulme Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Exeter in England, unearthed the cache of stones in the Casita de Piedra rock-shelter in 2007. A piece of charcoal found directly underneath the cache was radiocarbon dated to 4,800 years ago. A second fragment of charcoal in a level above the cache was dated to 4,000 years ago.

"There was no evidence of a disturbance or pit feature to suggest someone had come along, dug a hole and buried the stones at a later date," Dickau said. "The fact that the stones were found in a tight pile suggests they were probably deposited inside a bag or basket, which subsequently decomposed." [...] ScienceDaily

Journal Reference:
Ruth Dickau, Stewart D. Redwood, Richard G. Cooke. A 4,000-year-old shaman’s stone cache at Casita de Piedra, western Panama. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1007/s12520-012-0112-5

This is the Casita de Piedra rockshelter. Credit: Photo by Eduardo Bejerano