Just a few miles from Volcan lies El Sitio Barriles archeological site, where visitors can check out artifacts dating back more than 3,000 years. Getting there can be tricky. You’re instructed to go along Volcan’s main road and turn off when you see a blue sign past the Ortega Bakery. There are blue signs on either side of it, one referencing a river and the other pointing to the site. If you find yourself crossing a broad road that looks like an airport runway, turn around and go to the other sign. Follow the road for roughly three miles and you’ll find the archaeological site on your right, marked with three painted wood panels out front.
Mr. and Mrs. Lamdau, a local couple who have lived on the site for a number of years, run the tours. It’s raining pretty heavily when we show up, so we hang out in the central meeting area and listen to a lecture on the site’s history. The weather clears a short while later, and we set out to explore the main excavation site where many of the artifacts were discovered. The site leads off to a small trail where you descend a winding staircase and cross bridges over a narrow creek. At the top of the trail are the tombs where the marks of the tribes remain.
Island Intern Ben Brown with Edna Houx Lamdau
We enter the room where the artifacts are kept. Shelves of pots and urns sit out in the open, in remarkable condition for their age. What we find most surprising, however, is that these items don’t stem from indigenous Panamanian tribes – they’re from ancient Africans and Chinese who traveled here thousands of years ago. This knowledge begs the question: how did they get here? These mysterious foreign items have spawned a number of theories and ideas, but there is no definitive explanation.
TAGS: Archaeology Chiriqui Culture Do & See History History & Culture Island Intern Must Read Panama Panama Do & See Panama History & Culture
