ART : ‘River of Gold’ Flows With Stylized Imagery

Told of an archeological exhibition drawn from the surprise discovery of a site rich in gold objects, you might envision the famous 1975 display of artifacts from the tomb of the ancient Egyptian king Tutankhamen.

As it happens, however, “River of Gold: Precolumbian Treasures from Sitio Conte”--at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art through April 2--is quite a different kind of show, lacking Tut’s glamour and drama but rich in stylized imagery and puzzles pertaining to the beliefs and practices of Indians living more than a thousand years ago near modern-day Panama City.

Named for the family that owns the burial site, Sitio Conte was ignored by gold-greedy Spanish colonists, presumably because no telltale burial mounds were visible. It wasn’t until the 1930s--after the course of the Rio Grande de Cocle shifted and heavy rains exposed pieces of gold and pottery--that archeologists first explored the area.

The contents of the show are taken from Burial 11, the largest and wealthiest grave excavated in 1940 by a team from the University Museum of Anthropology and Archeology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, organizers of the exhibition.

On the upper of three levels, the team found skeletons buried with stone tools and a set of gold bells that once formed a necklace. Skeletons on the lowest level were accompanied by pottery vessels and a single large embossed gold plaque. The middle tier proved the richest trove, with gold necklaces, plaques, cuffs, “ear rods” (tubular pieces that projected from the ear) and a most unusual gold-and-emerald animal effigy combining the features of a jaguar, crocodile and bat.

Experts now believe that the skeletons in the middle level were the remains of a chief and his principal wife, plus other elite members of Panamanian society as it existed sometime between AD 700 and AD 900. A mere 600 years later, the native population was wiped out by a deadly Spanish combination of forced labor, imported diseases and European weaponry. Sheer covetousness had reduced a 2,000-year-old culture--the second longest continuous tradition in the Americas (after the Mayan civilization)--to ruins.

The upper level of Burial 11 apparently was the final resting place for warriors, servants, captives and slaves--commoners likely sacrificed to accompany their elite master. Skeletons on the bottom level might have been lower-ranking chiefs killed in the same battle that felled the primary chief, or possibly victims of a sacrifice.

If the dazzle of gold fascinates us in a visual and value-oriented way in the late 20th Century, it was even more alluring to the Indians of ancient Panama, who linked it with the power and brilliance of the sun, the source of life. Derived from the earth, gold also has an underworld connection. Burying someone with gold emphasized his earthly power and reassuringly linked him with the sun’s daily rise and fall in the heavens.

The puzzles lie in the meanings of the embossed designs on the gold pieces, which are believed to relate aspects of myths explaining the origin of life. It takes a few minutes to make out these busy images, which typically feature a single or double creature with long, wiggly appendages and a welter of multiple feet, horns, spikes, teeth and who knows what-all, squeezed within the compass of a gold disc.

Because comparatively little is known about the native culture, modern-day interpretations of the imagery are based on parallels with that of other pre-Columbian cultures in the Americas.

Elizabeth P. Benson notes in an exhibition catalogue essay that the animals resembling birds might be creator figures, while the bat-like creatures could be associated with agriculture as well as blood-sucking sacrifice. The deer imagery may invoke hunter ancestors or the concept of sacrifice; the predatory sharks may symbolize regeneration because they constantly replace their teeth.

The figures with whale teeth, claws and saw-tooth tails are likely crocodilians (crocodiles and their ilk) or members of the lizard family. Because they live in bodies of water, crocodilians are believed by some cultures to be entrances to the underworld, the realm of the dead and the source of vegetation, Benson writes. Yet, she adds, in other cultures they are associated with fire (and therefore also with the sun)--or with the Earth, pictured as floating in a mythic “sea.”

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In a new book, “Guardians of the Life Stream: Shamans, Art and Power in Prehispanic Central Panama” (Cultural Arts Press), Armand Labbe, director of research and collections at the Bowers, argues more forcefully that much of the imagery on the gold and ceramic pieces “can now confidently be ascribed to shamanic imagery.” (Labbe’s book was the basis for the Bowers’ companion exhibition, “Between Empires: The Artistic Legacy of Prehispanic Panama.”) Shamans were believed to be intermediaries between the human and spirit worlds. They were men who achieved a trance state allowing them to change their appearance--or even fly--to communicate with (and sometimes fight) other shamans or spirits.

The ceramic imagery of central pre-Columbian Panama, Labbe writes, is strong in images of transformation (figures with animal-like creatures protruding from the sides of the head--or at the waist or feet) and combat (winged figures holding weapons).

The exhibition (through Aug. 20) contains more than 200 pottery vessels spanning about 2,000 years, including many striking examples of fanciful abstracted animal imagery.

Seen through late-20th-century eyes, the flat patterning of the red and black shamanic sawfish swimming in yin-yang opposition on a bowl from AD 600 to AD 800 has a strikingly “modern” dynamism. A red jar from AD 100 to 200 decorated with the ribbonlike outstretched wings of three obliging birds creates a marvelously streamlined design.

Winsome vessels imitating all manner of fauna, including felines, an owl and a deer’s head, seem to reflect an intimate friendship with the animal kingdom.

But, unhappily, “Between Empires” betrays its monographic source. It tries to do too much for one exhibition, bogging down in minutiae more suited to a specialist audience. Whereas “River of Gold” tells a clear story of archeological discovery, “Between Empires” lacks a compelling overall theme.

The heart of the show--an attempt to decode the intriguing shamanistic meanings of the images--comes almost at the end, after extended treatments of historical developments, larger design motifs and tiny design elements. It’s as though the footnotes came before the text.

Unlike a piece of research, which can be read in fits and starts, an exhibition is an organic thing normally designed for the needs and attention span of viewers--not as a way of disseminating every bit of information known by the specialist. That, after all, is what books are for.

* “River of Gold: Precolumbian Treasures From Sitio Conte” remains through April 2 . “Between Empires: The Artistic Legacy of Prehispanic Panama” runs through Aug. 20 . At the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday (Thursdays until 9 p.m.). Admission: $4.50 adults, $3 students and senior citizens, $1.50 children 5-12, under 5 free. (714) 567-3600.