Researchers have established for the first time that green stones buried in pre-Columbian tombs in Panama originated as Colombian emeralds, carried through a trade system stretching more than 700 kilometres (435 miles) across ancient South and Central America.
The study, published in Latin American Antiquity, was led by Carlos Mayo Torne, an archaeologist at the Technological University of Panama. His team examined five stones from El Cano and Sitio Conte, two burial sites on Panama’s Pacific coast active between roughly AD 800 and 1000.
The sites are part of the Gran Cocle cultural region. Chiefs were buried there with gold objects shaped like animals, fossilized megalodon teeth, and pyrite mirrors.
Just eight green stones have been recorded across the entire region, each placed with clear purpose, mounted on copper pendants or set into gold figures.
Colombian emeralds confirm Panama’s role in ancient trade
Testing confirmed what researchers had long suspected. The team used portable X-ray fluorescence, infrared spectroscopy, and photoluminescence. Each stone proved to be a genuine emerald.
Geochemical results pointed to two source areas in Colombia: the Western Emerald Belt near Muzo and the Eastern Emerald Belt around Chivor, both later central to Spanish colonial mining.
Green stones resting in Panama's ancient tombs for centuries have now been confirmed as Colombian emeralds carried through a vast pre-Columbian trade network stretching across the Americas. pic.twitter.com/AWGuO1KB5i
— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) May 29, 2026
The find places Panama as the furthest north that pre-Columbian emeralds have been recorded in the Americas.
Mayo Torne said that the stones were not obtained through any direct exchange between Colombian producers and Cocle chiefs. They changed hands gradually, moving through a series of communities along river and sea routes before arriving in Panama.
This type of exchange, known as a ‘down-the-line trade,’ was widespread across pre-Columbian societies.
Damaged stones show the symbolic weight they carried
The physical condition of the stones fills in part of the story. Several had been worked by local craftspeople, with some showing signs of drilling that went wrong, cracking, or chipping the stone. Even so, those pieces were kept and buried with the dead.
Mayo Torne said that this reflects how much value the Cocle society placed on emeralds. Beyond their symbolic role, he said that the gems likely served a political function as well, used as gifts or payments to maintain relationships between chiefdoms.
The stones disappeared from the area around AD 1000, along with other goods sourced from distant places. Elite burials stopped at roughly the same time. Researchers interpret this as a sign that the Cocle chiefdom had lost its capacity to sustain long-distance connections.
Mayo Torne said that the next step is to chart the routes that brought Colombian emeralds into Panama through trade, applying least-cost path modeling alongside evidence from sites that may have served as stops along the way.
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