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Embossed gold plaque, photo courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

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Cast gold human effigy pendant, photo courtesy Penn Museum.

‘RIVER OF GOLD’ ON VIEW AT UPENN’S MUSEUM SEPT. 23 w/1-2 cuts

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PHILADELPHIA, PENN. — “River of Gold: Pre-Columbian Treasures from Sitio Conte” will be on view September 23–December 16 at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

At the turn of the Nineteenth Century, the Rio Grande de Cocle, a river in central Panama, changed its course, and people began to find precious gold objects on its banks. “River of Gold” tells the story of Penn Museum’s 1940 excavation at an ancient cemetery discovered when the river changed its course.

The exhibition, which travels to six United States cities following its Philadelphia opening, features almost 150 artifacts, including 120 pre-Columbian gold objects more than a 1,000 years old — hammered repousse 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 semiprecious 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.

The museum is at 3260 South Street. For information, www.museum.upenn.edu or 215-898-4000.