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Shown to the public for the first time since its discovery, the Cocle gold, an invaluable archeological treasure found by Harvard Anthropolists in Panama, will be on exhibit in Peabody Museum on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The rare pieces which form perhaps the cream of Peabody's specimens are being specially exhibited to the Board of Overseers when they make their annual trip to the Museum today.
Culled by four hundred and more expeditions, the display will include gold, jade, textiles, and ceramics from the Americas. Among other objects never before publicly exhibited are the jade and metal findings dredged from the Sacred Well at Chicken Itza in Yucetan.
Peruvian textiles, justly famous since they equal or surpass in design and weave any textiles known today, will form an important part of the show. Peruvian pottery too, some of the finest pieces known from Nasca, Tiahuanaco, and Chimu, will be shown. The work of the potters of Chimu is perhaps the finest work in the New World, and runs the gamut of design from pure geometry to intensely realistic portrait pieces.
The gold pieces from the Cocle graves include jewelry, masks, ear rings, helmets, breast ornaments, and plaques. Also in these graves were found gold breastplates embossed with mythological monsters, gold cuffs running in sheets from wrist to elbow, and complex castings of strange anthropomorphic gods.
The articles from Cocle comprise the relies of a vanished people who developed a unique culture in Panama more than four hundred years ago. The potery excavated and displayed now includes plates, jars, cups, incense burners, cosmetic containers, and other pieces adorned in red, blue, purple, gray, brown, black, and orange.
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