Barriles

Barriles is one of the most famous archaeological sites in Panama [1]. It is located in the highlands of the Chiriquí Province of Western Panama at 1,200 meters above sea level [1]. The site is believed to have once been a socioceremonial center with a substantial residential population between 500-1000 individuals [1]. It contains a small mound which was once associated with a row of 14 statues [1]. Ten of these depicted solitary individuals, while four included one individual- often chubbier, taller, wearing a conical hat and ornaments- riding atop the shoulders of a naked man, though some of these individuals also wore conical hats [1]. Barriles was largely occupied during the Aguas Buenas period (A.D. 300-900), known locally as the Bugaba period [1]. Nine radiocarbon dates have been taken from Barriles, six of them clustering between A.D. 500-800 [1]. Barriles was the subject of early archaeological investigations by Dr. Matthew Stirling (the late 1940s), who did not publish extensively on his findings [1].