Venado Beach

Venado Beach is part of the Gran Coclé culture [1]. This site is notable for its large number and variety of burials and grave goods, especially those with offerings objects of gold and evidence for human sacrifice [1]. Venado Beach was once within the target area used by Fort Kobbe, about 10 miles from the 16th century Spanish settlement of Old Panama [1]. It was first discovered by the U.S. Navy in 1948 while bulldozing off the topsoil in order to enrich the lawns of the 15th Naval District [1]. The site was excavated in the late 1940s and early 1950s [1]. The skeletal remains of a total of 369 individuals were found extended across the Mangopobre Valley [1]. Excavators found many burials in ceramic urns [1].