Pre-Columbian Neolithic Celts, Knives and Scrapers from Central Panama

Item PL13 

This Item was Sold on 20 January 2018 for $30


Similar artifacts for sale are often found on the Lithic Artifacts web page. 

Historical Pricing information for this item and similar artifacts can be found at: Historical Artifact Prices.


This item is a set of Pre-Columbian Neolithic Celts, knives and scrapers from the Madden Lake region of Central Panama. All five of these artifacts are surface finds from the shoreline of Madden Lake when it was at its lowest level at the end of the dry season. These artifacts were found by George Chevalier who lived on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal Zone. George hunted for artifacts only in the American jurisdiction of the former Panama Canal Zone. All 5 of these artifacts have identification marks indicating the approximate location of the surface finds. All but one of the 5 have the letters " C. Z. M. L. " which identify the artifacts as " Canal Zone Madden Lake ". Both of the celts have the letter " S " with a circle to indicate that these three were all found at the same location on the Madden Lake shoreline.. Two of the knife/scrapers have " RCS " indicating that they were found in the same location of the shoreline.

There are two celts in this collection. Both celts are made out of Basalt. On both celts, one end is ground on both sides to form a sharp cutting edge. Both sides of the cutting edge are crowned. There are also three lithic tools made out of Chert (Flint) and these were used as either knives or scrapers.

George Chevalier lived on the Pacific side of the former Panama Canal Zone until he retired and moved to the USA. He was on the same Balboa High School swimming team as my father. George used to hunt for artifacts along the Las Cruces Trail and on the shore of Madden Lake. George usually looked for Spanish artifacts, but one day, he found a small stone ax and brought it home to show to his sister who lived with him. She liked the stone ax and asked George to bring home any others that he found. Over the years, he found dozens of artifacts for his sister and these lithic tools that are for sale are part of the Chevalier collection. All of these artifacts were collected in the American Canal Zone in the 1950s - 1970s and prior to when the territory was ceded back to Panama (1999).

I brought several of these artifacts to U.C. Berkeley for identification. I was told that these lithic artifacts are similar to artifacts in the U.C. Berkeley collection that were dated between 500 B.C. and 1,000 A.D. View pdf files showing Panama Celt sale prices on eBay: Celt #1 and Celt #2.

Celt #1: Length = 80 mm ; Width = 63 mm ; Thickness = 26 mm ; Weight = -168 gm

Celt #2: Length = 78 mm ; Width = 40 mm ; Thickness = 16 mm ; Weight = 98 gm

Scraper #1: Length = 100 mm ; Width = 51 mm ; Thickness = 18 mm ; Weight = 136 gm

Scraper #2: Length = 113 mm ; Width = 45 mm ; Thickness = 15 mm ; Weight = 92 gm

Scraper #3: Length = 102 mm ; Width = 32 mm ; Thickness = 12 mm ; Weight = 66 gm



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