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Objectives: The appearance of external auditory exostoses archaeologically has been attributed to aquatic activities in middle latitudes. However, recent clinical research implicates low sea surface temperatures, especially below a threshold of 19°C, as a stronger predictor of ear exostosis development than latitude. Here, we examine the frequency of external auditory exostoses in human remains from nine pre-Columbian archaeological sites in Panama, representing individuals from a warm, tropical region., Materials and Methods: External auditory exostoses were recorded as present when an abnormal bony growth was observed macroscopically within the ear canal. The presence of exostoses was compared by right and left side, geographical region, sex, and degree of stenosis., Results: A total of 125 adult individuals made up the observable sample analyzed in this study. Exostoses were observed in seven males and one female. All individuals affected by this pathology were excavated from mortuary contexts along the Gulf of Panama-a region characterized by intense cold water upwelling in the dry season., Discussion: This study suggests that external auditory exostoses in pre-Columbian Panama affected individuals involved in habitual aquatic activities in the cold, upwelled waters of the Gulf of Panama. These activities appear to be almost exclusively dominated by male individuals. Ethnohistorical and archaeological records point to marine shell resource acquisition by deep-water diving as the activity driving exostosis development in pre-Columbian Panama., (Published 2018. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.)

We present a rare case of primary bone cancer principally affecting the right humerus of a skeleton from the pre-Columbian site of Cerro Brujo (1265-1380 CE) in Bocas del Toro, on the Caribbean coast of Panamá, excavated in the early 1970s. The humerus contains a dense, calcified sclerotic mass with associated lytic lesions localized around the midshaft of the diaphysis. Evidence of systemic inflammation and anemia, likely caused by the cancer, are visible in the form of severe porotic hyperostosis of the cranial vault and bilateral periosteal reactions in the tibiae. Differential diagnosis and future probes of the tumor are discussed. A tooth from the individual yielded a radiocarbon date 150 years later than those of the domestic occupation at the site. Given that it was the only formal burial recovered from the site, and as the individual had such a visible, painful, and rare pathology, this likely constitutes a ritual burial., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The Central American isthmus was a major dispersal route for plant taxa originally brought under cultivation in the domestication centers of southern Mexico and northern South America. Recently developed methodologies in the archaeological and biological sciences are providing increasing amounts of data regarding the timing and nature of these dispersals and the associated transition to food production in various regions. One of these methodologies, starch grain analysis, recovers identifiable microfossils of economic plants directly off the stone tools used to process them. We report on new starch grain evidence from Panama demonstrating the early spread of three important New World cultigens: maize (Zea mays), manioc (Manihot esculenta), and arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea). Maize starch recovered from stone tools at a site located in the Pacific lowlands of central Panama confirms previous archaeobotanical evidence for the use of maize there by 7800-7000 cal BP. Starch evidence from preceramic sites in the less seasonal, humid premontane forests of Chiriquí province, western Panama, shows that maize and root crops were present by 7400-5600 cal BP, several millennia earlier than previously documented. Several local starchy resources, including Zamia and Dioscorea spp., were also used. The data from both regions suggest that crop dispersals took place via diffusion or exchange of plant germplasm rather than movement of human populations practicing agriculture.

We have found, in this first genetic study of a supposedly admixed Panamanian population, that the cultural group known as "cholos of Coclé" constitute a trihybrid mixture, whose genetic pool has the following composition: 44% Amerindian, 38% Caucasoid and 18% Negroid. Similarly, we have detected Amerindian genes, such as LDHB--Gua and TFchi, in proportions that relate this population with the extant Ngawbé (Guaymí). Nevertheless, the very high frequency of variant PEPA--KUN seems to indicate the genetic contribution of Amerindian populations from Eastern Panama, possibly from the extinct indigenous group cueva. This variant is frequently found among the present-day Kuna, but has not been detected among Nagawbé and Buglé.