Carbonised wood in funerary contexts of the río grande chiefdom, panama: Charcoal analysis at the site of el caño

The charcoal analysis undertaken at the El Caño site (Coclé Province, Panama) provided an opportunity to explore the possibilities this kind of archaeobotanical analysis supplies for the study of chiefdoms, particularly in their funerary context. The identification of the utilization of wood resources, and the establishment of a hypothesis about their possible funerary ritual function is fundamental in order to deepen our understanding of the ritual and the management of resources by chiefdoms in the Isthmus of Panama.