Coclé () is a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

of central

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

on the nation's southern coast. The administrative capital is the city of Penonomé. This province was created by the Act of September 12, 1855 with the title of Department of Coclé during the presidency of Dr. Justo de Arosemena. It became a province, Decretory Number 190, on October 20, 1985. Coclé is primarily an agricultural area, with sugar and tomatoes as major crops. The province has a number of well-known beaches, such as Santa Clara, Farallon and

Rio Hato Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

, and tourist activity has increased in recent years. It covers an area of 4,946.6 sq.km, and had a population of 265,149 in 2019.

Pre-Columbian Coclé

During

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

times, the area of Panama which today includes Coclé province had a number of identifiable native cultures.

Archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

have loosely designated these cultures by

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

style. The poorly studied La Mula period ranged from 150 BC to AD 300. It was followed by the Tonosi period, from AD 300 to AD 550, and by the Cubita period, from AD 550 to AD 700. A unified

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

culture appears to have flourished in this area from approximately 1200 BC until the 16th century.

Administrative divisions

Coclé Province is divided into 6 ''distritos'' (districts) and subdivided into 44 '' corregimientos''.

Research and conservation

Parque Nacional General de División Omar Torrijos Herrera, established around the crash site of former Panamanian leader

Omar Torrijos Omar Efraín Torrijos Herrera (February 13, 1929 – July 31, 1981) was the Commander of the Panamanian National Guard and military leader of Panama from 1968 to his death in 1981. Torrijos was never officially the president of Panama, ...

, is located in the northeastern portion of Coclé. Parque Omar, as it is known, enjoys some legal protection as a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

. Coclé is also home to

APROVACA APROVACA (Spanish ''Asociación de Productores de Orquídeas de El Valle y Cabuya'') is a non-profit organization established to conserve and protect native orchids in El Valle de Antón, Panama. The organization was founded on May 15, 2001 with t ...

orchid conservation center, which conducts orchid conservation activities, including orchid reintroduction into the wild and a sponsorship program for the Panamanian national flower ''

Peristeria elata ''Peristeria elata'' is a species of orchid occurring from Central America to Panamá, Venezuela, and Ecuador. It is the type species of its genus. It is commonly referred to as the Holy Ghost orchid, dove orchid, or flower of the Holy Spirit in ...

''. Folklorist Rosita Liao Gonzales was awarded the Order of Manuel José Hurtado for her work categorizing the cultures of Coclé Province.Tomado de: Liao González, Rosita. Las flores de la pollera: pequeño manual para confeccionar y ubicar los tembleques a la usanza coclesana / Rosita Liao González.--Panamá: Editora Sibauste,2003.--23p.

References

* Lothrop, Samuel Kirland. ''Pre-Columbian Designs from Panama -Illustrations of Coclé Pottery.'' Dover Publications, Toronto, Canada, 1976. . ;Specific

External links

Coclé Archaeological Sites

* ttp://www.precolumbiangold.com/cocle.htm Pre-Columbian Gold artifacts from the Cocle Province
Pre-Columbian Jade artifacts from the Cocle Province

Listing of Additional Archaeological Websites
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cocle Province Provinces of Panama Pre-Columbian pottery States and territories established in 1855 1855 establishments in the Republic of New Granada