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Naos Archaeology Lab (Building 352)

Located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal along with the other STRI Naos facilities for molecular and maritime research, the STRI archaeological labs in Building 352 house a vast number of diverse materials from Panama’s ancient past. The lab space includes areas for ceramic, lithic, faunal, and bioarcheological analysis of human skeletal remains. Much of the material from past STRI excavations is stored in this building, allowing researchers access to a wide diversity of sites ranging across time and space. The building also houses a significant comparative skeletal collection of modern fauna (>2000 skeletons) from the American tropics, spanning hundreds of species in all vertebrate class categories. While a list of these specimens is forthcoming, a bilingual summary can be found in this PDF: Cantidad-Colleccion-2019

Our labs are not only open to researchers – we welcome visitors and volunteers as well, including school groups interested in learning about Panama’s ancient past.

Richard Cooke Naos Lab Maria Fernandez Deer Mallory Cox Malaria Study

The Center for Tropical Paleoecology and Archaeology (CTPA)

Located across from the Supreme Court on Ancon Hill and just down the street from STRI’s headquarters in Tupper, the CTPA building houses STRI’s archaeological bone isotope laboratory, as well as the archaeobotanical laboratory and comparative floral collections. CTPA has both wet and dry lab space for specimen preparation and analysis. Currently, we have the ability to run carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes on bones within STRI, and the dental drill equipment for sampling tooth enamel for other isotopes (oxygen, strontium, lead) and trace element concentrations.

Ancon CTPA Isotope teeth drilling CTPA Zooarch Lab