Archaeology Magazine - September 1964 - 42

have yielded some of the best examples of polychrome
pottery. The three sites reported herein are apparently
Isthmian America chiefly descriptive. Archaeology in part of a group of several villages. They are not far
the Americas has been vastly overshadowed by the from the great cultural centers of the Code at the
more prominent cultures of Mexico and Peru, and Sitio Conte, on the one hand, and the Veraguas cenlittle attention has been paid to the interrelations, tered around the present towns of Santiago and Sona,
both in time and space, between the "high cultures" on the other. The type of pottery presented here is
and the cultures of Isthmian America. In the decade known in various forms from both these areas. At
before World War II, Samuel K. Lothrop and others the Sitio Conte it occurs as a scanty admixture with
began calling attention to the great cultures of Pan- the late period wares of the Code culture and is
ama, then classified into "Code," "Veraguas" and considered to be imported. Examples have turned up
"Chiriqui," as reasonably distinct groups within the periodically from as far away as Chiriqui and the
provinces of the same names. Most of the studies , Darien. In Veraguas, the style is well known to local
made were of a descriptive nature and assigned cer- investigators, many of whom consider it the type
tain polychrome pottery styles to various areas and pottery of the region.
to more or less the same period. We are now just enRio de Jesus is a rolling countryside broken by low
the
at
which
into
are
conhillocks
with an elevation of 200 feet or less, gradtering
stage
being
reports
solidated and some knowledge is being gained about ually sloping off to the Pacific Ocean at Montijo Bay.
the chronological distribution within cultures and the It is chiefly under cultivation, and most graveyards
interrelations among various cultural groups. Some of are located accidentally during the annual soil prepathe styles formerly thought to be representative of ration. The sites discussed here lie within one thouspecific cultures are now known to be rather wide- sand yards of one another, in the same flat area bespread. As excavations continue, we are further de- tween adjacent hillocks. On the basis of present data
veloping our theories of the distribution of poly- there seems to be little difference among the sites
chrome pottery.
in size or in the principal grave goods. To the south
and east there are at least fifteen other sites which
The present report describes the outstanding poly- have yielded similar fine polychrome wares; these
chrome ceramic vessels recently recovered by several were exploited by local diggers many years ago and
local investigators from three burial sites, close to are now considered completely empty of undisturbed
each other and presumably contemporary, in the Rio graves.
de Jesus region of Panama (see map). The material
Each of the three sites contains 100 to 200 deep
tends to substantiate the hypothesis of a continuum graves of the sort typical throughout Veraguas. These
of polychrome styles in the central region of Panama, may be either simple shafts three feet in diameter or
with the production in many areas of ceramic wares shafts widened out at the bottom in one or more
having common themes of decoration but strictly local directions. They are cut through the rock-hard clay
techniques of execution. This polychrome tradition to an average depth of six to eight feet- though some
has long been known as Veraguan, although many may run to twelve feet- and end in a chamber
examples of ceramics characteristic of Veraguas have roughly 3 x 6 ft. and 4 ft. high. Size seems to have
previously been recovered from the Code and Chiri- no special significance, and though the deeper graves
qui areas, where they were thought to be objects of are often thought to be richer in artifacts, they are
trade. Recent investigation has shown the same style just as likely to contain very poor offerings. The into be much more abundant around certain foci in the dividual graves are located by probing the outlines of
Azuero Peninsula, and there is a gradual tendency to the shaft-fill with a steel rod. The graves tend to be
shift their locus of origin southward.
arranged in rows, and occasionally the boot-shaped
Over the past twenty years various graveyards in widening at the bottom of the shaft will impinge on
this 'area known to have yielded similar material have an adjacent grave.
been sporadically worked but have not yet been reThere is a common tradition among the native
ported. Indeed, the Rio de Jesus region is known to diggers that a new graveyard was started every time
Vessels

194

continued

Archaeology Magazine - September 1964

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - September 1964