Ladd] PARITA AND SANTA MARIA ARCHEOLOGY, PANAMA 7 



The term is used here as a general referent rather than as a rigidly 

 defined concept. 



Procedure. — The ceramics from He-1 were analyzed fii'st since 

 they seemed, on preliminary examination, to be representative of all 

 major ceramic classifications in the collection and were more manage- 

 able than those from the He-4 site. Not only was the amount 

 smaller, but the major portion appeared to fit readily into the ceramic 

 schemes already established by Lothrop for Sitio Conte and by 

 Willey and McGimsey for the Co-2 (Gir6n) site. Descriptive cards 

 were made out for each of the whole vessels from graves and caches. 

 The sherds were sorted according to the schemes mentioned above 

 although, at this preliminary stage, all "El Hatillo" or Azuero Group 

 polychrome sherds were lumped together for subsequent reexamina- 

 tion after study of the He-4 material. On completion of the sherd 

 counts, percentages of the dift'erent categories in each excavation 

 level were computed. Detailed comparisons of the cache and grave 

 pottery were postponed until the He-4 study had been completed. 

 Photographs and descriptive notes were used in the analysis of the 

 whole vessels retained by the Museo Nacional de Panamd, roughly 

 one-half of the total from He-1, He-2, and He-4. 



In dealing with the material from the He-4 (El Hatillo) site, a 

 different problem was faced; that of establishing a typology for poly- 

 chromes which had not previously been analyzed in detail. As 

 mentioned above, descriptive cards were prepared for each whole 

 vessel covering such characteristics as dimension, temper, shape, 

 paste coloring, construction details or anomahes and, primarily, design 

 elements. As new elements were discovered they were added to the 

 element Hst. Finally, a photograph was taken of each vessel and a 

 print attached to the back of the card. After card entries had been 

 made for all of the whole vessels present at the Peabody Museum or 

 left in Panama but available through notes and photographs, a pro- 

 visional grouping into varieties was made. This primary grouping 

 was then further refined as the varieties were grouped into types, 

 although this was, in some cases, a two-way process involving both 

 the consolidation of smaller groups into larger and the subdivision of 

 some larger groups into varieties as consistent differences were noted. 

 Next, the sherds were sorted according to types and varieties within 

 the polychrome wares and according to rim, handle, and base character- 

 istics in the Red-buff wares. Previously existing categories were 

 naturally included here as at He-1. During the sorting procedure, the 

 occurrence of new design element combinations, or of known com- 

 binations on new or different shapes, was noted and further modified 

 the typology. Additional modification resulted from subsequent study 

 of Azuero design style pottery at the Heye Museum of the American 



