10 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 193 



REVIEW OF PANAMANIAN ARCHEOLOGY 

 HISTORICAL 



As is frequently pointed out in the literature, despite the long 

 history of archeological interest in Panama, dating from the discovery 

 of the ChiriquI cemeteries of Bugabita, Bugaba, and Boquete in 

 1858-59 (McGimsey, 1959), the area still lacks a long and sound 

 chronological sequence and continues to present a fluid archeological 

 picture. In the Code region a sequence with gaps exists and to the 

 west, in the Chiriqui-Costa Rica region, chronological order is begin- 

 ning to appear, but elsewhere, in Veraguas and Darien, there is still 

 very little to go on. 



This situation may be attributed to archeology as practiced in the 

 country and to the nature of the sites themselves. With regard to 

 the latter, most of the sites so far excavated have been either funerary 

 or ceremonial in nature with little or no opportunity present for the 

 use of stratigraphic analysis. When middens have been excavated, 

 they have normally been shallow and lacking in a long record of 

 cultural change. Probably as a reflection of this situation, most of 

 the archeological activity in Panama until recently has been con- 

 cerned with the excavation of the more spectacular ceremonial sites 

 or the typological analysis of funerary ware unearthed by huaqueros 

 and assembled in private collections. The various ceramic classifi- 

 cations which have resulted from the analyses of these collections 

 (Holmes, 1888; MacCurdy, 1911; Osgood, 1935, and, more recently, 

 Haberland, 1959), regardless of their typological merit, have yet to 

 be arranged in chronological order on the basis of stratigraphic 

 excavation. Holmes' and MacCurdy's work was based largely on 

 the excavations, notes, and collections of J. A. McNeil, as well as the 

 small collection of de Zeltner (de Zeltner, 1865, 1866) and made use 

 of earlier works by J. King Merritt (I860) and BoHaert (1860). 



In general, there was little or no professional archeological excava- 

 tion in Panama until the 1920's. In 1925 A. Hyatt Verrill excavated 

 a ceremonial site in Code Province near Penonome (Verrill, 1927 a, 

 1927 b), but published the material in only a preliminary fashion. 

 Not until the arrival of the Swedish expedition under Baron Erland 

 Nordenskiold was there a major and controlled program of archeo- 

 logical excavation in Panama which resulted in full publication (Linne, 

 1929). In this case, the interest was centered primarily in the east- 

 ern and Atlantic coastal areas of Panama. Although Hartman had 

 engaged, around the turn of the century, in systematic excavation of 

 graves in Costa Rica, excavation in Panama west of the Canal Zone 

 was limited, with the exception of Verrill's scantily published work, 

 until the 1930's to huaqueros' activities and unpublished investiga- 



