12 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 193 



organized, with the encouragement of Dr. Lothrop and others, the 

 Archaeological Society of Panama which pubhshes a yearly bulletin, 

 the "Panama Archaeologist." The Society has encouraged its mem- 

 bers to utilize formal archeological techniques and to follow these up 

 with systematic reports. As a result, in the last few years, a number 

 of new sites such as Rancho Sancho de la Isla in Code Province (Dade, 

 1960), Chame area sites (Bull, 1959), Las Filipinas in Veraguas (Dade, 

 1959), and Panama Viejo in the Canal Zone (Biese, 1964), have been 

 reported. There have also been a number of articles of a comparative 

 nature dealing with projectile points, burial practices, spindle 

 whorls, etc. 



The next few years, besides seeing increasingly valuable work done 

 by the members of the Archaeological Society of Panama, should also 

 witness publication of Lothrop's excavations at Venado Beach, of 

 Stirling's excavations at Barriles, and the results of McGimsey's and 

 Linares' excavations, especially those along the Pacific coast of Panama 

 in the summer of 1961. 



GEOGRAPHICAL 



Although the archeological regions into which Panama has been 

 traditionally divided, Chiriqui, Veraguas, Code, and Darien, are 

 losing their cultural distinctness as our knowledge increases (see pp. 221- 

 225; and Lothrop, 1959), with the addition of the Canal Zone they never- 

 theless provide a suitable framework for a brief recapitulation of the 

 archeological situation to date (chart 1). 



CHIRIQUf 



Despite the fact that a beginning is being made in the establishment 

 of a sequence in Chiriqui through the dating of scarified and alligator 

 wares, the filling out of the chronological framework with additional 

 cultural content awaits the publication of Haberland's work in the 

 Concepcion area and the results of McGimsey's and Linares' 1961 

 excavations. At the present time we are limited almost entirely to 

 descriptive analyses of funerary complexes. 



The beginning of the sequence in Chiriqui rests, at the present 

 time, on the Concepcidn Phase (Haberland, 1959; Sander, 1960), so 

 far not fully described in print, but apparently based on graves 

 found with scarified ware. Examples of the latter ware have been 

 found in a grave at Pueblo Nuevo below a layer of charcoal which 

 has been dated at 2045 ±45 B.P. (Feriz, 1959, p. 186). Corrected 

 for the industrial effect (Suess effect), this date reads 2290 d= 45 B.P., 

 or 340 ±45 B.C. (personal communication from Dr. J. C. Vogel, 

 Groningen Laboratory). The characteristic heavy, reddish slipped 

 ware of the phase is found in shallow graves lined with river boulders 



