Ladd] PARITA AND SANTA MARIA ARCHEOLOGY, PANAMA 17 



round dwelling sites with Central America including western Panama 

 and, on the other hand, the "very great resemblances" of the painted 

 ceramics to Azuero and Code design styles (Linne, 1929, pp. 134-136). 

 I concur in the latter part of this statement,^ but feel that some of the 

 incising (Linne, 1929, fig. 2Q-F, -G) is reminiscent of the same tech- 

 nique since found on Venado Beach Incised variety ceramics. 



The pottery at Utive is primarily modeled and unpainted ware 

 with a great variety of forms, but a few sherds of black on red painted 

 ware with geometric designs were found. These may have affinities 

 to Venado Beach and the Aristide group (Stirling, 1950). 



As a result of his Darien excavations in 1954, Cruxent set up two 

 pottery styles: {a) the Escorromulo style encountered in sites along 

 the eastern shores of Darien (i.e., the west shore of the Gulf of Uraba), 

 and (6) the La Villa style which is characteristic of the pottery he 

 recovered along the Rio Chucunaque and about the headwaters of 

 the Gulf of San Miguel. The former style, consisting of unpainted 

 vessels with finger impression, incision and punctation, was found 

 associated with 16th-century European pottery and iron tools, and 

 Cruxent notes the similarities between it and the ceramics of Trigana 

 and La Gloria farther down the coast. The La Villa style dated at 

 A.D. 1775 (Cruxent, 1958, p. 183) also consists of unpainted ware 

 decorated with notching along the lips, and notched V-shaped applique 

 ribbons which Cruxent believes has its closest similarities to the El 

 Tigre Phase ceramics of the Parita Delta to the west. Comparison 

 of the illustrations for the two groups reveals similarities in shape 

 and decoration, ** as well as differences, and supports Cruxent's sug- 

 gestion that La Villa is probably somewhat later than El Tigre. 



Also in the vicinity of the Gulf of San Miguel on the western side 

 of the San Lorenzo Peninsula near the village of Gonzalo Vasquez, 

 Cruxent found additional evidence of western influence, in this case 

 a Gir6n type Interior Banded variety open bowl (Cruxent, 1958, 

 pi. 13). He notes that the Pearl Islands are visible from the beach, 

 and it is possible that the vessel was obtained by trade from the 

 islanders. Certainly, however, with the exception of these San 

 Miguel examples, the general ceramic affinities of Darien as known 



« Llnn6, 1929, figure 24, is identical in shape and horizontal banding of the rim to Glron sherds at He-1 

 and He-2. Figure 25-B illustrates a rectangular scroll design similar to Achote variety motifs, and the ray 

 motif of figure 23 is similar in general feeling, though not in details of execution, to those of the Macaracas 

 and Parita types. 



9 Attributes shared by the El Tigre Phase pottery and the La Villa style include olla and deep open bowl 

 shapes, rounded bases, and identical lip notching on a few sherds. Differences include: the casuela shape 

 (common in La Villa, absent in El Tigre); the bottlelike jar (present in La Villa, absent in El Tigre); ring 

 bases (occasional in La Villa, absent in El Tigre): applique ribbons festooned in V patterns (escotadura) 

 which are present in La Villa and absent in El Tigre; horizontal lugs just below the rim (absent in La Villa, 

 present in El Tigre) ; and the squaring off of bowl rims, a common feature in El Tigre, but apparently rare 

 in La Villa v/hich more often has thickened and rounded or slightly pointed rims. 



