22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 193 



believe, then, that Alvina is probably a local variation of the same 

 kind of complex found a short distance away on the Parita River at 

 He-1 and He-2, but without the Giron type painted pottery. I have 

 excluded it, therefore, from the chronological phase chart. 



La Mula, like Alvina, was defined by Willey and McGimsey as a 

 tentative complex, and they note its affinities to both Code and 

 Azuero ceramics (Willey and McGimsey, 1954, p. 135). Later 

 appraisal suggests even more strongly that it should be reclassified as 

 Delgado Red. The pottery, characterized by globular collared jars 

 with occasional vertically placed loop handles and globular collared 

 jars with horizontal loop handles, occurs in a plain, a red-slipped, and 

 a polychrome variation. Sherds of the latter were so badly eroded 

 that designs could not be discerned beyond the use of parallel 

 black bands and broad red bands. Chipped poll celts with polished 

 blades were associated. As a complex, this could easily be lost in the 

 material from He-4 and He-8, the La Mula Plain and La Mula Red 

 considered together within the range of firing variation (dark brown 

 to brick red) for Delgado Red. Certainly the shapes are shared by 

 both groups, as are the chipped poll celts and the associated poly- 

 chrome sherds with the exception of those painted in broad red bands. 

 It therefore appears reasonable to absorb La Mula into Delgado Red, 

 thus placing it chronologically with the Late Code Period at Sitio 

 Conte, or later. La Mula was recognized at nine sites in the Parita 

 Bay area and, considered as Delgado Red, would extend the geo- 

 graphical range of the latter to some extent. 



The El Tigre Complex, consisting of several thousand sherds of 

 massive heavy pottery with collared jar and open bowl shapes, has 

 been described as probably the remains of salt boiling occupations 

 along the coastal flats. The pottery was found in the upper layers 

 at He-5 (the Monagrillo site) and at other sites in the same area. It 

 resembles the modern pottery of La Arena, but with sufficient dif- 

 ferences to be distinct from it, and has been tentatively placed by 

 Willey and McGimsey as of colonial age, a chronological position 

 supported by Cruxent's La Villa style in Darien. 



As noted elsewhere in this report, the highly developed polychromes 

 from the Calderon or El Hatillo site (He-4) are probably in part 

 contemporary with Late Code, and in part postdate that Period (see 

 chart 2 for chronology and Appendix 1 for ceramic type distribution). 

 Macaracas type vessels have been found in Late Period graves at 

 Sitio Conte, but Parita and El Hatillo types are apparently absent 

 (at least in the graves) at that site and, from the meager stratigraphic 

 evidence at He-4, appear to be later developments. This may be 

 more of a geographical difference than one of time, however, but the 



