Ladd] PARITA AND SANTA MARIA ARCHEOLOGY, PANAMA 27 



but rather incidental fill inclusion which may have come from adjacent 

 habitation areas. A fuller discussion of the stratigraphy is presented 

 in the section dealing with chronology, but it is worth noting here that 

 even on the assumption that the mound was constructed in stages, 

 there appears to be present the basis of a gross stratigraphy. If it 

 is assumed that the fill of each successive stage was obtained from the 

 surrounding surface areas, the ceramic culture of the builders of this 

 particular stage and that of their predecessors should be reflected in 

 the stratigraphy. Actually, as described in the chronological section, 

 a definite rise in the frequency of the El Hatillo and Parita types is 

 apparent in the upper levels, combined with a drop in frequency for the 

 Macaracas type. 



The mound as a whole contained significant numbers of Azuero 

 group sherds of all types; Code and Aristide groups were not heavily 

 represented. The main graves and caches were characterized by 

 Macaracas type polychrome vessels and all were found below the 

 lowest ash layer. 



MOUND II ; TRENCH 2. 



Mound II was a small (14 meters in diameter), almost circular, low 

 mound. Trench 2, a 10X3 meter cut on a north-south axis, was 

 located near the center of the mound. Apparently built up of 

 rubbish, the mound consisted of a single stratum of refuse mixed with 

 red clay suggesting purposefully piled-up fill. Within the mound 

 were found one large burial. Find 10, and three smaller burials. 

 Finds 14, 16, and 18, and two caches which may have been deposited 

 as one. All of the burials are of the same type and two of them 

 contain Jobo variety polychromes. The two caches have large urns 

 with modeled adornos which are rare for the site. Although the sherd 

 material from the fill included all types except Calabaza, all of the 

 find units are limited to one or two types and suggest that the mound 

 was constructed to cover these particular burials. 



MOUND III; TRENCHES 3, A, B, C, AND 4, A, B 



Mound III, the most thoroughly excavated of all the mounds, was 

 located on the edge of the plateau with a sloping base which followed 

 the plateau contour. Oval in shape, the mound measured 20 meters 

 long by 15 meters wide and reached a maximum height of 3 meters in 

 its southern portion where the plateau slopes downward. The 

 mound fill was amorphous in structure with no evidence of layering 

 or intrusions of any kind except for pits excavated a few years prior 

 to 1948 by a Columbian, and consisted of an "almost incredible" 

 number of sherds, a large proportion of which were sizable pieces. 

 There were no burned floors, fire pits, ash layers, or signs of structures, 



