48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 193 



ity occurs in the treatment of birds and bird effigy vessels. Designs 

 are generally arranged in a series of panels around the closed vessel 

 shapes, often with a broad black band below, but heavily banded 

 panels framing the decorative area are far less frequent than in 

 the curvilinear style. Ground color ranges from orange to a dark 

 brownish red, and the light-cream shp so common in the curvilinear 

 style appears here infrequently and is largely restricted to effigy bird 

 bowls. The depictive colors are black or red bordered by black lines. 

 The use of purple, a color characteristic of the curvilinear style, 

 occurred in only one angular style variety of the site, and then was 

 associated with a greater frequency of curvilinear elements. "Fillers," 

 or small distinctive elements such as triangles or circles used to fill in 

 vacant areas in the design pattern, are characteristic of only one 

 angular variety but, for the most part, are absent. However, black 

 dots, either grouped or scattered, are used as massive fill in another 

 variety. Both styles have color-fast painted surfaces which show a 

 defmite luster. In one variety, however, the polish has been lost over 

 time and colors wash off easily. 



The shapes on which the angular style appears tend to be more 

 varied than those of the curvihnear within each major shape category, 

 especially in the case of bottles. Thus, there are globular bottles, 

 bird bottles, and cylindrical bottles with sharply angled shoulders and 

 bases. Other shapes include bird effigy jars of at least two types, 

 plates and shallow bowls, and rare sherds of large closed vessels. With 

 the exception of the one large vessel mentioned above, there was very 

 little variation in gross size in the angular style, the vessels tending 

 to be small or medium and ranging from 11-20 cms. in diameter. 

 Although major shapes, such as the bottle category, are shared 

 between the two styles, subshapes or a particular expression of form 

 are seldom shared. 



The curvilinear style (Parita, Macaracas, and Calabaza types) is 

 characterized by a flowing, curving, design line, although the particular 

 motifs are often enclosed in heavy black-banded rectilinear or tri- 

 angular panels. This use of a broad black outline to frame individual 

 designs may be taken as a diagnostic of this style of Azuero polychrome 

 (Lothrop, 1942, p. 228). Considerable use is made of scroll elements, 

 closed arcs or leaf -shaped panels, curving clawlike elements, concave- 

 sided triangles, and color-filled circles or ellipses. Life elements such 

 as crocodiles, rays or sharks, and turtles are rendered in the same 

 curving line. Although rectangular patterns such as the panel are 

 common, they almost always enclose curvihnear elements and their 

 angularity is softened by the technique of extending the corners of 

 the panel into long fine points. This technique of terminating corners, 

 triangle points, and scroll points in finely graduated and often slightly 



