Ladd] PARITA AND SANTA MARIA ARCHEOLOGY, PANAMA 121 



1888, pp. 156-157; MacCurdy, 1911, p. 169) both illustrate and de- 

 scribe Lost Color ware rattles from Chii-iqui which are very similar in 

 shape to the present variety. They differ in construction in that the 

 Lost Color specimens as described by Holmes normally had spouts 

 which were closed off at their bases allowing them to be used as 

 whistles, and vessel bodies were perforated with slits around the 

 shoulder. Both the Lost Color rattles and the Calabaza variety 

 share the presence of two opposing perforations in the base of the 

 spout wall, which may have been used for suspension. No append- 

 ages are known to be associated with this variety. 



Surface. — -The surface is smoothed and highly polished in the de- 

 sign area; i.e., the upper part of the body and the spout. Below the 

 point of greatest diameter the body wall is seldom, if ever, polished 

 although it carries the same slip as that of the decorated portion, a 

 treatment similar to the Nispero and Anon varieties. Color of this 

 ground slip varies from cream through orange or salmon to a brown, 

 the latter occurring especially in those areas where polishing has given 

 a darker hue to the slip. Design colors are in almost all cases limited 

 to black or black and red. On the basis of inspection, the most fre- 

 quent designs include the seed pod element (fig. 46, a) and the closed 

 and split arcs (figs. 47 and 48). Both of these patterns show con- 

 siderable variation in expression and both may occur on the same 

 vessel. As is usual within the Azuero style, the major patterns or ele- 

 ments are arranged around the vessel so as to achieve an overall bal- 

 anced effect. 



The simple closed arc is characteristic of the Pica-pica variety (fig. 

 36, a) but seldom occurs with claws in the present variety. Simple 

 split arcs with red fill are also found (fig. 47, a, h). This basic split 

 arc pattern also occurs in scroll forms and with additional various 

 appendages (fig. 47, c, d). Scrolls of either red or black fill are often 

 terminated in a single line and may occur with a particular type of 

 color stop, both characteristic of the Ortiga variety (figs. 46, h, and 

 48, a, h). Various embellishments within the arc include "ears" 

 (fig. 46, c, d), "tongues" (fig. 46, e) and "closed tongues" (fig. 46, 

 /), "ladder" fill (fig. 46, g) and cu'cle and dot fillers (fig. 46, h), the 

 latter also found in the Ortiga variety. If the split arc with scroll is 

 turned upside down and viewed so that the arc becomes a chin, the 

 entire pattern takes on a facial aspect (fig. 48, c-e), a treatment which 

 was present in some of the Early Period Code-style scrolls at Sitio 

 Conte (Lothrop, 1942, pp. 25-28). 



The seed pods also are embellished with ears, make use of the scroll 

 ending in a single line and, in addition, are often associated with 

 "carpet tack" fillers (figs. 31, /, and 47, d) of the Ortiga variety. 

 Generally, the seed pods are predominantly solid black, and no 



