Ladd] PARITA AND SANTA MARIA ARCHEOLOGY, PANAMA 155 



and Mr. James N. East, on the slopes and around the base of a low 

 hill arising out of the broad alluvial plain, thus close to fertile agri- 

 cultural areas. As it is only 7 air miles from the delta, the inhabitants 

 also had nearby extensive resources of marine shellfish. 



Physically, the site consists of three refuse piles around the base of 

 the hill, one of which has been cut through by the river. Quoting 

 from Willey and Stoddard (1954, p. 333) : 



In extent, this particular refuse hummock appears to be the smallest of the three, 

 measuring not much more than 10 by 20 meters; but a full depth of 1.80 meters 

 is shown in the riverbank. As there is a tremendous quantity of broken pottery 

 in the mud and under the water at the foot of the bank, it is obvious that the 

 deposit once extended farther out into what is now the river but has been carved 

 away by the action of the stream. Viewed from the surface the refuse mound 

 shows only as a slight eminence a few centimeters higher than the surrounding 

 ground level; but the river-edge profile makes it evident that alluvial clays have 

 been built up surrounding the shell and pottery heap until they almost, but not 

 quite, cover it. Twenty meters west (upstream) or east (downstream) from this 

 debris pile there is only a thin zone of shell midden, 30 centimeters thick, which 

 is buried at a depth of 1.80 meters beneath the flood-carried clays. Apparently 

 this represents the original ground level at the time of first occupation. The 

 refuse pile must have been begun on this older level. 



The other two refuse concentrations at Gir6n are larger in extent than the first. 

 One hes off the northwest corner of the hill, 70 meters northwest of the first pile. 

 The extent of this dump is at least 50 by 60 meters, and the one small test which 

 we made in it showed 1.30 meters of refuse depth. The last midden area is over 

 200 meters northeast of the riverbank midden pile, and it extends over a diameter 

 of more than 100 meters on the east slope and at the east foot of the hill. No 

 tests were made in this section, but the surface mounding of shell suggests that 

 it is at least 1.00 meter deep. 



Turning to the excavations, three test pits were dug: Pit 1 in the 

 riverbank refuse pile, the fu-st midden described above; Pit 2 located 

 40 meters west of Pit 1 and 5 meters from the riverbank; and Pit 3 

 placed in the refuse pile at the northwest corner of the hill and about 

 100 meters northwest of Pit 2. Pit 1, a 3X3 meters cut excavated in 

 10 cm. levels, was carried down to a depth of 2.2 meters and proved to 

 be the most rewarding of the three tests. The physical stratigraphy 

 reflected by the profile chart consisted of four layers: an upper layer of 

 gray humus with crushed shell extending to a depth of approximately 

 50 cms. ; a second layer of brown sandy soil and shell extending from 

 50-90 cms. ; a third strata of compact shell and brown clay extending 

 from 90-165 cms.; and a fourth and final strata of dark red-brown 

 alluvial clay. The top three layers contained considerable amounts 

 of sherds. In fact, the three highest or peak frequencies of sherds 

 recorded for the pit correspond roughly to the midpoint of each layer, 

 but the final layer of red-brown clay contained negligible amounts of 

 cultural refuse, and these in the upper 20 cms. only, Willey and 



