230 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 193 



can site, La Victoria on the western coast of Guatemala, has been 

 excavated and should be noted here. At this lowland riverine site, 

 Coe (1960, 1961) set up a number of phases, the earliest of which, 

 the Oc6s, he believes shows definite similarities to the Sarigua Phase 

 of Panama. With regard to Monagrillo, as Coe notes (1960, p. 383), 

 about the only specific similarity is the use of cobbles as milling 

 stones. Certainly, like most of the Formative examples of South 

 America discussed above, Ocos with its figurines, tripod supports, 

 zoned punctation, and irridescent paint is considerably more elabo- 

 rate than Monagrillo. Moreover, it lacks the designs and the line- 

 dot combination so characteristic of the latter. 



Although Oc6s and Sarigua share a number of ceramic traits, I am 

 not convinced after an examination of the illustrations for the two 

 phases that they are sufficient to "strongly suggest a connection" 

 between the two as Coe believes (ibid., p. 383). The similarities cited 

 by him consist of thin-walled pottery and such modes as zoned simple 

 shell stamping and zoned punctation. However, zoned impressions, 

 either stamped or punctated, are common to many Formative sites, 

 as we have seen, and do not necessarily imply a connection other than 

 the sharing of a very broad tradition. Moreover, the dominant 

 technique of Sarigua is the use of raised ridges, in some cases true 

 fluting, and it is these rather than incised lines which form the zone 

 borders. Illustrated Oc6s material, on the other hand, demonstrates 

 incised borders for the punctated and shell stamped zones as the 

 dominant form, while ridging appears to be confined to the gadrooned 

 and fluted rims (Coe, 1961, figs. 21,/, g, and 19, a). As Coe points out 

 in his comparison, most of the characteristic Ocos shapes do not occur 

 in Sarigua, and, in general, I think the same comment applies to 

 Sarigua as to Monagrillo — that it just does not carry out the degree 

 of elaboration of the Oc6s Phase. There may have been a connection 

 between the two, but I do not believe that the evidence for this is 

 particularly convincing. 



In the post-Monagrillo phases, most of the Code and Canal Zone 

 region pottery affinities appear to be with northeastern South America. 

 Coe sees some similarities between the Zoned Bichrome Period of 

 northwestern Costa Rica and the Scarified ware of Chiriqui, and 

 other similarities between the Early Polychrome A of Costa Rica and 

 the black line styles of the Santa Maria Phase, In the later periods, 

 however, similarities are only of a broad nature, and Costa Rica 

 returns once more to the influences of Mesoamerica (Coe and 

 Baudez, 1961). 



A few similarities exist between plastic decorated wares of Momil I 

 and II and those of the Santa Maria Phase, Aristide group pottery. 

 Likewise, some of the painted sherds illustrated for Momil look like 



