THE PREHISTORY OF PANAMA VIEJO 



By Leo P. Biese 



INTRODUCTION 



Panam^ Viejo is the name I have applied to a combined residence 

 and burial site situated adjacent to the well-known Spanish ruins of 

 the same name approximately 6 miles northeast of the present 

 Panama City. 



The Spanish ruins (map 1) occupy an area approximately 1 mile 

 long by % mile wide with the long axis parallel to, and fronting on, 

 the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Panama. To the northeast of the 

 ruins are several acres of mangrove swamp containing a few isolated 

 shacks. On the east is the old port, now a semidry mangrove swamp. 

 Directly south is the Bay of Panama. Traveling southwest from the 

 ruins one passes through an area of several acres, sparsely populated 

 by settlements of ramshackle houses, which is followed by the suburb 

 of San Francisco de Calete and modern Panama City. The northern- 

 most portion of the ruins is delimited by the Rio Abajo over which 

 passes the Punta Del Rey (King's Bridge) and the beginning of the 

 Portobelo Trail. Farther north and northwest lies the large modern 

 cemetery of Parque LeFevre. The archeological site herein discussed 

 lies on the property of Sr. Enrique LeFevre, at the back of the ruins 

 proper, in an angle formed by Diagonal 10 (a modern roadway which 

 bisects the ruins) and the Rio Abajo and bordered by the cemetery 

 (map 2). It first was discovered in 1958 during grading operations 

 preparatory to the expansion of the cemetery. 



HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS OF OLD PANAMA 



There is a great wealth of descriptive source material available to 

 the interested reader on the later history of "Old Panama." Because 

 of its position of importance in the development of the New World, 

 many eyewitness accounts have been preserved and their value in- 

 creased by lengthy modern English summaries. In order to establish 

 the presence of a historical Indian village on the excavation site, 

 however, it will be sufficient to reconstruct only the story of Old 

 Panama's founding and early years. 



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