PREFACE 



The nature of tlie countryside surroundins,' Pananui Viejo has l)een 

 clianged radically by industrialization. Originally it was a broad and 

 orassy plain surrounded by multiple low hills and fronted by the sea. 

 The climate was milder and always had less rainfall than the Atlantic 

 side of the Isthmus. Food was easily obtainable the year round from 

 the abundant deer, peccary and other snuill game, and easily caught 

 fish of the gulf. Numerous shell heaps of prehistoric sites bordering 

 the gulf attest to the importance of mussels and clams in the native 

 diet. P^resh water was available from many nearby streams although 

 the Rio Abajo itself was foul and contaminated by salt water at high 

 tide. As a dwelling site it suffered from the 20-foot high tides of the 

 gulf which twice daily left half a mile of mud flat and rotting organic 

 matter exposed. Additionally, the evil surrounding mangrove swamps 

 served as a breeding place for mosquitoes and other noxious insects. 

 It afl'orded, however, adequate conditions for tlie support of life and 

 the establishment of a sedentary culture whicli maintained peace 

 through trade or tribute and did not require a militarily defensible 

 position. 



I wish to thank especially Dr. Alejandro Mendez and the Museo 

 Nacional de Panama for their support and encouragement, and for 

 the loan of the Museum's Panama Viejo collection for study and 

 photography. To no lesser extent do I thank the landowner, Sr. 

 Eiu'ique LeFevre, for permission to collect from this site. Thanks 

 are also especially due Dr. Russell H. Mitchell for permission to use 

 the material illustrated in the frontispiece and plates 10, 24, b, and 25, 

 as well as for his encouragement and helpful advice based on long- 

 experience in the Isthmian area. Dr. Mitcliell also provided much 

 of the valuable reference material. 1 also wish to thank Sr. Dan 

 Sander for the material used for plate 24; the C^anal Zone Library 

 for permission to use the historical map (map 1); and tlie "Panama 

 Archaeologist" for permission to reprint the spindle whorl figures 

 (pi. 22). Mr Gerald A. Doyle, Jr., prepared the site map; my wife, 

 Lucinda T. Biese, did the ink drawings; and 1 took tlie photographs. 



Special thanks are due to my wife for suffering through innumer- 

 able mosquito-ridden field trips, sherd-sorting periods, and manu- 

 script revisions. 



L. P. B., 

 Panama Canal Zone. 



1061. 



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