48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 191 



polychrome might be much more widely distributed than was 

 originally thought. It is present in other foci, rather than being 

 restricted to trade ware, throughout a portion of the Azuero Peninsula 

 and adjacent southeastern Veraguas. Until further details are avail- 

 able, we can only state with certainty that the Panama Viejo culture 

 had limited trade contacts with her classical polychrome neighbors to 

 the west. There is no evidence to suggest contact with the more 

 westerly Chiriqui or Costa Rica. 



Contacts to the east are suggested by the distribution of pottery to 

 Darien, if not actual settlements of related cultures. Further explora- 

 tion of the Darien will be necessary before we are enlightened on this 

 point. 



In contrast to actual contacts, the presence of shell marking and 

 incised spindle whorls tends to suggest a combination of vertical and 

 horizontal transmission of traits somewhere in the as yet remote past 

 of Central American migrations. Parallel shell edge stamping around 

 the vessel rims is known in Panama from the Gir6n site in Azuero 

 (Willey and Stoddard, 1954), where it was found in the possibly con- 

 temporaneous levels of the Santa Maria Phase, and from both the 

 Santa Maria and early Code levels at Sitio Conte (Ladd, 1957). 

 Shell stamping is also known from the Sarigua Phase at the Gulf of 

 Parita (Willey and McGimsey, 1954), though in this case the pottery 

 paste is quite different and there is a considerable time lag between the 

 estimated dates of Sarigua and Code. Shell stamping is a widely 

 distributed trait throughout Central America. 



There are present two other traits of possible vertical significance, 

 i.e., urn burial and crack-lace pottery mending, which may represent 

 evidence of either direct migrations or counter migrations with South 

 America at some time in the history of this culture's predecessors. 

 These have been discussed more fully above, and we are now beginning 

 to believe urn burial may represent a direct migration of much more 

 ancient origin and distribution throughout Mesoamerica than has 

 been thought previously. The evidence offered by polychrome 

 pottery traits is still more meager, but despite the difference in stylistic 

 development one is often tempted to draw relationships between 

 Mexico, Panama, and Peru. 



CHRONOLOGY 



In attempting to assign a date to the culture represented by this 

 site we have two essential cultural links: polychrome trade ware and 

 the Venado Beach site. Both of these have been subjected to recent 

 reexamination, and some doubt exists. When originally described 

 (Lothrop, 1942), the classic polychromes of Code were thought, 

 on the basis of style, to be representative of a unique local focus with 



