"^"No^.^esf^^' PREHISTORY OF PANAMA VIEJO — BIESE 49 



wide trade contacts and of a relatively late date, i.e., ca. A.D. 1300- 

 1500. Later unpublished local work indicates the possibility of wider 

 distribution and independent production in several areas of Central 

 Panama. Stratigraphy at the Girdn site and Sitio Conte would seem 

 to indicate a greater time span for the entire complex of decorated 

 brown ware and polychrome phases. 



Still more recently (Lothrop, 1958 and 1959) a Venado Beach urn 

 burial has yielded a radiocarbon date of A.D. 227 ±60 (Yale — 125) 

 which was cross-dated with early Code polychromes. Dr. Lothrop 

 has suggested that this is too early and may represent a sampling or 

 technical error; the reader is referred to the above-cited two papers 

 for a thorough discussion of these and other dates from Panama. 

 In 1961 he announced a new Venado Beach radiocarbon determination 

 of 1000 years B.P. (Groningen No. 2200) from material found in 

 similar circumstances (i.e., charcoal from within plain red ware 

 burial urns). Once a date is accepted, we still have to decide the 

 relationship of this site to Venado Beach and the Lake area. On the 

 basis of trade wares present, Panama Viejo has very little, the Madden 

 area almost none, and Venado Beach a rather high proportion. 

 Similarly, the absence of both jewelry and trade ware points to an 

 economically poor or dependent tribe associated contemporaneously 

 with Venado Beach when the latter was the ceremonial or ruling center. 

 For at least a tentative assignment of relative dates in Panama 

 I am inclined to accept the Venado Beach radiocarbon date with a 

 slightly earlier date for Panama Viejo and a still earlier one (ca. 50-100 

 years) for Madden Lake. 



INTERPRETIVE SUMMARY 



A new Early Christian Era culture is described herein from Central 

 Panama. It is composed of a rather widespread group of related 

 tribes which shared common burial and ceramic traits, and were 

 distributed over the Canal Zone, the Pearl Islands, and the adjacent 

 territory to the east. The composite tribes perhaps are affiliated 

 loosely through common ethnic origins and maintain Venado Beach 

 as a "capital." Their characteristic economy was based largely on 

 shellfish and offshore gathering and limited agriculture supplemented 

 by small-animal hunting. Life appears to have been rather sedentary 

 and peaceful with limited trade contacts and possibly irregular 

 hazardous trips to the immediately adjacent east and west. Weaving 

 was practiced. Pottery skiUs were developed to a high degree, but 

 full classic polychromes are not indigenously present. Burial is 

 moderately ritualistic with special classes of pottery, but not formal- 

 ized to a high degree, and may occur in urns, open extended, or 

 secondary fashion. Deep level graves are not present, but a suggestion 



