■*°No.°^72f*^' ARCHEOLOGY, ALMIRANTE BAY, PANAMA — STIRLING 265 



coarse temper. This ware is characterized by a gray to black core, with 

 margins ranging from weak yellowish orange to moderate orange. 

 These were decorated with elongate punctations in rows, between 

 incised parallel lines. The designs are geometric and tend toward 

 triangular forms. Some of these bowls were further decorated with 

 small nodes or bosses connected with incised lines or roughened 

 bands. One specimen was of much thicker ware and had an excurvate 

 rim (pi. 28, a-i). 



Also abundant were sherds of large vessels with modeled applique 

 designs on the body. One had two leaping porpoises (pi. 29, a). 

 Another was an octopus (pi. 28, I), while still another fragment 

 displayed what seems to be the tail of a fish (pi. 28, n). 



One curious sherd consists of what appears to be a thick beveled 

 rim with rectangular openings cut below the rim. It is possible that 

 it is a part of a slotted pedestal base. If so, it is unusually thick and 

 heavy (pi. 29, /; fig. 18, e). 



Other pieces were from large pots with slightly outcurving rims. 

 Some of these have red paint on the lip, others on either the exterior 

 or interior. The majority are polished light buff on the interior 

 (pis. 28; 29, e, i). 



Excurvate, buff-colored rims with combed decoration on the interior 

 and smooth on the exterior were almost identical with similar pieces 

 from the site at Boca del Drago (Boc-3). This is a buff-colored ware 

 with coarse tempering material (pi. 28, k). 



One of the most individual wares is rather thin with finely ground 

 temper and fine line red painting on a light buff slip (pi. 28, m). 



Two sherds appear to be longitudinal sections of hoUow vessel 

 supports. The fact that one of these has horizontal red line painting 

 strengthens this hypothesis since this is a normal type of decoration 

 for the typical conical base tripod vessel characteristic of Chiriqui, ex- 

 amples of which were found in the nearby cave site (Boc-2). 



Several small sherds were of very thin fine paste ware with polished 

 surface painted red on buff. Because of the small size of the sherds it 

 was impossible to deduce the vessel forms, but they were probably of 

 small size. 



Thick body sherds from large pots were quite abundant. These had 

 a coarse sand temper and were usually fired buff on the exterior and 

 black on the interior. Some of these had combed decoration on the 

 exterior, some were smooth. This is apparently the same ware as that 

 with modeled animals on the body, and is analogous to the large urns 

 from Boc-3. 



One flat awl with sharp point and sharp edges, made apparently 

 from the leg bone of a deer, was the only bone implement found. 



