^°No.°'72f^^' ARCHEOLOGY, ALMIRANTE BAY, PANAMA — STIRLING 267 



Boc-1 is by far the most promising site that we located on our srn-vey 

 of Almirante Bay. The small mounds are rich in content and a full 

 scale excavation would without doubt give key results for this virtually 

 unknown area. 



DARKLAND CAVE (BOC-2) 



On a high jungle-covered ridge about 2 miles southwest of the Dark- 

 land peninsula there is a limestone cliff about 100 feet high. Along 

 the base of this cliff are a number of caves containing the remains of 

 human burials and accompanying offerings. The native who guided 

 us to this spot had discovered the caves a few years before and said 

 that he and his father had removed several complete pots, of which he 

 was unable to give an adequate description, and a stone metate 

 carved in the form of a jaguar. 



We selected the most promising looking of the caves and excavated 

 it completely. The cave, whose opening was about 20 feet across, ex- 

 tended about 30 feet into the cliff, with a ceiling of irregular height. 

 The last 20 feet of the cave was filled to within about a foot of the 

 ceiling and could not be entered until the fill was removed. The bulk 

 of the artifacts recovered and a few fragments of human bone were in 

 the upper 12 inches of the deposit. No evidence of human occupation 

 was found below this surface level, although the fill averaged from 3 to 

 4 feet in depth. 



Objects of stone consisted of a well-carved jaguar head broken from 

 a metate of Costa Rica-Chiriqui type, and eight celts of mediocre 

 finish (pi. 43, g-^). There were none of the type with flaring edge so 

 common in Veraguas. One small triangular polished celt of a blue 

 slatelike stone is 10 cm. long and 5 cm. wide at the blade. It is flat 

 on one side and convex on the other. A chisel of limestone was 19.5 

 cm. long. There was also a small polishing stone of bright red jasper 

 about 5 cm. in diameter (pi. 38, e,i, g). Scattered throughout the 

 surface layer were many large marine conchs, principally Stromhus 

 gigas Linne and Charonia iritonis nobilis Conrad, and about 20 arti- 

 facts of unknown use made from the spire of the conch with a circular 

 hole 5 cm. in diameter in the center (pi. 38, a-d). 



Although five or six nearly complete vessels were recovered, the 

 bulk of the pottery was in the form of scattered sherds, representing a 

 considerable variety of forms and wares. 



Apparently, the great majority of the vessels originally had a 

 buff-colored surface, although some examples were dark buff and 

 brown. In addition, various sherds are blackened by carbon, discolor- 

 ing the surface as well as the paint. 



All the sherds are coated to a certain extent with a white deposit 

 caused by the dust in the limestone cave, a condition making it 



