^°No'°73f"^' TABOGA, URABA, TABOGUILLA ISLANDS — STIRLING 327 



Loop handles were attached to subglobular bowls of plain red 

 ware. Some were flat, others round in cross section. The great 

 majority were placed horizontally, but there were a few vertical 

 examples. 



PEDESTAL BASES 



The most elaborately decorated vessels, as a rule, were the pedestal 

 base bowls. Instead of the regular sweeping upward curve usually 

 seen in Panama, the Taboguilla examples typically have a bulge in 

 the column between the base and the bowl. Some of the bases are 

 decorated by pressing with the edge of a scallop shell. Most are 

 scallop combed on the interior. 



TRIPODS 



There was a single specimen of a Chiriqui type tripod bowl of 

 brown ware. This was undoubtedly an imported piece, but is inter- 

 esting because of its association. It was well polished on the exterior 

 but rough on the inside. The body has a sharp shoulder decorated 

 with bosses, and the inside of the outflaring rim had been painted red. 

 The hollow supports had been broken off, so their form is conjectural. 



STONE AND SHELL 



Artifacts other than pottery were extremely scarce. Two small 

 celts of a hard fine-grained blue diorite are 7.5 cm. and 5.5 cm. in 

 length. Broad at one end, they are pointed at the other. They 

 are relatively thin and were shaped by a combination of flaking and 

 polishing (pi. 65, 6, c). 



A third specimen of the same material is better finished, but its 

 original form is puzzling. Although the photograph does not show 

 this fact, it has a very sharp cutting edge at both ends, thus making 

 it unique. Since both sides are broken off, it may be that it is the 

 middle of an elongated implement with sharp sides (pi. 65, a). 



A number of chips of yellow flint were scattered through the deposit, 

 but no knives or arrowheads were found (pi. 65, d). 



A single massive polished shell cylinder was found. It is un- 

 perf orated and probably was not intended as a bead (pi. 65, e). 



An imitation jaguar canine of shell, perforated laterally, was found 

 in the nearby rock shelter (Taboguilla-S). 



