CEMETERIES AND TOMBS. 1 1 



Mr. John F. Bateman, a companion of Dr. Merritt, explored a number of huacals 

 in the highlands near the Volcano of Chiriqui. Some of these were on the head- 

 waters of the river Caldera, east of the Volcano. At one place about three hundred 

 circular graves were found. Nearby was a huacal some twelve acres in extent and 

 completely covering the elevated portion of a pasture (jpotrero). The graves were 

 so close together " that in excavating one we would open three or four others. 

 These were all regularly built sepulchres ; the body having been laid on the hard- 

 pan or clay, the sides formed of flat stones, and these covered with large flat 

 stones, many of which would measure a yard square. In these graves, and those 

 in the adjoining forest, which vary in depth from three to four feet, are found the 

 same river stones. In the forest are found additional stones, — quadrates, of four 

 inches by twenty inches in length. These were placed vertically, thirty inches 

 apart, around the edge of the quadrangular graves. 



" In this locality I witnessed the opening of a large grave about ten feet in 

 depth, marked by five round pillars of stone, of fourteen inches in diameter and 

 from five to six feet in length, — three to four feet of which were in the ground. 

 The pillars were placed to represent a square with one in the center. Under this 

 one, on the clay, was found a plate of gold, four inches in diameter, and the 

 small figure of an anteater. No pottery was found in this grave, and this was the 

 only one in that locality containing gold. Stone hatchets were found here, but 

 no musical instruments. The pottery was all small, and rude in shape and material. 

 Small basins standing on three feet, each [foot] of which contained a small pellet 

 of clay. None of the pottery was either glazed or painted." l 



Bateman also found a huacal north of the Volcano, presumably near the source 

 of Rio Chiriqui Viejo. Following the ridge for a mile, he came upon the graves 

 he had long wished to see — " those marked with pillars of basalt, mossgrown and 

 bearing marks of extreme age." The grave opened by Bateman was marked by 

 four pillars in a line ; the one at the south end was large, and the other three, 

 at intervals of thirty inches, were smaller. Large quantities of river stone of all 

 sizes were found in this grave, also great quantities of broken pottery, different 

 in quality from any previously discovered. "It was very thick and finely glazed 2 

 on both sides." The condition of the clay at a depth of five feet pointed to a 

 double burial, the position of the bodies being marked by black loamy earth alone. 



De Zeltner, from whom the Yale Museum obtained some of the finest specimens 

 of pottery, speaks of six types of Chiriquian graves: (1) The oval cist; (2) quad- 

 rangular grave, with walls and roofing of stone, one meter wide by about two 

 and a half meters long ; (3) so-called fortified tombs, deeper than the two preceding, 

 quadrangular in form, with a square stone pillar at each corner and a fifth stone 

 pillar of smaller size at the center; (4) tombs with roofing of flag stones and 

 provided with four pillars one and a half meters high. Between the pillars the 

 walls are built up of rounded stones ; (5) tombs with roofing of earth, according 

 to de Zeltner, 3 the most common type of all and described by him at length: 



1 J. F. Bateman. Bull. Amer. ethnol. soc, I, 28, 1860-61. 



2 He evidently employs the term glaze in the sense of slip. 



3 A. de Zeltner. Note sur les sepultures indiennes du departement de Chiriqui, Panama, 1866. 



