PETROGLYPHS. 



43 



Chiriquian ornaments of stone are comparatively rare. Those of gold were 

 relatively numerous. Ornaments of less durable materials, such as bone, teeth, 

 shell, etc., may have been used. The historian Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y 

 Valdes, who visited Nicoya in 1529, says that the Indians wore necklaces of sea 

 shells. Similar perishable ornaments may have been used by the prehistoric races 

 of Nicoya, as well as of Chiriqui. In the Lamson collection there is a single 

 shark's tooth (fig. 51), the neck of which is trimmed and perforated. It was found 

 by McNiel in a grave at Divala and was evidently worn in the same fashion as 

 were the celt-shaped amulets of stone. 



Petroglyphs.— Seemann ' speaks of finding in western Veraguas (Chiriqui) remains 

 of a numerous tribe, which he calls Dorachos. These remains consist of " tombs, 

 monuments and columns of different sizes, covered with fantastic figures, or re- 

 presentations of natural objects, differing entirely from either the hieroglyphics of 

 Mexico or those of Central America." Seemann was perhaps the first (1848) to 

 give a detailed description of a granite block at Caldera, north of David, known 

 in the vicinity as piedra pintal, or painted stone. The sides and even the flat 

 top of this huge boulder 

 (or outcrop ?) are covered 

 with incised figures. The 

 characters are from a half 

 to one inch deep except 

 on the weather side, where 

 they are nearly effaced, 

 a proof of their great an- 

 tiquity. The work is as- 

 cribed to the Dorachos. 

 Seemann made a drawing 

 of the piedra pintal, which 

 was later reproduced by 

 W. Bollaert. 2 Holmes 

 published a sketch by 

 McNiel of the southwest 

 face (fig. 52), showing 

 approximately the same 

 number of glyphs as in 

 Seemann's drawing. Trac- 

 ings by M. A. L. Pinart 

 are said to reveal at least 

 forty glyphs on the same 

 face. 



Seemann was struck by the similarity of the Chiriquian and certain Northumbrian 

 and Scottish petroglyphs. Charles Rau, 3 however, was unable to discover any 



1 Berthold Seemann. Narrative of the voyage of H. M. S. Herald, I, 312, London, 1853. 



2 Antiquarian, ethnological and other researches in New Granada, etc., 30, London, 1860. 



3 Observations on cup-shaped and other lapidarian sculptures in the Old World and in Amer- 

 ica. U.S. geogr. and geol. surv. of the Rocky Mt. region. Contr. to Amer. eth., V, 69, 1881. 



ig. 52. — Southwest face of the piedra pintal or pictured rock at Caldera. 

 (After Holmes.) 



x 



Fig. 53. — Northeast face of the piedra pintal, from 

 made by Gentil. 



water-color drawing 



