50 



A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



Variations from the calabash type are seen in Plate V. One of these may be 

 brought about by the incurving of the rim (fig. a), thus restricting the area of the 

 mouth opening. Another step is taken in a vessel from Escaria (fig. b), which is 

 depressed vertically. The incurving of the rim leads quite naturally to angular 

 outlines. Another method of producing angular outlines is by carrying the sides 

 of the vessel up vertically, as shown in a bowl from Bugavita (fig. c). 



If after building the sides of the vessel 

 past its greatest horizontal diameter, the 

 rim be carried up more or less vertically, 

 there is obtained the bowl-shaped vase seen 

 in figure d. The neck may make a variety 

 of angles with the shoulder. It may be in- 

 sloping, vertical, or flaring. It may be long 

 or short. The relatively tall vase with 

 pointed bottom is an example of the flaring 

 neck (fig. e). It and the foregoing are both 

 from Divala. A long flaring neck, with a 

 pronounced lip as an accompaniment, is 

 given in figure /. Sometimes four slight 

 protuberances appear at the corners of the 

 mouth. These maybe developed horizontally 

 to form more or less square lips about a 

 circular opening (fig. g). 



Again the neck may have two stories, 

 the lower in-sloping and the upper flaring, 

 as in figure h (from Divala). The lower 

 story, which hereafter will be called the 

 collar, is often chosen as a field for incised 

 ornamentation. 

 As we proceed, it will be seen that with 

 one exception the entire ceramic art of the ancient Chiriquians is but an elabo- 

 ration of the foregoing elementary forms — forms that had their origin in vessels 

 made of wood, the gourd, the calabash, etc. The simplest elaboration is the adding 

 of three legs to form a tripod. These began, no doubt, as short pegs. They soon 

 grew in dimensions and were made hollow. They were then supplied with earthen 

 pellets as rattles, and slit so that the sound might not be muffled (fig. 60). 



Tripods of the armadillo group, as has been noted, are very numerous and 

 about sixty-five per cent are of the calabash type, i. e., hemispherical in shape. 

 Only about fifteen per cent are angular in outline, and the remainder (twenty per 

 cent) are supplied with necks. Collars are rare. Only two or three of the tripods 

 have an oblong bowl with angular rim, and perhaps as many are so altered in the 

 equatorial zone by ornaments in relief as to disguise somewhat the essential^ 

 spherical nature of the bowl, thereby suggesting some animal form ; the crab, for 

 example. 



Sometimes the legs have the appearance of being inflated and thus stand out 

 from the body of the vessel in such a manner as to be quite conspicuous, even 



Fig. 61. 



Fig. 60. — Tripod bowl with plain hollow supports. 



Armadillo ware. V s 

 Fig. 61. — Tripod bowl with plain hollow supports, 



apparently inflated. Armadillo ware. '/» 



