138 



A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



Fig 239. — Vase without neck, the relief ornaments being 

 two opposed animal heads. Alligator ware. V" 



nose is slightly upturned and teeth are visible in the open mouth. The two 

 panels on the shoulder of the vase are filled in with scale-group symbols ' seg- 

 ments of circles enclosing dots.' Above each panel is a row of similar markings. 

 There are a few vessels without necks. Such, for example, is the one rep- 

 resented in figure 239. Two animal heads on opposite sides constitute the relief 

 ornament. The rows of dots in the small open fields of the alternating panels 

 are all that is left to suggest the alligator. In another vessel of similar type (fig. 240), 



the panels are arched and between them 

 appear in relief the head and tail of 

 some reptilian form, the tail being 

 turned to one side. 



Vessels of this group mounted as 

 tripods are comparatively rare. The 

 tripod supports are usually short, solid, 

 pointed cones that are marked by 

 horizontal black bands, as seen in 

 Plate XXXIX, where the variations in 

 the form of the body are also fairly 

 well indicated. In figure a, a vase from 

 El Banco, the neck is quite short. The 

 shoulder decoration consists of three 

 panels, each bearing a series of scale- 

 group symbols. Each of the two ho- 

 rizontal panels in figure b are double. 

 The four smaller black panels in a 

 framework of red are all treated in prac- 

 tically the same manner — a triangular 

 (or trapezoidal) space in the middle and 

 a trapezoid at either end, the three open 

 fields thus formed being decorated with 

 scale- and spine-symbols. 



Only spine symbols decorate the 

 neck of a wide-mouthed tripod vase 

 from Jacu (fig. c). These are sharply 

 recurved and distributed in pairs, rising from the upper one of three black 

 bands that surround the neck. Between the second and third band is a broad 

 red band. Even less easily interpreted are the spine symbols in figure cZ, a shal- 

 low tripod bowl from Divala. The visible interiors of shallow bowls are usually 

 painted, this one being an exception. It is somewhat more highly polished 

 than the exterior, and the slip, if used at all, must have been very thin. The rim 

 is painted red. Below it, on the outer surface, are two black bands. Next comes 

 a red band, hanging from which is a series of spine symbols in black. The latter 

 would be inexplicable but for the use of the same motive in other connections. 

 The legs are banded, as usual, and probably represent life forms. 



The bowl of a tripod from Divala (fig. e) is not so shallow as the preceding, 

 and the rim, being gently incurved, does not mark the level of the greatest hori- 



Fig. 240. — Neckless vase with dorsal-view alligator motive 

 as a panel decoration. Alligator ware. 2 / 3 



