ANTHROPOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE IN SOUTH 



AMERICA 



By JULIAN H. STEWARD 

 Associate Anthropologist, Bureau of American Ethnology 



En route to Ecuador and Peru to spend several months during the 

 summer of 1938 in anthropological reconnaissance, a visit was made 

 to the picturesque ruins of Old Panama (fig. 117), a few miles south 

 of modern Panama City. Founded in 15 19 and sacked by Morgan, 

 the English pirate, in 1 671, this large town had flourished and passed 

 into history before the sites of most cities of the United States had 

 been visited by white men. 



Surprising and gratifying results came from this visit to Old Pan- 

 ama. It was found that the site has archeological importance as well 

 as historical appeal. During the century and a half that the city 

 had been occupied, refuse such as accumulates around any site in- 

 habited by people had been piling up on the ground. Broken and 

 discarded tiles, bits of pottery, bones, and many other objects were 

 scattered through the earth. After the town was abandoned, the 

 Pacific ocean began to encroach upon part of the refuse, eating it 

 away and leaving a vertical face or cliff some 6 to 8 feet high. In the 

 cross-section thus exposed, many fragments of unmistakably abori- 

 ginal Indian pottery were abundant at and near the bottom of the 

 refuse but disappeared toward the top. The archeological story was 

 plain. When the town was founded, Indians were amongst its popu- 

 lation and at first made their own native style of pottery. After a 

 generation or two, however, they learned to make glazed pots of the 

 Spanish style and forsook their own ware. 



Though not spectacular, this Indian pottery has great importance 

 for archeology. It is one of the oldest pottery types of known date 

 in Panama and will serve, therefore, to date strictly Indian sites in 

 which it is found. It will also provide an important datum point 

 for determining the sequence of Indian pottery styles in the region of 

 Panama. 



The trip was resumed by boat to Guayaquil and thence by train to 

 Quito, the beautiful capital of Ecuador situated at. 9,500 feet in the 

 Andes. Subsequently, a visit was made to Cuzco located at over 11,000 

 feet in the Peruvian highland. In both nations, the bulk of the moun- 



