144 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 146 
spread slowly north as far as Panama and south to the north coast of 
Peru, but the impression is left that it was more in the nature of a 
luxury than a basic utilitarian trait. There is a possibility that this 
early ceramic tradition, characterized by incised, punctate, and ap- 
plique decoration, is ancestral to the modeled and incised styles later 
represented by Malambo in Colombia and Barrancas in eastern Vene- 
zuela, styles that have little in common with the characteristic Forma- 
tive ceramics of the Mesoamerican and Andean Areas. 
The first appearance of pottery making in Mesoamerica seems to 
be independent and perhaps slightly later than in South America, al- 
though it is dangerous to accept present evidence as final. The lack of 
comparability both in vessel shape and in technique and motif of dec- 
oration suggests that the source is not South America. Some archeolo- 
gists favor an origin by diffusion from Asia either overland via 
North America, or directly, by sea. If this hypothesis is supported by 
future work, we may never be in a position to know whether or not 
pottery making would have been independently invented in the New 
World if the idea had not been forthcoming from elsewhere at the ap- 
propriate time. 
These problems that elude solution constitute part of the challenge 
of archeological research. We are engaged in solving a vastly compli- 
cated puzzle, and many of the pieces are still missing. We neverthe- 
less are impatient to know what the completed picture will be like. 
The versions presented in this volume may or may not continue to be 
believeable as more pieces are set in place. We hope that they will 
prove to be generally correct, but will be disappointed if those who 
see the pattern differently do not try to find the evidence that will 
prove us wrong, or to resolve some of the contradictions in interpreta- 
tion that will become apparent to a careful reader. There is much still 
waiting to be discovered in spite of the intensified fieldwork of re- 
cent years. 
One conclusion is so overwhelmingly documented that future re- 
search can only add to its support, namely, that a tremendous amount 
of contact existed aboriginally between widely separated geographical 
areas, not only by diffusion from group to group, but in the form of 
long-range commerce and migration by land and sea. From the early 
Formative, if not before, there is evidence of direct communication 
between Mesoamerica and the west coast of South America, and from 
these primary centers influences passed in all directions. Not only this, 
but vo3^agers from Asia were apparently repeatedly cast upon the 
shores of the New World, constituting a continuing source of ideas 
that were incorporated at various times and places, with more or less 
