Cultural Stratigraphy in Panama: A Preliminary Report on the Girón Site

Abstract

The archaeology of Panama, like that of most of lower Central America and the north Andes, has but recently emerged from a purely descriptive stage. The formulation of cultural-geographical divisions in ceramic and sculptural styles — “Cultures” as these are sometimes called — has been the most important attempt at synthesis. Lothrop (1948) envisaged four such “culture areas”: (1) Darien (Panama below the Canal Zone); (2) Coclé (the Pacific watershed in Coclé, Herrera, and Las Tablas Provinces); (3) Veraguas (Pacific highland Panama in the Province of the same name); and (4) Chiriqui (the upland country of Chiriqui Province and adjacent Costa Rica). To these Stirling and Rands (personal communication) have recently added what is probably a fifth, the Atlantic coastal strip above the Canal Zone. The internal coherence or unity of these “culture areas” is of a most general sort.