Abstract
THIS is an extract from the sixth Annual Report of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, and will be read with interest by all students of American antiquities. Chiriqui occupies a part of the Isthmus of Panama, and at the present time is inhabited chiefly by Indians and natives of mixed blood. Many ancient cemeteries have been discovered along the Pacific slope of the district, and explorers have found in them a great quantity of more or less valuable objects of art. These objects Mr. Holmes has classified, and in the present monograph he carefully describes the characteristics of typical specimens. He first deals with the graves and their human remains, then passes on to consider, in order, objects in stone, objects in metal, and objects in clay. His descriptions are concise and lucid, and their value is greatly increased by a large number of excellent illustrations. Mr. Holmes is careful to point out that there is no valid reason for assigning a very high antiquity to the works of art found in Chiriqui. The tribes by whom the graves were made may, he thinks, have been in possession of the country, or parts of it, at the time of the conquest. Their pottery appears to indicate that they were more closely related with the ancient Costa Rican peoples than with those of continental South America; but in their burial customs, in the lack of enduring houses and temples, and in their use of gold, they were, as Mr. Holmes shows, like the ancient peoples of middle and southern New Granada.
Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui.
By W. H. Holmes. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1888.)
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Ancient Art of the Province of Chiriqui. Nature 40, 437 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/040437b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/040437b0