At the present time this district is inhabited chiefly by Indians and
natives of mixed, blood, who follow grazing and agriculture to a limited
extent, but subsist largely upon the natural products of the country.
These peoples are generally thought to have no knowledge or trustworthy
tradition of the ancient inhabitants and are said to care nothing for
the curious cemeteries among which they dwell, except as a source of
revenue. Mr. A. L. Pinart states, however, that certain tribes on both
sides of the continental divide have traditions pointing toward the
ancient grave builders as their ancestors. There is probably no valid
reason for assigning the remains of this region to a very high
antiquity. The highest stage of culture here may have been either
earlier or later than the period of highest civilization in Mexico and
South America or contemporaneous with it. There is really no reason for
supposing that the tribes who built these graves were not in possession
of the country, or parts of it, at the time of the conquest. As to the
affinities of the ancient middle isthmian tribes with the peoples north
and south of them we can learn nothing positive from the evidences of
their art. So far as the art of pottery has come within my observation,
it appears to indicate a somewhat closer relationship with the ancient
Costa Rican peoples than with those of continental South America; yet,
in their burial customs, in the lack of enduring houses and temples, and
in their use of gold, they were like the ancient peoples of middle and
southern New Granada.[5]
The relics preserved in our museums would seem to indicate one principal
period of occupation or culture only; but there has been no intelligent
study of the contents of the soil in sections exposed in modern
excavations, the exclusive aim of collectors having generally been to
secure either gold or showy cabinet specimens. The relics of very
primitive periods, if such are represented, have naturally passed
unnoticed. Mr. McNiel mentions the occurrence of pottery in the soil in
which the graves were dug, but, regarding it as identical with that
contained in the graves, he neglected to preserve specimens.
In one instance, while on a visit to Los Remedios, a pueblo near the
eastern frontier of Chiriqui, he observed a cultivated field about which
a ditch some 8 or 9 feet in depth had been dug. In walking through this
he found a continuous exposure of broken pottery and stone implements.
Some large urns had been cut across or broken to conform to the slope of
the ditch, and were exposed in section.
Although not apparently representing a very wide range of culture or
distinctly separated periods of culture, the various groups of relics
exhibit considerable diversity in conception and execution,
attributable, no doubt, to variations in race and art inheritance.
[Footnote 5: R. B. White: Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Great Britain and
Ireland, p. 241. February, 1884.]