This rockshelter site is located approximately 17 km inland from Parita Bay on the Pacific Coast of Central Panama. Archaeological investigations at the site from 1973-75 and again in 1997 yielded many stone tools preserving microbotanical evidence of plant use and domestication (Piperno et al. 2000). The earliest evidence of maize use at the site comes from several milling stones (edge ground cobbles) recovered from the lowest, and thus earliest, deposits in Zone C. Six stone tools in Zone C (4 from the bottom levels), and 3 stone tools from Zone B above (somewhat later) had between 1 and 25 starch grains (Piperno et al. 2000:894, Table 1).
Mapping co-ordinates approximate.
ID | Other ID | Type | Subtype | Uncal BP (years) | ± 1 σ (years) | Median cal BP (years) | Lower cal BP (years) | Upper cal BP (years) | δ13C | Contaminated? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
379 | UCR-3418 | MicroSample | phytolith | 4250 | 60 | 4804 | 4967 | 4584 | No | |
467 | UCR-3417 | MicroSample | starch grain | 6910 | 60 | 7746 | 7922 | 7622 | No | |
468 | UCR-3418 | MicroSample | starch grain | 4250 | 60 | 4804 | 4967 | 4584 | No | |
378 | NZA-10929 | MicroSample | phytolith | 6207 | 60 | 7102 | 7256 | 6960 | No | |
377 | UCR-3417 | MicroSample | phytolith | 6910 | 60 | 7746 | 7922 | 7622 | No | |
409 | TEM-108 | MicroSample | phytolith | 3630 | 95 | 3953 | 4235 | 3693 | No | |
466 | NZA-10929 | MicroSample | starch grain | 6207 | 60 | 7102 | 7256 | 6960 | No |