Cueva Bustamente
- Folder Type:
- Archaeology Site
- Primary Title:
- Cueva Bustamente
- Summary Description:
- Archaeological knowledge of this small rock-shelter, located near the Majecito River in Panama Este Province, dates back to the late, prolonged “El Niño” dry season of 1973, when Junius B. Bird and Richard Cooke-- then an employee of the Bird Research Fund of the American Museum of Natural History and Panama’s Directorate of Historic Heritage--conducted small excavations there. These were a sub-project of Bird’s” Isthmian Paleoindian Survey” (1972-1976). Scientists and employees at the Gorgas Memorial Institute’s (GML) field station--established for monitoring disease-transmitting insect populations while the waters of recently flooded Lake Bayano were rising--had alerted Bird to the existence of this shelter, which received its name from the immigrant santeño family that lived nearby planting yams and raising few cattle. Cueva Bustamante was just west of the Majecito River in 1973. At this time, GPS and ArcView were not in use. Locating the site exactly has proved difficult since the now-full Lake Bayano encroached rapidly upon the shelter. It has not been possible to pinpoint the site on Google Earth. A visit to the area beckons. Bird and Cooke arrived at the shelter by walking from the Gorgas Memorial field station. This was perched on top of a hill in the midst of what appeared to be mature secondary forest. Inside the forest it was relatively cool and humid. Mosquitoes and other biting insects were common. But temperatures rose abruptly on leaving the forest since the recently arrived santeño settlers has denuded the vegetation around their house and burned the cut vegetation. The land was parched. Bird was at that time in his late sixties, but still very strong. Cooke was 26. The walk in from the GMLfield station was very hilly, and quite arduous. The trek was complicated by the fact that GML employees had presciently suggested hand-carrying in 10 gallon flagons of water since wells were dry. Dry food and excavation supplies was ferried in later by the Bustamante family and two of Bird’s assistants who had participated in the 1972-73 excavations at two limestone rock-shelters on the shores of the artificial impoundment of Lake Madden (now Alajuela). These assistants were Cándido Palacios, originally from the Colombian Quibdó region, who was in his seventies, but still extraordinarily muscular, and the considerably younger Elmer Díaz, a santeño who resided at Calzada Larga near Lake Alajuela. Both are now long deceased, Elmer in a motorcycle accident. Fieldwork supplies for Cueva Bustamante included a wheel barrow and one of Bird’s famous collapsible dump-sifters, which had seen service at the famous Peruvian site of Huaca Prieta in the 1940s. Farm owner Ernesto “Chon” Bustamante’s wife cooked for the team. There were lots of dogs, which seemed to subsist on a diet of rice, and rice alone. They were very noisy. So was a pauraque (a kind of nightjar [Nyctodromus albicollis]), which would perch every night on the apex of the palm frond roof of the Bustamante house, uttering its far-carrying twee-oo call all night. This would drive Junius Bird crazy. He developed the habit of rushing out at night with a bag load of pebbles with which to pelt the nightjar, which invariably returned the same night. After the day’s work at the rock-shelter, Junius would gather requisite number of small round pebbles to take home. Sometimes he propelled them with a sling made of a bed sheet.
- Place: Site Location
- Country: Panama Province: Este Site: Cueva Bustamente
- Actor: Excavator
- Junius B. Bird
- Actor: Sponsor
- Panama’s Directorate of Historic Heritage
- Actor: Excavator
- Richard Cooke
- Actor: Sponsor
- Bird Research Fund of the American Museum of Natural History
| PID | Type | Title | Metadata | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| si_1259748 | Bustamante entrance.jp2 |
| Download | |
| si_1259749 | Bustamante, 1973 |
| Download | |
| si_1259750 | Bustamante, 1973 |
| Download | |
| si_1259751 | Bustamante, 1973 |
| Download | |
| si_1259752 | Bustamante, 1973 |
| Download | |
| si_1259783 | Bustamante postsherds |
| Download | |
| si_2756863 | Map of Cueva Bustamente |
| Download |