Vampiros Rockshelters

Folder Type:

Archaeology Site

Primary Title:

Vampiros Rockshelters

Summary Description:

The rock-shelters known as Vampiros-1 and Vampiros-2 are located on the central Pacific coast of Panama (Parita Bay, Coclé province). The shelters are best known for being, firstly, the second site in Central America after Los Tapiales, Guatemala, to preserve stratified “Paleoindian” (Late Glacial human hunter-gatherer) artifacts, secondly, for functioning as fishing and fish-salting camps during the period 2300-1700 radiocarbon years ago and, thirdly for provided an unusually detailed stratigraphic record for a cultural site occupied or ignored during the environmental changes that occurred during the Late Glacial and Holocene eras due to deglaciation and global warming, sea level rise, deforestation for agricultural practices, and delta formation. The shelters are located on the south-eastern side of a Tertiary “inselberg” (isolated geological feature), which is now at the landward edge of Holocene marine-coastal sediments. The inselberg, named Cerro Tigre, lies on the northern bank of the River Santa Maria, which serves as the boundary between Coclé province (to the north) and Herrera province (to the south). Cerro Tigre is now 3 km from the active shore of Parita Bay; but its position vis-à-vis the Pacific Ocean and the Santa María River delta have changed constantly due to the combined effects of Holocene sea level rise, riverine geomorphology, and sedimentation, and local eolian (wind-borne) influences stimulated by strong trade wind activity in dry seasons. Vampiros-1 was discovered by Panamanian Elías Lopez and Colombian Carlos Armando Rodríguez in 1982 during walking surveys in the albina (a flat supra- and high tidal zone) during the first season of the “Proyecto Santa Maria,” an NSF- and Smithsonian-financed research project (1981-85). Two 1x1 m test pits were dug there in the dry season of 1982. The first was placed on the talus (slope). An ancient rock fall prevented its reaching the base of cultural deposits. Test Pit 2 was placed on the dry-ish floor of the shelter itself and reached a depth of 2.60 m below the ground surface when progress was once again prevented by rocks resulting from the roof collapse in prehistory. These tests revealed a clear stratigraphic separation between 1) superficial late Pre-Columbian, Historic and Modern cultural sediments, 2) strongly laminated cultural refuse consisting of abundant marine shells, much refuse with fish and other vertebrate bones, ash, and charcoal, 3) terrigenous sediments without shell and scarce stone flakes. Radiocarbon dates between 2490 and 1730 BP (radiocarbon years ago) were obtained in the second stratum, and a single date of 8560 ± 160 BP in stratum 3. This date, plus the presence of bifacial thinning flakes (signs of the in situ preparation of bifacial stone projectile points) was then the oldest radiocarbon recovered in Panama. No more excavations were undertaken on Cerro Tigre until 2002 when Georges Pearson-- a Canadian archaeologist from Québec, Canada-- returned to Cerro Tigre during his Ph.D. thesis project at the University of Kansas. He re-opened the excavations in Vampiros-1 and expanded the test pits of 1982. These enabled him to reach the base of the cultural deposits and assess the nature of the cave floor sediments. Pearson also cleared an adjacent shelter, Vampiros-2, which had been seen in 1982, subsequently digging a 4 m test pit here without broaching the layers with the earliest cultural horizon visible in Vampiros-1. Vampiros-2) proved to have a superb record of the second cultural horizon, whose deposits, classified as fishing camp remains, represented re-occupation of the shelter after 2500 years BP when the shelter was on or very near the active Parita Bay marine shore. Pearson’s 2002-2004 work discovered a thin (10-20 cm) occupation with sparse stone tools being the only cultural remains. These included stone tools characteristic of the Paleoindian cultural tradition, dated between about 13,000 and11,000 calibrated radiocarbon years ago. One was a thin fluted bifacial projectile point known to specialists as a “fish-tail” point. The test cuts were widened in 2004-2006. Attempts to acquire funds for further research were unsuccessful. Technological details point to the presence of a light early (Clovis) Paleoindian occupation, which has been identified at the nearby sites of La Mula-Sarigua and Sitio Nieto on the Azuero Peninsula. Other characteristic Paleoindian tools, such as end-scrapers on flakes, and spurred scrapers were also recovered in Vampiros-1. The basal soils (Stratum 3) are very acid, however, and were probably responsible for the absence of animal bone under the shell-filled layers. It does seem, though, that Vampiros-1 was used before 7800 years ago as a camp where hunting tools were curated, eg, replacing broken points and preparing wooden or ivory shafts and fore-shafts with unifacial medium to heavy scrapers (flaked on one side only). Vampiros-1 was not used between 7700 and 2300 years ago, probably because rising sea level had caused marine waters to move inland, westwards of Cerro Tigre, leaving the shelters in tidal and intertidal zones. As riverine sedimentation progressed, pushing the active marine shore-line eastwards, people returned around 2800 years ago (cal BCE 1010-820) to bury their dead in recesses in Vampiros-1. By about 2200 and until 1700 years ago, both shelters became foci for intensive activities revolving around fishing and the in situ preparation of fish, most likely by the same wind-and-sun drying, and salting techniques, which are still practiced around Parita Bay today. Finds of domestic duck (Cairina moschata), iguana, deer, and raccoon bones in the kitchen refuse to suggest that small groups, perhaps families, resided here while preparing the fish, which was most likely a dry season activity. Inland-to-coast seasonal migration by families was still regular practice in this general area in the 1970s and 1980s. The marine coastal fish remains found in middens at sites as far inland as 60 km were, in all likelihood, provided by transportation from specialized coastal stations like the Vampiros shelters. Seventy percent of fish remains found in middens at Sitio Sierra--a large village located 13 km inland along the River Santa María--were of marine origin. The commonest marine species there, such as thread-herring (Opisthonema libertate), Pacific lookdown (Selene peruviana) and brassy grunt (Orthopristis chalceus), were commonly deposited in the Vampiros middens during the village’s occupation. Colombian archaeozoologist Diana Carvajal studied the fishing camp remains in 2004-2006 recovering data that served as the nucleus of her doctoral research at the University of Calgary, Canada. Her thesis is being prepared (2016) for publication in Colombia.

Keyword Type: Geographic

Parita Bay, Coclé Province

Keyword Type:

Late Glacial human hunter-gatherer

Keyword Type:

fishing and fish-salting camps

Actor: Discoverer

Elías López (panamanian)

Actor: Discoverer

Carlos Armando Rodríguez (colombian)

Actor: 2002 Test Pits

George Pearson

Actor: Analysing the fishing camp remains (2004-2006)

Diana Carvajal

PID	Type	Title	Metadata	URL
si_2754855		2002-2006 excavations	TitleInfo/title 2002-2006 excavations Abstract Vampiros-1 (AG-145), 2002-2006 excavations, test it 1, back wall showing location of column samples. Identifier VAM_s_0001.jp2	Download
si_2754856		Vampiros-1 (AG-145)	TitleInfo/title Vampiros-1 (AG-145) Abstract Vampiros-1 (AG-145), sieving sediments in front of the rock-shelter. Georges Pearson (right) and Robert Beckwith (right). Identifier VAM_s_0002.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002	Download
si_2754857		Amplification of Sondeo 1	TitleInfo/title Amplification of Sondeo 1 Abstract Beginning of the excavation of the amplification of Test Pit (sondeo 1). Princeton University students excavating dietary molluscs. Identifier VAM_s_0003.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002	Download
si_2754858		Sieving sediments	TitleInfo/title Sieving sediments Abstract Vampiros-1 (AG-145), sieving sediments in front of the rock-shelter. Richard Cooke (left), Georges Pearson center) and Robert Beckwith (right). Identifier VAM_s_0004.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002	Download
si_2754859		Xerophytic vegetation	TitleInfo/title Xerophytic vegetation Abstract Vampiros-1 (AG-145), showing xerophytic vegetation and dunes in front of the site. Identifier VAM_s_0005.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002	Download
si_2754860		Location of the Vampiros shelters	TitleInfo/title Location of the Vampiros shelters Abstract Cerro Tigre (location of the Vampiros shelters) during the wet season. Identifier VAM_s_0006.jp2	Download
si_2754861		Sieving soils	TitleInfo/title Sieving soils Abstract Vampiros-1 (AG-145), sieving soils from the excavation. Georges Pearson (left) & Robert Beckwith (right). Name Marcos Guerra Name/role[2]/roleTerm Photographer Identifier VAM_s_0007.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002	Download
si_2754862		La Mula Trichrome types	TitleInfo/title La Mula Trichrome types Abstract Seven sherds belonging to the Giron, Escota and La Mula Trichrome types, from Pit at AG-145 (Vampiros-1). Identifier VAM_s_0008.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 1982	Download
si_2754863		Test pit 2	TitleInfo/title Test pit 2 Abstract AG-145 (Vampiros-1). Excavation of test pit 2 on the shelter floor, nearing the bottom of the cut and showing column samples. Name Anthony Ranere Name/role[2]/roleTerm Archaeologist Identifier VAM_s_0009.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 1982	Download
si_2754864		Taking sediments	TitleInfo/title Taking sediments Abstract AG-145 (Vampiros-1), taking sediments from the test excavations to the sieves. Name Arturo Tapia Name/role[2]/roleTerm Worker Identifier VAM_s_0010.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 1982	Download
si_2754865		AG-145 at the background	TitleInfo/title AG-145 at the background Abstract Cerro Tigre with AG-145 (background) showing the albina before the construction of the shrimp tanks. Anthony Ranere in picture. Identifier VAM_s_0012.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 1982	Download
si_2754866		1982 Test Pit	TitleInfo/title 1982 Test Pit Abstract AG-145 (Vampiros-1 shelter). Beginning excavation of test pit 1982. Name Carlos Rodríguez Name/role[2]/roleTerm Excavator Identifier VAM_s_0013.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 1982 Location/physicalLocation Panama Location/holdingSimple[2]/copyInformation/subLocation Cocle Name[2]/namePart Elías López Name[2]/role Excavator	Download
si_2754867		El Tigre albina	TitleInfo/title El Tigre albina Abstract Old El Tigre albina, after shrimp-tank construction. Identifier VAM_s_0014.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002 Location/physicalLocation Panama Location/holdingSimple[2]/copyInformation/subLocation Cocle	Download
si_2754869		West wall	TitleInfo/title West wall Abstract Vampiros -1. Profile of west wall of cut 1 (see Pearson and Cooke 2007, figure 8). Identifier VAM_s_0016.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002 Location/physicalLocation Panama Location/holdingSimple/copyInformation/subLocation Cocle	Download
si_2754870		Sieving sediments	TitleInfo/title Sieving sediments Abstract Richard Cooke and Princeton University students sieve sediments from Vampiros-1 at the project house. Identifier VAM_s_0018.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002	Download
si_2754871		Vampitos Test Pit	TitleInfo/title Vampitos Test Pit Abstract Vampiros-1, beginning of the excavation of the amplification of Test Pit (sondeo) 1. Name Marcos Guerra Name/role[2]/roleTerm Photographer Identifier VAM_s_0020.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002	Download
si_2754872		Vampiros-1	TitleInfo/title Vampiros-1 Abstract Vampiros-1, excavation of a test pit outside the shelter. Identifier VAM_s_0021.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002	Download
si_2754873		Vampiros-1	TitleInfo/title Vampiros-1 Abstract Vampiros-1, in Cerro Tigre. Outside the site, Princeton University students lunching. Identifier VAM_s_0023.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002 Location/physicalLocation Panama Location/holdingSimple[2]/copyInformation/subLocation Cocle	Download
si_2754874		Princeton students Vampiros 1	TitleInfo/title Princeton students Vampiros 1 Abstract Vampiros-1 in Cerro Tigre. Princeton University students sieving sediments from excavations. Identifier VAM_s_0024.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002 Location/physicalLocation Panama Location/holdingSimple[2]/copyInformation/subLocation Cocle	Download
si_2754875		Road to Cerro Tigre	TitleInfo/title Road to Cerro Tigre Abstract Road to Cerro Tigre after the construction of the shrimp tanks in the El Tigre Albina. Identifier VAM_s_0026.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2002	Download
si_2754878		Shrimp tanks	TitleInfo/title Shrimp tanks Abstract Road to Cerro Tigre after the construction of the shrimp tanks in the El Tigre Albina. Identifier VAM_s_0029.jp2	Download
si_2754879		Vampiros Shelter 1	TitleInfo/title Vampiros Shelter 1 Abstract Photographer inside Vampiros Shelter 1; test pit 2 of 1982 visible. Name Carl Hansen Name/role[2]/roleTerm Photographer Identifier VAM_s_0030.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 1987	Download
si_2754880		Dry season Cerro Tigre	TitleInfo/title Dry season Cerro Tigre Abstract Cerro Tigre at dry season. Viewed from a road though the post-alvina salt flats. Identifier VAM_s_0031.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 2004	Download
si_2754881		Road	TitleInfo/title Road Abstract Road through the flooded albina or high tidal flats. Identifier VAM_s_0032.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 1982	Download
si_2754882		High tidal flat view	TitleInfo/title High tidal flat view Abstract Backgound: Cerro Tigre, foreground: test excavations at site AG-125 in the high tidal flats. Identifier VAM_s_0033.jp2 OriginInfo/dateCaptured 1982	Download
si_2782497		North Profile	TitleInfo/title North Profile Abstract Stratigraphic Profile from the north wall Location/physicalLocation Coclé Location/holdingSimple/copyInformation/subLocation Cerro Tigre	Download