MUSEUM EXPEDITION TO SAMANA, 192 8 13 



It is possible, however, that more extensive excavations would lead 

 to a discovery of stratification, showing occupation at different times 

 by different groups of Arawak, and of a culture sequence as yet not 

 determined. 



ArcheoJogical investigations 'prior to 1928. — Sir Robert Schom- 

 burgk was the first student to describe acheological objects from 

 surface finds and kitchen middens on Samana Peninsula. Schom- 

 burgk undertook no intensive archeological project, althotigh his 

 observations and descriptions are accurate, as they are based on 

 extensive investigations on the archeology and on travels in eastern 

 Santo Domingo.^ 



The researches of William M. Gabb in the vicinity of Samana Bay 

 have previously been mentioned. Although Gabb's primary interest 

 was regarding the geology of the region, he made valuable observa- 

 tions and collections. He carefully studied and worked the middens 

 and cultural deposits in one of the caves on the south shore of Samana 

 Bay. It is impossible to identify the cave explored by him from 

 his description "in the vicinity of San Lorenzo Bay," as several of 

 the caves answer to the same general description relative to the num- 

 ber of openings, size, and other details. Gabb makes the following 

 general summary regarding his investigations of the shell deposits.^ 



Careful search was made in all the caves where any depth of deposit existed 

 over the rock bottom in hopes of finding some remains of cave animals, such 

 as those described from Anguilla, but none seem to exist. In the cave where 

 I slept tliere is an extensive and interesting kitchen midden divisible into two 

 eras ; the older marked only by shells and a few turtle and fish bones, resting 

 on the rocky floor, and through which I excavated to a depth of 9 feet. Over 

 this is a thinner layer of ashes with bones of birds, agouti, fish, and turtles, 

 and an abundance of pottery evidently of the immediately pre-Columbian era. 

 Over this:, liberally intermixed with bat guano, is a modern deposit of broken 

 earthen and iron kettles and beef and pig bones, indicative of a higher, or at 

 least, more modern civilization, though justice requires us to admit that the 

 pottery is inferior in workmanship, in elaborateness, and in beauty of design 

 to the preceding era. It is a remarkable circumstance that, although the In- 

 dians of the pottery period manufactured polished stone hatchets and other 

 implements equal in degree of finish to the finest ever discovered, and they are 

 not rare, not a stone instrument was discovered in the cave, unless we except 

 some rough rounded pebbles found among the shells, and which seem to have 

 been used as hammers for extracting the moUusca. I may also mention, al- 

 though irrelevant, that no arrow or lance heads have ever, so far as I can 

 learn, been found in the country, notwithstanding that the jaspers of the Nigua, 

 of which the hatchets were made, are admirably adapted for this purpose. The 

 absence of any mammal larger than the timid little agouti and of any birds 

 fit for food, except the pigeons, equally diflBcult of approach, probably rendered 

 the use of arrows for the chase nearly unnecessary ; while not improbably 



s Ethnological Researches in Santo Domingo, Journ. Ethnol. Soc. London, Dec. 11, 1851. 

 ^ On the Topography and Geology of Santo Domingo, Memoirs, Amer. Philos. Soc, vol. 

 15, pp. 146-147. 1872. 



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