MUSEUM EXPEDITION TO SAMANA, 19 2 8 H 



A large quantity of cultural remains consisting of decorated pot- 

 tery, implements of stone, shell, and bone, together with bones of 

 small mammals, turtles, birds, and fish were collected at Anadel. 

 Work was continued at Anadel for a period of three weeks. Alto- 

 gether a greater variety of artifacts of a superior quality w-ere se- 

 cured from the Anadel site than from the cave middens on the south 

 shore. Cultural objects such as implements are sufficiently similar 

 from the two shores of the bay to justify an assumption of tribal 

 identity for the later aboriginal occupants of the caves and the 

 aboriginal population of Anadel. This identity of cultural remains, 

 how^ever, does not apply to the lower stratum of culture deposits 

 from the caves which belongs to the pre-Ciguayan troglodytic popu- 

 lation essentially dissimilar in most respects. 



Work at San Juan site. — The most extensive site explored by the 

 Museum expedition and the last of the season's projects to be under- 

 taken was the Ciguayan village site at the mouth of the San Juan 

 Eiver, on the north coast of Samana Peninsula, about 10 kilometers 

 due north of the town of Santa Barbara de Samana. The village was 

 at one time the principal town of the Ciguayan cacique Mayobanex. 

 A little bay known as Punto Escondido indents the abrupt coast at the 

 mouth of the San Juan River, on which the village fronts. The bay 

 is fully exposed to the Atlantic Ocean and incoming tide and break- 

 ers must have made primitive travel in native dugout boats difficult 

 in the extreme. Fishing for manatee was nevertheless occasionally 

 successful, as vouched for by the numbers of hafted picks recovered 

 by the expedition fashioned from the ribs of the manatee. Water 

 from the San Juan River for some distance upstream is brakish; 

 water from a spring near by is also salty. The native population 

 must have preferred living near the sea and going some distance for 

 their water rather than occupying a site farther upstream. 



The valley of the San Juan River is accessible by horse and bull- 

 ock transportation only, as there are no roads suited to wheel traffic. 

 The soil is rich and deep, and clumps of bamboo and numerous tiny 

 banana or plantain gardens become more numerous as the valley 

 broadens out near the mouth of the stream and the north shore of the 

 peninsula. The hills here become rougher and more picturesque. 

 Gabb, who was at the site of the village in 1869, speaks of the mouth 

 of the stream as being " as wild a spot as can well be imagined ; a 

 long sand beach, ending abruptly against a high bluff of black rocks, 

 with the broad Atlantic thundering against it wdth a ceaseless roar." 

 In the sixties, when Gabb visited this region, a small settlement of 

 two huts was near the mouth of the river. The Museum expedition 

 found several huts of squatters and tenants scattered about the area, 

 but no systematic attempt at settlement and agriculture anywhere 



