MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE INDMNS OF SAMANA 63 



heads, archaic clay figurines, and so-called pottery "stamps," is 

 characteristic of the culture of the Taino and of the island Arawak. 



Harrington has described the multiple-faceted polishing stone 

 found by him in Cuba as used in polishing and in grinding down 

 the stone from which the petaloid stone celts were fashioned. Now, 

 a similar object was recovered by the Museum expedition from the 

 bottom of the cultural deposits within the " Railroad " cave at a 

 level from which no other Tainoan objects were recovered. On the 

 contrary, many objects of shell, of distinctly pre-Tainoan origin, 

 were found, along with flint flakes and flaked stone implements. No 

 stone celts of any description were recovered from any of the caves 

 of the Playa Honda coast. Shell implements of diverse description, 

 including shell gouges of the Barbadoes shoehorn variety, which are 

 of frequent occurrence in Floridan shell heaps, were found. 



The presence in the caves of a celt polisher is therefore decidedly 

 anomalous, especially so as it comes from near the bottom of the 

 shell deposits from a culture layer of undoubtedly undisturbed mate- 

 rial. This implement is now in the National Museum of the Do- 

 minican Republic at San Domingo City. 



In Plate 5 are illustrated several varieties of stone celts. The 

 common highly polished type of petaloid greenstone celt forms No. 2 

 of the series (Cat. No. 341014, U.S.N.M.). Dimensions: 9 centi- 

 meters (3.6 inches) long, 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) wide, and 2.1 

 centimeters (0.8 inch) thick. It is noteworthy that stone celts of 

 this variety apparently always have perfect cutting edges when 

 recovered. Two celts of this type now in the National Museum are 

 still incased in a wooden handle haft. The smaller or rounded end 

 was inserted into a slot gouged or burned out of a bole of lignum- 

 vitae. The celt was frequently not hafted but was used like the 

 Carib axes as a hammerstone. 



While the object figured as 2 of Plate 5 is uniformly polished 

 throughout, 1 of the same plate is highly polished on its lower sec- 

 tion but is rough textured on the upper half. It is apparent that the 

 upper and smaller end had been inserted as a tang into a wooden 

 haft and had therefore not been polished. The material, a greenish 

 soapstone, is similar to that of 1. Dimensions: 8.7 centimeters (3.4 

 inches) long, 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) wide, 2.5 centimeters (1 

 inch) thick. (Cat. No. 341014, U.S.N.M.) 



In each of the celts just described the bevel from center to either 

 end is uniform and continuous and the body of the celt is oval in 

 section. No. 3 of Plate 5 shows flat and irregular lateral walls. A 

 polished surface has been effected through rubbing on a polishing 

 block of sandstone, but deep gougings on the surface remain un- 

 worked. Then, too, the bevel at the cutting edge is abrupt and is 



