66 BULLETIN 14 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



rington from " Ciboney " sites in Pinar del Rio Province in Cuba 

 are much more finished in appearance. Entirely rechipped edges 

 come from the " Ciboney " sites, while the Samana specimens show 

 more crude flaking, with but little evidence of rechipping. Sharp 

 points and cutting edges were fashioned by striking off large axial 

 flakes with a few well-directed blows from a hammerstone. Stone 

 cores with transversely chipped facets were recovered from the cave 

 deposits of Samana. Some of these revealed a slight development 

 of the art of stone chipping, but no tools or implements shaped 

 entirely through the process of chipping were recovered by the 

 Museum expedition. From some of the descriptions given it will be 

 noted that both as to chipping and as to notching and grooving, the 

 stone-shaping technic of the aborigines of Samana was in its incipent 

 stages. 



Stone implements figured in Plate 3 are typical of the flaked im- 

 plements found in some quantity embedded in shell heaps in caves 

 in the San Lorenzo Bay region of Samana Bay. Here were accom- 

 panying artifacts such as shell gouges of the shoehorn type, plates 

 and ladles of shell, caches of round pebbles near the hearth or fire- 

 place, like those found by de Booy near Macoris, together with a 

 few isolated undecorated potsherds. Number 1 of Plate 3 is a com- 

 bination tool formed by fracturing, plain on one side and showing 

 a median ridge with several facets on the other. The implement is 

 a combination knife and perforating tool and was doubtlessly used 

 in several ways by the aboriginal cave dwellers as a tool for opening 

 shells, as a pick, and as a knife. There is no chipping at the edges, 

 which are sharp. For No. 1 dimensions are : 11.5 centimeters (4.5 

 inches) long, 3.2 centimeters (1.3 inches) wide, and 0.7 centimeter 

 (0.3 inch) thick. (Cat. No. 341057, TJ.S.N.M.) No. 3, Plate 3, has 

 no perforating point, but has been fractured into the form of a 

 knife. This flaked implement has median ridges on either lateral 

 side, and has bilateral edges of knifelike sharpness. It is a type of 

 flaked knife found elsewhere in the New World and used in the 

 manner of aboriginal folk practically the world over. Dimensions: 

 9.7 centimeters (3.8 inches) long, 2.6 centimeters (1 inch) wide, and 

 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) thick. (Cat. No. 341053, U.S.N.M.) No. 2, 

 4, 5, and 6 of Plate 3 are more irregularly flaked flint implements. 

 Either lateral side shows many facets and the median ridge is 

 irregular or entirely missing. Larger bowlders from which these 

 knives were struck off are never found near or in the caves {in situ), 

 the rock formation there being of limestone. It is obvious that these 

 simple stone tools were shaped by the only process known to the 

 cave population, short of polishing. It was not their custom to 

 polish knives or to manufacture stone celts. Their only recourse 

 was to the process of fracturing for such extemporized implements. 



