MATEEIAL, CULTURE OF THE INDIANS OF SAMANA 67 



Perforators and drills. — Objects recovered from Samana Province 

 showing perforations for suspension are represented by tubular stone 

 beads and by small zemis of stone and shell. The incised puncta- 

 tions and perforations on pottery were made with a blunt or pointed 

 implement, probably a sliver of wood, such as was used in making 

 other incised decorative lines. Many of the objects of flaked stone 

 recovered are of general or unspecialized use and may be described 

 as perforators, picks, or knives. 



An unusual form of stone tool is illustrated as 8, Plate 1, Cat. No. 

 341018, U.S.N.M. There are many uses to which an aboriginal 

 population might put such a massive perforating point and cutting 

 edge as the one shown in the illustration. The stone is a fine-grained 

 variety of schist; it was shaped by striking off a few large flakes 

 from a core consisting of a large pebble of roughly rectangular shape. 

 Two large facets converge at the center of one end to a sharply 

 defined point. Identical forms of stone tools, often obviously im- 

 provised but always revealing the centrally projecting point, occur 

 among the refuse heaps and workshops throughout aboriginal Amer- 

 ica. Many were collected by the writer from village sites and burials 

 along the Columbia River in the State of Washington. Dimensions : 

 Length, 13 centimeters (5.1 inches) ; width, 11.5 centimeters (4.6 

 inches); thickness, 4 centimeters (1.6 inches). 



A large perforator of stone (Cat. No. 341012, U.S.N.M.), still 

 showing the marks of the saw with which it was formed, was un- 

 covered at the San Juan site. The object is illustrated in Plate 9, 

 No. 2. It is 6.8 centimeters (2.6 inches) long and 1.5 centimeters 

 (0.6 inch wide). There are bilateral ridges left by the incomplete 

 sawing extending the entire length. This unintentional pilastering 

 gives the tool a thickness of more than 1 centimeter. The saw em- 

 ployed in cutting this tool from the stone core must have been of 

 sandstone. As just stated, the axial sawing is incomplete, and when 

 the tool was nearly severed it was broken from the core with one 

 blow. This method of incomplete sawing is practiced by the Eskimo 

 and Indian tribes of the North Pacific coast and used by them in 

 shaping their jadeite and greenstone celts. The object just described 

 is cut from calcite, a durable stone of whitish color. The point 

 shows much evidence of use and is irregularly fractured. 



Knives and scrapers. — Practically the only forms of flaked and 

 chipped stone implements recovered from Samana Province were ex- 

 cavated from the cave floor in the deposits in the San Lorenzo Bay 

 region. It has been said that stone implements such as are figured 

 in Plate 3 are undeniably pre-Arawak. These and many other stone 

 implements of similar description were excavated from the shell de- 

 posits in the caves in the San Lorenzo Bay region, but none were 

 recovered from the village sites at San Juan and from Anadel- 



