74 BULLETIN 14 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



additional reinforcing ribbon of clay around the outer rim circum- 

 ference, or through the use of a thicker coil to complete the rim of the 

 vessel. The sharply defined thinning of the walls of the vessel just 

 below the rim margin may be seen in 3 of Plate 20 (Cat. No. 341025, 

 U.S.N.M.). 



Shards of globular shallow bowls were recovered at " Railroad " 

 cave, while fragments of incised line and of punctate decorative 

 patterns were picked up at the site of the burials on Upper Orange 

 Key and in the kitchen middens in " Simmon's " cave. Ordinarily 

 the cave pottery from Samami is plain, well-fired red ware, for the 

 most part unpainted, but revealing patches of a firmly incrusted red 

 or lavender hued slip or paint. Many of the shards are thin-walled, 

 but occasionally an unusually thick fragment appears. A few plain- 

 necked water-canteen fragments were recovered from cave 3 (Boca 

 del Infierno), while a few shallow globose bowl fragments similar 

 to the shallow Tainoan ware from the peninsula were uncovered from 

 the midden in the " Railroad " cave. 



One well-fired globular brick-colored bowl was dug up from Upper 

 Orange Key (Cat. No. 341056, U.S.N.M.). Quality of the paste and 

 the firing is superior to the more granular shards recovered from the 

 ordinary Taino site. The bowl is 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) in di- 

 ameter and 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) high. The %-centimeter-thick 

 walls have a coating of ashes and lime. A similar incrustation ad- 

 hered to the inner and outer walls of pottery objects recovered from 

 the two Orange Keys. Incrustations due to the dripping of lime- 

 impregnated water from the cave ceiling of Boca del Infierno cave 

 also adhered to the shards recovered from the cultural deposits there. 

 Shards from the vicinity of the hearth on the cave floor are thickly 

 coated with carbon, bespeaking their former use as cooking vessels. 

 The small number of canteen fragments from the caves is remarkable 



in view of the fact that drinking water had to be carried to the caves 



from a distance of one-half to 2 kilometers. 

 Food bowls from the burial cleft of Upper Orange Key with few 



exceptions, were broken beyond recognition of their original form. 



It is probable that some of the pottery fragments found with the 



burials were used as funerary urns in which the skull and long bones 



were placed. 



Characteristic of the form of pottery from the caves are such 



dfetails as handles or lugs of flat ribbons of clay and raised rims. 



These lugs are not luted on to the vessels after the fashion of the 



usual Tainoan ware but form an extension of and are incorporated 



in the coil block of the vessel. 



Shallow bowls and food dishes from the caves and from sites on 



the peninsula are not always oval or spherical. Rectangular vessels 



have raised rim sections alternating with depressed sections. The 



