78 BULLETIN 14 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



to paste and tempering materials, therefore, the red ware from San 

 Juan is similar to the usual Tainoan earthenware from the same area. 

 In form, however, and in the application of a red slip or paint and 

 in the firing the type is foreign to the regular Samana earthenware. 

 The walls of the vessels of this red ware are much thinner, the 

 firing has progressed to a more thorough stage, and the introduction 

 of the central diaphragm separating the vessel into two oval compart- 

 ments, together with the luting on of vertical bands of clay bilater- 

 ally near the rim of either compartment — all these characteristic^ 

 are foreign to the usual type. The walls of the vessel are thicker 

 at the center near the sectional diaphragm dividing the vessel into 

 two compartments. The vertically luted and ridges ribbons of clay 

 which appear near the upper surface of the bowl in pairs bilaterally 

 at the center of either compartment are possibly decorative lugs. 

 In fragments of other vessels recovered these lugs are not luted onto 

 the side walls of the vessel but are merely vertical extensions of the 

 upper or rim coils. The lugs then appear as modelings of animal 

 heads in a style distinct from the archaic figurine heads well known 

 as Tainoan. In this type of plastic sculpturing in clay, which is 

 new to science from the West Indies, the modeling of life designs 

 is ineorporative ; that is, the figures are not merely luted on but are 

 an essential part of the vessel, as in the ancient pottery of the Cauca 

 Kiver Valley of Columbia (pi. 25). 



A unique form of thin-walled red-ware vessel from the San Juan 

 appears as 3, Plate 14 (Cat. No. 341020, U.S.N.M.). The vessel 

 is almost a perfect sphere and is symmetrically rounded. The 

 walls are plain, but are unique in that they terminate abruptly with 

 the incurved shoulder and have no neck area or marginal reinforce- 

 ment. The bottom of the vessel is flat and constitutes another 

 hitherto undescribed type of earthenware vessel from the West Indies. 

 Dimensions: 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) in diameter; height, 8.5 

 centimeters (3.4 inches). Orifice at the top is 4 centimeters (1.6 

 inches) in diameter. Paste and tempering are similar to the usual 

 type of earthenware from the peninsula. 



Pottery stamps aiid miscellaneous objects. — Discoidal incised 

 earthenware objects from sites in eastern Santo Domingo have 

 been described as pottery stamps. It has also been conjectured 

 that they may be cassava graters. One of the group, illustrated as 

 6, Plate 17, No. 341023, U.S.N.M., is obviously neither but is a 

 spindle whorl of simplest form. It is fragmentary, but sufficient 

 material remains to identify it as such. There is no design incised 

 on its surface, as with the others shown on the plate. Its diameter 

 restored is 8 centimeters (3.2 inches) ; thickness, 1.3 centimeters (0.5 

 inch). The hole at the center is 1.4 centimeter (0.5 inch) in diam- 



