MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE INDIANS OF SAMANA 79 



eter. The material used is similar to the paste employed in the 

 majority of objects recovered from San Juan, where this whorl 

 was excavated. Tempering material is also similar and consists 

 of many granular particles of sand and gravel and bits of crystal 

 quartz. 



Other objects figured in Plate 17 are more problematical. The 

 designs vary, some being rectilinear incised converging at a common 

 center ; others being partly curvilinear and extending across the sur- 

 face transversely; still others being small punctations divided into 

 panels with a grooving stick; and one introduces deep pits more 

 or less evenly spaced. It is probable that these various pottery 

 forms represent objects used in games. This guess may stand until 

 better or more convincing evidence to the contrary is forthcoming. 

 The average diameter is 7 centimeters (2.7 inches) ; thickness, 1.5- 

 2 centimeters (0.6-0.8 inch). Some of the figures are incised on 

 either lateral flat surface; others are plain on the reverse. When 

 designs are applied to both flat surfaces they differ one from 

 another in each instance. This w^ould scarcely be necessary with 

 a simple utilitarian implement. If 3, for example, were a stamp, 

 then the impressions made by it would be in relief. No fragments 

 of decorated ware were recovered at San Juan showing such raised 

 dots except one (PI. 18). This can be accounted for in another 

 manner. In Plate 18 are illustrated a series of pottery fragments 

 incorporating decorative designs consisting of series of pits. One 

 of these fragments, 1 of Plate 18, Cat. No. 311039, U.S.N.M., shows 

 parallel rows of shallow pits evenly spaced. These pits were made 

 with a blunt end of a stick, but were applied with such force as 

 to make a corresponding raised dot on the reverse surface of the 

 potsherd. The raised figures on the reverse or inner surface of 

 No. 1 are thus explained as not having been fashioned with a pottery 

 stamp similar to 3, Plate 17. 



Fragmentary shards of coiled ware with punctated surface designs 

 appear in Plate 18 as 2, 3, and 4, Cat. No. 341039, U.S.N.M. All 

 have a surface color of dull-brick brown, but have been blackened 

 by use on one or both surfaces. No. 3 has pitted decorative designs 

 appearing on the inner surface of the fragment; others have the 

 design on the outer surface. No. 4 is unique in that the pits are exca- 

 vated from a ridge or shoulder appearing on the surface of the shard 

 near the bottom of the vessel. This is an archaic type and consti- 

 tutes a survival in decorative design from the earliest archaic forms 

 of decorative embellishment on pottery vessels. It appears on forms 

 of South American pottery, especially from Venezuela and Colombia. 



Crosshatching and stone collar decorative designs. — A form of 

 decorated ware from the West Indies hitherto undescribed occurs in 



