MATERIAL CULTUEE OP THE INDIANS OF SAMANA 85 



The four figurines under discussion were recovered from the de- 

 posits at the site of San Juan, on the north coast of the peninsula, 

 and are entered in the Museum records as Cat. No, 341038, U.S.N.M. 



It is apparent that these clay objects were not fashioned at San 

 Juan, where they were found, and that they were brought from a 

 distance. This evidence of trade in aboriginal Haiti is further veri- 

 fied in the unusual type of modeling, the application of variously 

 colored paints, and the foreign type of clay paste employed in the 

 water bottles from San Juan and illustrated in Plate 15. If archeo- 

 logical research had progressed as far in the West Indies as in the 

 southwestern United States in the study of native pottery forms 

 there is little doubt but that the provinance of such types as those 

 just described might be given. It is necessary to be able to do this 

 before important points bearing on migi-ation, culture sequence, and 

 relative age may be solved. 



Pottery pestle lens. — Dr. J. M. Fewkes classifies the stone pestles 

 of the Greater Antilles, according to their component parts, as grind- 

 ing surface, termed the lens ; the handle ; the ferrule ; and the head. 

 As mentioned previously, the stone pestles from Samana have no 

 decorative head figurine, and in other respects resemble the stone 

 pestles of the Caribs of the Lesser Antilles. Two other kinds of 

 pestles were found by the Museum expedition in Samana; one of 

 shell, Cat. No. 3410oi, U.S.N.M., illustrated as 5 on Plate 9; the 

 other of earthenware. Cat. No. 341022, U.S.N.M., and not figured. 

 Only the lens and a section of the handle of the latter were recovered. 

 The lens is developed somewhat in the form of a door knob, while the 

 handle shaft is narrow. It is broken off 5.5 centimeters (2.2 inches) 

 above the base. The diameter of the lens at the base is 6 centimeters 

 (2.4 inches). The base is smooth and shows no evidence of use as a 

 triturating or grinding pestle. The paste of which the pestle frag- 

 ment is shaped has been tempered with pulverized potsherds, bits of 

 shell, stone, and sand. The handle shaft does not project from the 

 exact center of the lens and so betrays a crudity in free-hand molding. 

 Most pestles from Haiti have a well-developed lens, whether the 

 media be stone, shell, or earthenware. The aborigines of Samana 

 probably used the earthenware pestle as a cassava, food, or pigment 

 grinder. Although fashioned of nondurable material, the earthen- 

 ware pestle is much larger than the pestle of carved shell, Cat. No. 

 341004, U.S.N.M., which is but 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) long, 

 and has a lens of 1.5 centimeters (0.6 inch) diameter. 



Rims omd lugs. — In Plates 19 and 20 are illustrated a series of 

 pottery rims and handles of a decorative pattern typical of the 

 Tainoan ware from the Greater Antilles in general. If the region 

 were better known archeologically it is safe to venture the assertion 



