INTEODUCTIOlSr O 



The designation Carib, according to Oviedo, is an Arawak word 

 meaning a warlike people, but not a distinct race. Doctor Chanca 

 wrote that the Caribs occupied three of the Antilles, Guadeloupe, 

 Dominica, and St. Croix. Apparently there were no Caribs on the 

 island of Trinidad at the time of the discovery. 



Columbus was responsible for the statement that native barter 

 extended throughout the archipelago and included stools, gold, 

 dishes, pottery of diverse forms, and carved objects. The wares 

 that the Arawak of Cuba wished to barter with the Spanish con- 

 sisted of food and provisions, cotton, yarns in balls, and parrots. 

 With the Spanish, the Arawak of Santo Domingo wished to barter 

 for glass beads, brass bells, pins, laces, and glazed dishes from Spain. 



Columbus found on the north coast of Haiti in 1492 two varieties 

 of pottery in Marien, in the Bahia de Acul. Indians brought water 

 to the ships in " cantarillos de barro," also small vessels for the 

 Haitian maize soup. Herrera speaks of their " earthenware pitchers, 

 handsomely made and painted." According to Benzoni, the ca- 

 cique's bread was baked in a round pipkin, and they also used large 

 jars or vases and pipkins in the manufacture of their wine ^ ; he 

 also refers to their idols being made of clay.^ Angleria mentions 

 special pots for cooking iguanas. Anacaona presented to the 

 Adelantado 14 seats and 60 earthenware vessels for the kitchen, 

 besides 4 rolls of woven cotton of " immense " weight. 



A final statement regarding the northern and southern affiliations 

 of aboriginal earthenware forms and designs from Santo Domingo 

 would be premature until the several pottery subareas of eastern 

 United States and of Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, Panama, and 

 Colombia have been chronologically defined and described. Al- 

 though the number of specimens in collections from the islands of 

 the Lesser Antilles lying between Trinidad and the Virgin Islands 

 is small, detailed descriptions are available, and the area has been 

 studied by Fewkes, De Booy, Hatt, and others so far as the limited 

 archeological data for the area permits. The relation of Arawak 

 and Carib pottery in the Lesser Antilles, especially with regard to 

 chronological sequence and distribution, remains undetermined; as 

 does also the relation between Carib wares and the red and poly- 

 chrome ware of southwestern Porto Rico on the one hand and the 

 slipped red ware of southeastern Santo Domingo on the other. 



Several representative aboriginal pottery collections from the 

 Greater Antilles exist in the great museums of the United States 

 and Europe. In the United States the collections of Santo Domin- 

 gan aboriginal pottery of the Museum of the American Indian, 



'^ Benzoni, Girolamo, History of the New World, showing his travels in America, from 

 A. D. 1541 to 1556. Printed for the Hakluyt Society, London, 1857, p. 86. 

 »Idem., p. 78, 



