INTEODUCTION 9 



of clay ribbons api^lied in the form of the conventional art of the 

 area and (3) in the application of paints or slips. There is no 

 question in West Indian pottery as in the Titicacan ware of Peru 

 as to glazed surfaces or of the incrustation of shells, bits of wood^ 

 or other extraneous materials. 



The form of earthenware vessels, figurines, and other utilitarian 

 objects in clay affords a more satisfactory criterion for comparison 

 with subareas in eastern Indian ceramics than does decorative design, 

 which elsewhere with its various elements and motifs usually con- 

 stitutes a superior means of pointing the way in pottery classifica- 

 tion. Methods employed in producing pottery forms are simplified 

 in the West Indian area because there is no question there of the use 

 of molds and but rarely of stamps and of roulette decoration ; most 

 examples of decorative embellishment being produced by free-hand, 

 even to the details of decorative design, the use of a sharp stick, 

 fragment of gourd, or of the fingers of the hand, occasionally of 

 some stamp pattern being indicated. 



In discussing form there are four things to be considered: The 

 shape of the body of the vessel ; the shape and relation of the paste 

 to this body ; the presence or lack of an oral sector with a definite or 

 poorly defined neck and margin; and lack of annular rings, free 

 standing legs, applied looped handles, and other applied features. 

 Measurements given in this paper are of the maximum dimensions 

 of the vessel as to height, diameter, or applied secondary features, 

 also of the walls in cross section. We may roughly speak of thick, 

 medium, and thin-walled earthenware vessels in describing Santo 

 Domingan ceramics, but it is necessary to know what constitutes 

 the average thickness of each ware before such statement has any 

 meaning. This varies between one-fourth and one-eighth of an inch. 



The general lack of effigy vessels is to be noted; perhaps a better, 

 rough classification being that of utilitarian and ceremonial wareSy 

 with very few examples of the latter present in any collection. For 

 instance, but one or two known examples of the brazier exist. Per- 

 haps the greatest departure from the ordinary container in Santo 

 Domingan aboriginal earthenware vessels is found in the more 

 specialized water bottles; each of its several secondary features be- 

 ing in a class by itself, and not found elsewhere in contiguous centers 

 of pottery production. 



In contrasting West Indian pottery with that of the more distant 

 high cultures in INIexico, Peru, or Colombia, one notes at once in 

 the former the lack of ceremonial or cult vessels. When such earth- 

 enware receptacles do exist in the Antilles their shape, construction^ 

 and decoration are similar to those of the domestic or utilitarian 

 ceramic forms. 



