24 BULLETIN 15 6, UlTITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



dian, Heye Foundation, which appeared in the Thirty-fourth An- 

 nual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1922 under the 

 title "A Prehistoric Island Culture Area of America." This work 

 is particularly useful in the comparative study of earthenware from 

 the several islands of the West Indian Archipelago. In the prepara- 

 tion of this report Doctor Fewkes visited museums in America and 

 Europe and engaged in field work in several of the West Indies, 

 notably Trinidad. Doctor Fewkes discovered what has also been 

 a stumbling block in later archeological studies, namely, that West 

 Indian archeological stations and shell midden deposits are of a 

 nature to preclude successful stratigraphic studies. 



Excavations in this cave [3 miles north of Manati, called Cueva de las 

 Golondrinas, "Cave of the Swallows"] showed that it was once frequented 

 by the aborigines, while pictographs on the walls gave other evidence of their 

 former presence. There were found among the debris, on the floor, many 

 fragments of the pottery peculiar to the islanders, and other evidences of 

 primitive life, among which were broken celts, bones of animals which had 

 served for food, and also ashes and charcoal. All of the implements and 

 utensils were of ancient manufacture and .so numerous that many people must 

 have frequented this coast region and used this cave as their camping place. 

 A few broken human bones were also uncovered, but whether they indicated 

 former anthropophagous feasts or hurried interments could not be determined. 

 The trenches dug in the cave floor through 10 feet of debris showed, at all 

 levels, art objects similar to those occurring on the surface, indicating no 

 change in culture. There was no evidence of any great modiflcation between 

 the life of the earlier and later occupants, and no satisfactory proof that the 

 occupancy of the cave was of very great antiquity." 



Archeological explorations prior to 1928. — In his classifications of 

 archeological culture areas, W. H. Holmes mentions as representative 

 explorers of West Indian sites such names as Ober, Branch, ten Kate, 

 Montane, Im Thurn, Duerden, Fewkes, De Booy, Huckerby, Latimer, 

 and others. This list might be extended, although the number of 

 explorers who have contributed to our knowledge of the earthenware 

 forms and designs from the several islands are few. 



Sir Robert Schombnrgk was the first student to describe archeo- 

 logical objects from kitchen middens in Santo Domingo. Schom- 

 bnrgk explored the Central Cordillera, locating what he mistakenly 

 supposed was an Indian cemetery at Constanza, in the Province 

 of La Vega. He also was the first to describe the well-known 

 Indian stone inclosure at San Juan de Maguana in the Province 

 of Azua, known as the Corral de Los Indios. 



The circle consists mostly of granite rocks, which prove by their smoothness 

 tliat they have been collected on the banks of a river, probably at the Maguana, 

 although its distance is considerable. The rocks are mostly each from 30 to 

 50 pounds in weight, and have been placed closely together, giving the ring 



1" Fewkes, J. Walter, Preliminary Report of an Archaeological Trip to the West Indies. 

 Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 45, p. 114, Dec. 9, 1903. 



