26 BULLETIN 15 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



stitutes the extreme southeastern projection of the island. In 1916 a 

 large shell heap on the Cristobal Colon sugar estate on the Higuamo 

 Eiver near the town of San Pedro de Macoris, on the southern coast 

 east of Santo Domingo City, was excavated. Pottery types discov- 

 ered by De Booy in eastern Santo Domingo are practically identical 

 with earthenware forms recovered by the writer at San Juan on the 

 peninsula of Samana. 



The work of Narciso Alberti, of the Dominican National Museum, 

 is little known to the American student but deserves consideration 

 because of its peculiar viewpoint. Alberti sees Carib influence in the 

 Samana cave deposits, but looks to Phoenician immigrants as having 

 produced geometric inscriptions in the cave near Cotui, known as La 

 Guacara del Comedero. He regards these Tainan rock inscriptions 

 or petroglyphs as letters of the alphabet inscribed by pre-Columbian 

 Phoenician colonists. 



Archeological exploration, stimulated in Porto Eico by the excel- 

 lent monographic treatment of the subject by Fewkes in the Twenty- 

 fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, con- 

 tinued to be neglected in the neighboring island of Santo Domingo. 

 Fewkes writes that in his pioneer reconnaissance of Porto Rico in 

 1902-1904 he " had not the time or means to engage in prolonged 

 intensive work of excavation of caves, shell heaps, and ball courts," 

 called " batey " by Oviedo but " juegos de bola " colloquially^ 

 Fewkes continues : 



There is much work to be done in this direction and a fair beginning has 

 already been made. The opportunities are very great. Sites of prehistoric 

 settlements are many, and those of historic character can easily be identified. 

 As in all the West Indies, the archeologist has barely begun his work, and much 

 remains to be done before the story of the culture of the Tainan race can be 

 adequately made out. One of the most promising islands awaiting the spade 

 of the archeologist is Haiti, and it is to be hoped that ere many years the 

 antiquities of this island may be explored." 



The work of Mr. and Mrs. Lathrop in excavating shell heaps in 

 Porto Rico ; the excavations of Porto Rican ball courts conducted by 

 J. A. Mason and by Haeberlin, have been supplemented by the investi- 

 gations of caves and shell middens by Aitken," Mason,^^ Haeberlin,^^ 

 and others. 



In his book Jefferys, writing during the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, makes this observation regarding the beginning of archeology 

 in Santo Domingo : 



"Fewkes, J. Walter, A Prehistoric Island Culture Aroa of Amertca. Thirty-fourth 

 Ann. Kept. Bur. Amcr. Ethn. (1912-13), pp. 49-271, 1922. 



"Aitken, Robert T., Porto Rican Burial Caves. Proc. Nineteenth Int. Congr. Ameri- 

 canists, pp. 224-228, Washington, 1917. 



" Mason, J. Alden, Excavation of a new Archeological Site in Porto Rico. Proc. Nine- 

 teenth Int Congr. Americanists, pp. 220-223, Washington, 1917. 



" Haeberlin, Herman K., Some archeological work in Porto Rico. Anier. Antlirop , n s , 

 vol. 19, pp. 214-238, 1917. 



