44 BULLETIN 15 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



edged. Laborers were readily obtained, and within a few days a 

 system of procedure was developed. Two apparently " natural born " 

 archeologists, Antonio M. Garcia, the local weather observer for the 

 Dominican Government, and a campesino who answered to the simple 

 name of Pong, began a systematic survey of the surrounding moun- 

 tains in search of caves or rock ledges containing Indian burials. 

 In this they were quite successful. Their efforts yielded a large 

 number of well-preserved crania and long bones, though an entire 

 Indian skeleton could not be recovered, due to partial disintegration 

 of the surface burials. 



In the rock ledge burials on the jQanks of the Loma la Cumbre 

 between the Rio Tireo and the Jimenoa; on the slopes of Loma de 

 Rio Grande, Monte Culo de Maco, Loma Rucilla or Pico del Yaque, 

 Loma Chinguela, and Monte Cucurucho, and of the hills in the more 

 immediate vicinity of Constanza, careful search was made for burial 

 offerings. A few stone beads, pendants, zemis, fragments of burial 

 potter}', and a small number of intact earthenware vessels were 

 discovered in juxtaposition to the skeletal remains. 



Under the tutelage of a Dominican whose family name is for- 

 gotten, but whose given name of Josecito seemed particularly ap- 

 l^ropriate, the writer began a search within the valley of Constanza 

 for a domiciliary midden sufficiently well preserved to yield cultural 

 material for stratigraphic study. Pottery shards were reported from 

 many places in Constanza Valley and the upper valley of the Tireo. 

 Upon investigation, the culture deposit invariably proved to be 

 merely a feAV inches in depth and unsuitable for excavation. Op- 

 portunity was seized on these reconnoitering trips to purchase any 

 archeological specimen offered. Soon the entire countryside became 

 engaged in commercial archeology, but the ideal midden deposit 

 remained undiscovered. 



Many natural formations resembling small circular artificial earth 

 mounds, said to be Indian burials, were reported from widely 

 separated locations, but on investigation they proved to be unusually 

 exfoliated masses of rock and pebbles in circular heaps from 5 to 8 

 feet in diameter, projecting from 1 to 4 feet above the surrounding 

 soil level, under which lay rock fragments and pebbles similarly 

 exfoliated and disintegrated. The regularity of these natural 

 mounds, dotting a flat valley floor in a striking way, is remarkable. 

 The proof that they could not be aboriginal burials was near at 

 hand if one was provided with pick and shovel. Test holes were 

 made of these peculiar formations at Manabao, in the valley of the 

 Rio Tireo, and in the valley of Constanza, on the otherwise level 

 valley floor between the village of Constanza and the streamlet 

 named " Pantufle." 



