FORM AND DESIGN IN SANTO DOMINGAN POTTERY 51 



of surface finish, decorative design and symbolic embellishments, 

 and to a lesser degree, in form. On the basis of several combina- 

 tions of these characteristics we may speak of (a) unpainted ware; 

 (h) painted and slipped ware. The unpainted ware may again be 

 classified as terra cotta or as black incised, while the painted and 

 slipped ware readily falls under the classification suggested by the 

 coloring of the inner and outer walls as red, white, salmon, maroon, 

 and polychrome. It will be noted that this classification of the 

 pottery of the West Indian island Arawak is less complex than is 

 that used by Holmes, MacCurdy, and others in describing the 

 ancient pottery of Panama and Central America. 



It has frequently been asserted that pottery made by the Caribs 

 of the Lesser Antilles was superior to that fashioned by the island 

 Arawak with respect to firing, slips and paints, paste, and surface 

 finish. We now have a more comprehensive knowledge of aboriginal 

 pottery forms from Santo Domingo and find the statement no longer 

 adequate. If Vv-e include the polychrome fragments from southwest- 

 ern Porto Eico, we must now rank slipped and burnished aboriginal 

 pottery from eastern Santo Domingo and southwestern Porto Rico as 

 a highly developed, distinct pottery type on a par with the superior 

 painted wares of the Lesser Antilles. The painted and slipped wares 

 of Santo Domingo are less common than the more friable and granu- 

 lar terra cotta, unpainted ware, which occurs throughout the island, 

 while the white painted gray ware, for example, is found only in 

 Monte Cristi. 



In the aboriginal pottery of Santo Domingo tempering materials 

 are uniformly of small particles of sand, mica, and crushed fragments 

 of steatite and quartz or shell, and occasionally rounded pebbles or 

 miscellaneous foreign material. 



Pottery vessels are less ornate and varied in detail than are corre- 

 sponding forms from Central America, but are more developed than 

 the ancient thick-walled vessels from the coast of Venezuela and the 

 lower Parana Valley. The painted wares from Venezuela, the 

 Giiianas, and Brazil are, on the contrar}^, a recent development and 

 bear slight resemblance to Antillean earthenware. West Indian 

 Arawak vessels from the Greater Antilles are at once distinguished 

 from Central American forms and to a lesser extent from Carib 

 forms in the Lesser Antilles by their flat or slightly rounded bottoms, 

 and by the lack of support flanges, legs, or deep annular bases. Then, 

 the large, thick-walled, globular urns or general utility vessels, such 

 as the large urns and containers from the lower Amazon, are lacking ; 

 most of the Santo Domingan forms being fairly thin walled and 

 small in size, although the terra-cotta group has a coarse paste and 

 large vessels of this ware are frequently thick walled. 



