52 BULLETIN 15 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL ]MUSEUM 



Food pots, mostly terra cotta or black incised ware, are like those 

 from prehistoric tropical South American lowland tribes, oval to 

 hemispherical, with straight, incurving, or outcurving margins. A 

 characteristic type is the shallow tcrra-cotta bowl of large circum- 

 ference with incurved margin and flattish or rounded bottom. Two 

 unique forms may be seen (a) in the rectangular vessel with scal- 

 loped rim, in Avhich raised sections alternate with correspondingly 

 depressed rim areas; and (b) the oblong, or elliptical boat-shaped 

 vessel with its depressed lateral margin but elevated ends surmounted 

 with outward or inward gazing figurine heads. 



The unique development of Santo Domingan ceramics is especially 

 marked in the decorative designs. Decoration is ordinarily by 

 incised lines or by applied molded figures in relief. None of the 

 figurine heads, so characteristic of West Indian potter's art, are 

 cut in intaglio as in Florida. Intaglio designs representing figurine 

 heads do occur, however, on water bottles from ]\Ionte Cristi. An- 

 other characteristic is that the figurines are free-hand moldings un- 

 like the stamped ISIexican analogues. Ordinarily, the figurine head 

 is luted onto the vessel in pairs bilaterally near the margin of the 

 vessel but in the red painted ware effigy figurine heads and other 

 body parts are incorporated in the walls of the body of the vessel. 

 Raised surfaces molded in zoomorphic designs and constituting an 

 extension of the body of effigy bowls are shaped with the head of the 

 animal extending from or near the margin on one side of the vessel 

 and the tail projecting oppositel3^ Legs and arms flank the head, 

 and other features, such as wings, appear as raised coils at the sides. 



Knobbed pottery belongs to the painted or slipped red ware and 

 apparently has a wide distribution in Porto Rico and Santo Do- 

 mingo ; it corresponds to the light yellow ware from Jamaica. De- 

 scribing pottery forms from the Cueva de las Golondrinas, near 

 Manati, in Porto Rico, Fewkes writes : " One of the specimens has 

 two solid knobs on the rim; another is perforated just below similar 

 knobs * * * there was an abundance of red ware." A similar 

 type of pottery embellishment occurs on boat-shaped funerary ves- 

 sels from caves near Kingston, Jamaica. In the Jamaican boat- 

 shaped forms three buttons or knobs representing figurine heads are 

 in series at the raised ends of the oblong vessels. Another design is 

 in the form of a crescent-shaped ribbon of clay surrounding a central 

 knob. This Jamaican yellow ware, like the red ware from Porto 

 Rico and Santo Domingo, has very thin but well-fired walls. No 

 characteristically Arawakan molded zoomorphic figurine heads ap- 

 pear in this group. A double-compartment bowl of painted red ware, 

 with a dark brown slip on its inner surface, and with series of knobs, 

 wens, and vertically applied ribbons representing life forms, was 



