60 BULiLETIIT 15 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



are essentially undecorated. These vessels may be bilaterally 

 knobbed or not. 



Three kinds of water bottles are characteristic of as many distinct 

 subareas. One is a hemispherical, plain form occurring on the 

 north coast; it has a constricted neck and bulbous oral region, and 

 is frequently covered with a white slip; another, the heart-shaped 

 thick-walled water bottle with bulbous neck section surmounted 

 with bilateral animal or anthropomorphic figurine heads, is charac- 

 teristic of eastern Santo Domingo; and, third, the large globose 

 effigy canteen, which may reach a height of 1 or more feet, is the 

 most developed of the three types. Several excellent examples from 

 the northern provinces are housed in the Dominican National 

 Museum. Globular effigy bowls with applied decorative animal and 

 bird figurine heads at one edge of rim and a vertical or horizontal 

 ribbon of clay attached oppositely, and with intervening wall space 

 above the shoulder ridge covered with incised designs representing 

 other parts of the animal body, such as wings or limbs, are unusual 

 and are limited in their distribution to the southeastern provinces. 



Flat round plates are less frequent than are the circular plates 

 with slightly raised outcurved rim sectors which are decorated on 

 the inner surface with banded incised geometric patterns. These 

 earthenware plates are strikingly similar to our porcelain dinner 

 plates in form, even to banded incised fretwork design encircling the 

 border on the inner surface. Examples come from Monte Cristi and 

 La Vega. 



Globular bowls without applied anthropomorphic or zoomorphic 

 features have geometric incised decorative design. They are usually 

 small in size and belong to the terra cotta or brown ware. Oblong 

 globular bowls when not embellished with figurines at either end 

 occur in elliptic form resembling very much the boat-shaped vessels 

 from Jamaica. They belong, however, to the terra-cotta ware, hav- 

 ing thick porous walls. The Jamaican form of elliptical, boat- 

 shaped vessel does not have the anthropomorphic or zoomorphic 

 figurine head as a terminal decorative design but has proceeded 

 further in conventionalization of form, appearing either plain or with 

 one, two, or three knobs at raised prow, perhaps with a flat clay 

 slab extending at the stern and an applied button of clay surmounted 

 with crescent-shaped ribbon of clay in relief at either side. Ap- 

 parently this knobbed design on boat-shaped vessels from Jamaica 

 is merely a step removed from the boat-shaped anthropomorphic 

 effigy vessels from Santo Domingo. The art has become more 

 conventionalized, or decadent. The walls of the Jamaica ware, both 

 in the boat-shaped and circular flat vessels, are much thinner than 

 the Santo Domingan wares, and are either an unslipped brown re- 

 sembling Cuban or a slipped buff or yellow Avare. The thin-walled, 



