TYPE EXAMPLES IN" THE NATIONAL. COLLECTION 73 



each ware lias definite distribution and affinities. The largest group is a 

 brown ware made of a coarse and porous clay with a large admixture of 

 tempering material such as sand or shell. This ware has a general distribU' 

 tion throughout the island. A red-ware group is apparently made from the 

 same clays as the brown ware, but has been covered with a red slip or haa 

 been dyed a brick red ; characteristically, it is found on the south coast and 

 at the western end of the island. Along the south coast, between Ponce and 

 Mayaguez, certain shell heaps yield a buff ware with a smooth creamy slip.. 

 Finally, on the southern part of the western coast one finds a two or three 

 color painted ware, which is best considered a subvariety of the brown ware. 

 The major divisions of Porto Rican ceramics are then : 



1. Brown ware : Found in all parts of the island. 



2. Red ware : Found chiefly in the west and south. 



3. Buff ware : Found chiefly in the south. 



The three wares we have listed are separated one from another primarily 

 by color and texture. On the same basis a further division may be made, 

 because regional or even local styles are detectable within each ware. For 

 instance, the brown ware of the south coast tends to be thick and coarse: 

 the western brown ware is harder and thinner, and often it is marked by 

 small crevices as if partially tempered with an inflammable material, such ag 

 bark ; and the north coast and mountain brown ware is intermediate in thick' 

 ness and often has an uneven surface. 



The three major wares of Porto Rico are further distinguished one frooj 

 another by their decorative motives. In general decoration is achieved bj 

 modeling and incising, rarely by painted designs of simple character. Most 

 Porto Rican vessels are effigy bowls or jars, to which animal or human charac- 

 ter is given by a head, arms, legs, or wings in relief, while further details 

 may be accentuated by incised lines. * * * At times also pots are decorated 

 with incised designs of geometric appearance placed in encircling bands. Ag 

 is the case with most New World pottery motives, these patterns on careful. 

 analysis usually disclose a zoomorphic origin. 



The bowl under discussion evidently is an effigy of a bird, perhaps a pelican., 

 for a long projecting birdlike tail is its most obvious characteristic; oa 

 either side are incised areas indicating the wings, while opposite the tail ig 

 a small head marked by a long bill, an eye, and a crest. Flanking the head 

 are a pair of arms or legs, which suggest that this particular bird either wag 

 conventionalized to the point where the legs have been displaced from their 

 natural position or else that we have some monstrous mythological type sucb 

 as the Moan bird of the Maya. 



The bird motive seen on this bowl is not unique, for it appears frequently on. 

 pottery from the west coast shellheaps and occasionally on south coast vessels 5 

 but it usually occurs not on brown ware, as in this instance, but on red ware. 

 * * * Of the primitive Ciboney culture discovered by the (Heye) Museuis 

 in Cuba there is little trace in Porto Rico. BufiE ware from the south coasj; 

 shows extremely close affiliation with ceraminc remains from Haiti, Jamaica, 

 and Cuba. * * * Red ware, while in part exhibiting distinctive locai 

 decorative motives, on the whole shows affinity with the Lesser Antilles^ 

 We therefore judge that most red ware is of Carib workmanship or at least 

 reflects Carib influence. Brown ware includes the pottery with the strongest 

 local flavor and is the most widespread type. Stratigraphical examinatioB 

 of a shellheap (Punta Ostiones) by the writer in 1916 showed that browg 

 ware frag-ments appeared in greatest numbers in the oldest refuse. Hence 

 we believe that brown ware was at first made only by Tainans, but, as showD 

 by the incorporation of Carib motives, it may have been manufactured by 



