76 BULLETI]Sr 15 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A fragment of a large deep bowl was recovered from the hearth 

 at " Railroad " cave. The fragment was incrusted with soot and 

 charcoal, which when removed revealed a bright brick-red color. 

 Tliis and other fragments show the use of a slip. 



The large bowl, U.S.N.M. No. 341055, figured in No. 4, Plate 47, 

 was recovered from under a mass of bowlders in Cueva del Templo, 

 or " Railroad " cave, where it had originally been placed either to 

 collect the water dripping from the roof of the cave or for safe 

 keeping. The bowl is globular in form, plain as to decorative de- 

 signs, except for a panel of incised lines on the incurved shoulder 

 just beneath the vertical neck section. The rim is plain and vertical. 

 The body of the bowl is that of a flattened sphere and has a flat 

 bottom which curves slightly upward at the center. 



The decorative panel on the incurved shoulder is characteristically 

 Tainan and is made up of alternate horizontal and vertical incised 

 lines in series of five or more in parallel. Both horizontal and ver- 

 tical lines are terminated by a shallow pit. At the level of the 

 decorative panel and luted on bilaterally as handle lugs are clay 

 zoomorphic figurines of the so-called " monkey " type. The upper 

 and lower portions of this type of clay figurine stand out in high 

 relief, while the central area is markedly depressed. The simplicity 

 of the technic employed in shaping the figurine is remarkable be- 

 cause of its effectiveness. Four parallel horizontal incised lines of 

 two different lengths are introduced on the surface of the figurine, 

 the shorter at top and bottom, with the longer lines traversing the 

 central area of the figurine head. These lines are terminated with 

 punctations or shallow pits in typically Tainan style. 



In color the vessel is a light buff with an overlay of carbon from 

 repeated firing. The bottom of the vessel has become weakened 

 from weathering or by penetration of oils and fats. About one- 

 third of the inner sectional diameter of the walls of the vessel re- 

 mains unfired. The paste is there revealed as a black, porous earth, 

 heavily impregnated with particles of crushed steatite and stone 

 pebbles, constituting a tempering material. The earth from which 

 the vessel was built up is apparently that of the Samana Peninsula 

 and is not from the vicinity of the caves on the south shore. 



San Juan pottery types. — Three small bowls characteristic of the 

 pottery from the San Juan site are also illustrated in Plate 47. 

 The boat-shaped vessel resembles in form boat-shaped earthenware 

 types from Jamaica and Porto Rico, but it is more nearly identical 

 with a food bowl recovered by De Booy from the caves at Salada, 

 in southeastern Santo Domingo. Broken sections of the walls reveal 

 an unfired area of black earth at the center of the walls. The bowl 

 (U.S.N.M. No. 341019) is oblong, like a boat, with a high prow 



