DIVEEGENT POTTERY GROUPS IN" THE ANTILLES 123 



Santo Domingo, is also typical of Jamaican figurines. There are no 

 incised lines in Jamaican ware with terminal pits, as in the Porto 

 Rican-Santo Domingan pottery area. Painted ware likewise is 

 lacking, the vessels in the National Museum collection having a 

 burnished yellow surface color. 



In Jamaica, according to Jo3^ce and Duerden, the most character- 

 istic vessel is a boat-shaped round-bottomed bowl, the ends elongated 

 to form handles and sometimes decorated with incised patterns. 

 Circular shallow bowls with the edges turned inward at a distinct 

 angle and the lip strengthened by an additional band of clay are 

 typical. Incised designs are often found round the edges, as well 

 as applied ornament. Occasionally an indented rim occurs; and 

 handles often degenerating into mere knobs are common, as in the 

 mortuary vessels. (Pis. 40, 41.) Such knobs are of a type char- 

 acteristic of the island. In Jamaican pottery the most elaborate 

 form of ornament is usually found upon the zoomorphic handle 

 designs. These sometimes take the form of mammal or bird (par- 

 rot?) heads, as in Santo Domingo. In form, however, the similarity 

 leans toward Cuban aboriginal earthenware. 



Prehistoric earthenware of the Virgin Islands. — Some examples of 

 prehistoric earthenware of the Virgin Islands in the Museum of the 

 American Indian, Heye Foundation, are of a fine yellowish ware 

 with very thin walls like the Jamaican cave ware from near 

 Kingston. Most of the vessels, however, are of a coarse terra cotta 

 or biscuit ware with a bright crimson slip. Geometric designs in 

 white or yellowish paint, also incised decorations exist. Shallow 

 trencher-shaped bowls with raised ends covered with a crimson slip 

 have figurine heads of the frog and conventionalized turtle forms 

 appearing as handle lugs. 



Pottery vessels from St. Thomas and St. Croix may be segregated 

 into two classes — those having painted decoration and those having 

 none. Generally speaking, the plain pottery from the two islands, 

 also that from Barbados, are the crudest types found in the Antilles. 

 The elaborate incised and impressed decorations so common to the 

 vessels from the Greater Antilles are entirely lacking here. 



The boat-shaped vessel occurs as in practically every island of 

 the Caribbean. Another simple and not uncommon terra cotta ware 

 bowl type, the cazuela, has a flattish base, slightly incurved rim, and 

 hemispherical body. Small, shallow, rounded bowls with plain rims 

 with two handlelike projections from the upright rims are common 

 also to the Virgin Islands. They are of a v/ell-fired, light-brown 

 clay. Platters with slight concavity are common to St. Croix, St. 

 Thomas, and Santo Domingo. Globular bowls with bilaterally 

 placed loop handles are known from Magens Bay, St. Thomas, and 



