TRINIDAD A-NB SOUTH AMERICAN EARTHENWARE 131 



In the valley of the Orinoco we have scant material for compari- 

 son with Santo Domingan earthenware types. Spinden*^^ mentions 

 that painted wares do not occur at Lake Tacarigiia. Punctated 

 eye designs, representations of nostrils, also obliquely set, long-slit 

 eye forms appear. Eyebrows and nose are in relief ; indications of a 

 feather headdress, two or three forms of excrescences at the top of 

 the heads, effigy vessels with a horseshoe-shaped figure in relief 

 opposite the head and representing the tail— all these from several 

 sites and selected from several collections are duplicated in Santo 

 Domingan design. 



In the Andean region painted pottery is common, but elsewhere It is rare. 

 In caves and near sacred lakes on the wind-swept paramo many interesting 

 figurines of men and women have been discovered, the former seated on stools 

 (see pi 17) and the latter in a variety of standing and sitting poses. These 

 are seemingly the idols of a primitive agricultural people. By the peculiar 

 style of construction and decoration of these figurines the student of ancient 

 art can clearlv demonstrate a cultural bond between Venezuela and Central 

 America Breast ornaments of shell and serpentine, carved to represent highly 

 conventionalized bats, are common in the Andean Province but become rarer 

 as one passes toward central Venezuela. 



The shores and islands of Lake Valencia are rich in archeological remains. 

 The level of this body of water has fallen about 20 feet since the coming of the 

 Spaniards, leaving old shore villages high and dry and making possible strati- 

 graphic studies. Irregular earthen mounds containing a wealth of material, 

 broken and entire, are found at a number of sites. Unfortunately for science, 

 the most remarkable group of mounds is now being destroyed in a hasty and 

 uuguided search for specimens. In this region collars of carved beads are 

 often unearthed as well as stone pendants in the form of frogs. Pottery is 

 decorated by modeled designs, among which the highly conventionalized bat 

 with outstretched wings is prominent. Figurines that represent human bemgs, 

 jaguars, frogs, etc., are common and often finely executed. 



Spinden's archaic culture in pottery forms includes not only spe- 

 cialized eye modelings, headdress forms, etc., but also lugs, handles, 

 tripod base, paint, etc. To the postarchaic must then be assigned 

 only those designs and forms showing special developments due to 

 local fauna, religious inspiration as divinities, etc., and food prac- 

 tices. Archaic developments in South America are still in question. 

 Even Max Uhle's finds, undoubtedly similar to the Mexican archaic, 

 do not establish prima facie evidence of cultural diffusion between 

 the early Mexican and Peruvian forrns.^^ Ceramics of the Colom- 

 bian highlands had reached a high development in form and clesign. 

 Stamped ornaments and figurines replaced the free-hand modeled 

 archaic figurines, if such they were. Chibch a ceramics with its frogs 



*s Spinden, Herbert J., New Data on the Archeology of Venezuela, Proc. Nat. Acad. 



Sci., vol. 2, pp. 325-328, June 15, 1916. . j ^„^^„ 



«Die Muschelhtigel von Ancon, Pern, Eighteenth Int. Congr. Americanists. London 



(1912), 1913. 



