﻿PORTO KU'.W STONE COLLARS AND TRIPOINTED 



MM >I.S 



By J. WALTER FEWKES 

 I INTRODUCTION 



Before their discovery the aboriginal inhabitants of the West In- 

 dies had developed a culture which was peculiar, and only distantly 

 related to that of the mainland of America. The peculiarities of 

 this culture are indicated by characteristic stone objects, the geo- 

 graphical distribution of which determines its boundaries. The 

 centers of this peculiar Antillean culture were Porto Rico and Santo 

 Domingo, but its influence was felt more or less strongly throughout 

 all the West Indian islands. 



Porto Rico has furnished the student of prehistoric life two dis- 

 tinctive types of polished stone objects, one of which is commonly 

 called the stone collar, the other the tripointed idol. We occasion- 

 allv rind representatives of these types on the neighboring islands, 

 but as they never occur in such abundance nor so elaborate!) 

 made as those of Porto Rico, we are justified in regarding them as 

 having originated on the latter island. 



While it is difficult to enumerate the stone collars of Porto Rico, 

 there is no doubt that the number collected on that island exceeds 

 that of all the other Antilles. The Latimer collection in the Na- 

 tional Museum at Washington had originally thirty-five specimens. 

 A few have been taken from this collection, but fourteen have been 

 added to it by my expeditions of 1902-1903. The American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History in New York also has many stone collars, 

 including six complete specimens and several fragments, mentioned 

 in the. catalogne of his collection by Dr. Stahl. 1 Many of the Euro- 

 pean museums, as those in Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris, London, and 

 Salisbnrv,'-' also have specimens of Porto Rican stone collars. In 

 the Madrid Museum there were three, which, according to Navarette, 

 were presented by Don Cecilio de Lara y Castro of Badajoz, and 

 there are several in private hands in Porto Rico and in Enrope. 



1 Los Indios Borinquenos, Estudios Etnograficos; Puerto Rico, 1889. 



2 See Stevens, Flint Chips, A Guide to Prehistoric Archeology as Illus- 

 trated by the Collection in the Blackmore Museum, Salisbury; London, 1870. 



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