﻿FEWKES] PORTO RICAN STONE COLLARS '/' 



CLASSH [CAI [ON OF TrIPOI \ Mi' S TONES 



The tripointed stones may be classified as follows: 1, Tripointed 

 stones with head on the anterior, legs on the posterior point. _\ 



Tripointed stones with face on one side of the conoid projection. 3, 

 Tripointed stones with the conoid projection modified into a face. 

 4, Smooth tripointed stones without head, face, legs, or incised orna- 

 mentation. 



The majority of these stones belong to the first group or type, in 

 which the head and legs are always represented, although often 

 obscurely, one on each of the basal projections. There are inter- 

 mediate forms which connect these types with trilobed stones and 

 aberrant forms which resemble them, the true identification of which 

 is d< lubtful. 



1. Tripointed Stones with Head on the Anterior and Legs on the 

 Posterior Projection. — This type (plates xxiii,xxina ), which is fairly 

 well represented in all collections from Porto Rico, is well defined and 

 easy to recognize. As a rule the distance between the anterior and 

 posterior points (head and legs) is somewhat greater than the apex 

 1 if the cone or height when resting on the base, and the conoid projec- 

 tion tips a little forward. The axis from head to legs is generally 

 straight, but sometimes it is slightly warped. The surface is often 

 decorated with incised geometrical lines, pits, and excrescences like 

 warts. The main differences in this type are found in the forms of 

 the heads and legs, which may resemble those of birds, lizards, mam- 

 mals, or human beings. In rare instances both interior and posterior 

 limbs are cut on stones of this type — the former at the base of the 

 conoid projection, the latter on the posterior point. 



Mason figures, from the Latimer collection, three specimens of this 

 type with birds' heads. 1 One of these, according to this author, has 

 the head of a " sea bird," another that of a " parrot," and the third is 

 " parrot or owl-shaped." In the Neumann collection, purchased by 

 me in 1904 for the National Museum, there is an instructive specimen 

 of bird-headed tripointed stone of the first type, which differs some- 

 what from those in the Latimer collection. It has a long, curved 

 beak, but no representation of wings and no well-defined legs. 



One of the most interesting of the tripointed stones, representing a 

 bird, is in the Archeological Museum of Madrid, Spain. A glance at 

 this object shows, cut on the anterior point, a bird's head with the 

 bill turned backward between the eyes toward the conoid process. 

 Extending from the head posteriorly on each side there is a raised 

 oval area carved in low relief with geometrical figures, as circles, dots, 



1 Op. cit, figs. 36, 39. and 41. 



