146 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



status. Site 2 on Indian Hill contained large amounts of plain mono- 

 chrome pottery, only a smattering of elaborate monochrome, and no 

 polychrome pieces. It also lacked copper, green stone pendants, or 

 beads and generally suggested a simple culture. Since plain mono- 

 chrome is early at site i, Indian Hill, and at Black Rock Basin, I 

 incline to regard site 2, Indian Hill, as an early offertory. From the 

 uniformity with which Polychrome I and II pieces occur on ceremonial 

 sites and are absent from habitation places, it seems probable that 

 these painted wares were made or acquired for ceremonial or similar 

 special functions. The fact that they are entirely lacking in a definite 

 offertory at least suggests that they were not in vogue when the votive 

 deposit was built up. Similarly, green stone and copper artifacts 

 nearly all come from ceremonial sites or offertories, and in the great 

 majority of cases these are associated with the most elaborate mono- 

 chrome and the polychrome wares. The presumption is strong that 

 this is a relatively late complex. At the Dixon site, where very simple 

 monochrome pottery greatly predominated, the central votive cache 

 consisting of a Polychrome I vase full of copper bells and ornate 

 green stone ornaments was probably a later addition to an older 

 offertory. It is difficult to explain on other grounds the discrepancies 

 in artifact types occurring here. 



As a whole, the present evidence suggests that with all its apparent 

 diversity. Bay Island culture can be regarded as a more or less homo- 

 genous unit. Ceremonial and habitation sites share the same artifact 

 types, although certain classes predominate in each kind of site. Thus, 

 plain monochrome ware, so abundant in habitation sites, occurs also 

 at all offertories or shrines. Similarly Polychrome II, Polychrome I, 

 and elaborate monochrome have all been demonstrated as definitely 

 linked, and the two monochrome wares are closely related. This indi- 

 cates that the majority of Bay Island shrines were for the most part 

 used by Bay Island peoples over a considerable period of time, rather 

 than by visitors or pilgrims from elsewhere. The observable ceramic 

 development alone postulates an occupation of considerable duration. 

 When one comes to analyze the components of this local culture, how- 

 ever, it is clear that they have been drawn in from a number of sources, 

 some of which must have been rather distant. This is equally true of 

 the widespread and relatively simple culture manifested in the habita- 

 tion sites and older shrines, and in the apparently later polychrome 

 pottery, copper, and green stone artifact complex at other shrines. To 

 approach this problem we must look farther afield. 



At the present time it is difificult to institute adequate comparisons 

 between the archeology of the Bay Islands and that of closely adjacent 



