170 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



also many resemblances, but these are overshadowed by the more 

 numerous point-for-point correspondences between Bay Island mono- 

 chrome ceramics and the Highland Applique wares. These are not 

 identical, but there is obviously a very close relationship. If Bay 

 Island ceramics were more fully and accurately classified, comparison 

 with the various Highland Applique subtypes might be profitable, 

 but this cannot be done at present. In the above, and in numerous 

 other traits, there seems to be a much closer correspondence between 

 the Highland area and the Bay Islands than there is between the 

 latter and the Pacific area. However, as a whole, the prehistoric 

 remains from the Bay Islands fit into the archeological patterns of 

 western Nicaragua and northern Costa Rica surprisingly well. Un- 

 like the late traits which the Bay Islands share with the Uloa district, 

 and indirectly with the Maya, these southern traits permeate the whole 

 culture and seem to be early and basic. If they were eliminated from 

 our present picture of Bay Island prehistory, the residue would appear 

 as entirely marginal to relatively late periods in the Uloa region. 



Too little is yet on record for central Honduras and eastern Nica- 

 ragua to throw much more light on Bay Island connections. All that 

 can be said regarding the interior of Honduras is that the known 

 sites are primarily of " Chorotegan " type. More exact determina- 

 tions must await excavation. The problem of the exact interrelation- 

 ship between the various polychrome pottery types of the Bay Islands, 

 the Uloa district, eastern Salvador, the Honduras interior, and the 

 Nicaragua-Costa Rica region can only be solved by others much more 

 intimately acquainted with the latter ceramics than the present writer. 

 In regard to the eastern coast of Nicaragua, Spinden's brief notes 

 suggest that the Highland culture of Costa Rica extends north until 

 it blends with that of the north coast of Honduras. At present the 

 Bay Islands appear as a surprisingly strong northern outpost of the 

 Highland culture. This bears out Lothrop's prediction ( 1926, vol. 2, 

 pp. 344, 345), based on the observation of three tripod bowls of Costa 

 Rican type from Roatan, that, " were the archeology of the Atlantic 

 coast of Nicaragua and Honduras better known [it would probably 

 appear] that the drift of Isthmian and South American culture to the 

 northward was along the Atlantic coast rather than the Pacific coast 

 of Central America ". 



This brings us to a consideration of the probable carriers of this 

 culture. In Honduras the term " Chorotegan Culture " is generally 

 employed. This naturally implies that the bearers were of Chiapanecan 

 speech. Granting the probability that the Chorotega proper once oc- 

 cupied a much wider range than they did at the time of the conquest, 



