SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I93O 147 



The former aboriginal village site at Andres extends along the 

 coast all the way from Boca Chica, at the eastern end of the Bay of 

 Andres, through the village of Andres near the western end of the 

 bay, where it terminates abruptly in front of the warehouses of the 

 Boca Chica Sugar Central. The unusually extensive shell midden 

 characterizing this ancient Arawak settlement rests directly on a bed 

 of coral rock. Directly fronting the warehouses and refinery build- 

 ings is a large sand spit projecting ont into the bay and covering to a 

 depth of 3 to 10 feet or more the coral rock which underlies the entire 

 area. This sand spit was utilized by the former aboriginal occupants 

 of the region as the only possible burial ground within an extensive 

 area along the southeastern Santo Domingan coast. It was here that 

 they buried with their dead many bowls, food dishes, and water jars. 



The Andres-Boca Chica site is perhaps the most extensive of any 

 West Indian archeological station known at the present time. More 

 skulls and earthenware vessels and other objects representative of 

 Arawak culture have been recovered intact than from all other known 

 sites in the West Indies combined. There is a remarkable uniformity 

 throughout, both as to midden deposits and as to burial offerings, 

 which had apparently not been disturbed, a favored position for the 

 water jars being at either side and for the food dishes directly in 

 front of the flexed skeleton. 



After making a representative collection of anteriorly deformed 

 Arawak crania through excavating in front of the sugar warehouse 

 and later within the village of Andres, studies were made of the 

 midden deposits. These consisted for the most part of a dense layer 

 of conch shells (Strombus pugilis L.) intermingled with fish bones, 

 leg bones and carapaces of turtle, and of mandibles of several species 

 of crab. The midden deposits resting on the solid coral do not 

 exceed 5 feet in depth. A thin stratum of soil covers the midden. No 

 stratigraphic changes within the midden were apparent at the places 

 where test excavations were made. 



The next project to be undertaken during the 1930 season was in 

 the nature of an archeological reconnoissance in the high mountain 

 valleys of the provinces of La Vega and Azua. The mountainous 

 backbone of the island, the Cordillera Central, starts from low hills 

 in the Republic of Haiti on the east and attains its greatest height in 

 the west central part of Santo Domingo. The range appears as a 

 jumble of ridges and peaks and flat valleys. There are outcroppings of 

 many different kinds of rocks — effusive and intrusive igneous rocks, 

 schists and other metamorphics, and a great variety of sedimentary 



