FEWKES] ARCHEOLOGICAL OBJECTS 91 



The avcheological objects treated in the followiug desci'iptions 

 include stone implements, three-pointed idols, stone collars, stone 

 heads and masks, amulets, pillar stones, ornaments of stone and shell 

 and bone carvnngs, potterj^, wooden objects, idols of stone and wood, 

 and various other specimens. In the same general category are like- 

 wise included pictographs, or rock etchings, and other archeological 

 evidences of aboriginal life which still remain on the island. 



The forms, no less than the tine technology exhibited in the above- 

 mentioned groups of prehistoric objects, stamp the culture to which 

 they owe their origin as high in the scale of development. Such tine 

 products could not have l)een the work of an unskilled people. These 

 objects are characteristic, dift'ering essentially from those found on 

 the neighboring continent, so that we may designate the area in which 

 they occur as a special culture area, distinct from all others and deserv- 

 ing of the specitic name by which it has been designated. 



This culture reached its highest development in the two islands of 

 Porto Rico and Santo Domingo, so that the causes which led to its 

 evolution must be sought in the insular conditions under which it was 

 evolved. The specimens show little to indicate their age, but the 

 development of a peculiar culture like the Antillean is not the product 

 of a few years, but rather of long periods of time, which implies that 

 man has inhabited the West Indies from remote antiquity, long enough 

 to lead to great specialization in the artiticial products that have sur- 

 vived him. But it is also highly probable that the ages of these 

 objects may be different, for while many were doubtless in use when 

 the islands were discovered, others, as the stone collars, had already 

 passed out of use at that time. 



Many so-called prehistoric implements were doubtless Itrought to 

 Porto Rico by Indians who were transferred from neighboring islands 

 as slaves or b}- those who voluntarily sought homes there from over 

 the seas. In the light of this knowledge it becomes a complicated 

 problem to refer these objects to their rightful makers, and we have 

 not in our possession the data adequate to solve it in a wiiolly satis- 

 factory^ manner. 



It is remarkable, as was pointed out by Professor Mason regarding 

 the Latimer collection, that ''there is not in all the collection a single 

 flaked or chipped implement or weapon." The same is true of the 

 many hundreds of stone implements obtained Ijj^ the author, and thus 

 far there has not been discovered in Porto Rico evidence of chipped 

 stone, not even a single arrowhead. The i-oughest stone objects found 

 show marks of polishing. Mr Frederick A. Ober states that Doctor 

 Llenas, a physician of Puerto Plata, "describes an aboriginal work- 

 shop he investigated in a cave in the Santo Domingo mountains, where 

 he found man^- fragments of chipped tools, but no perfect specimens." 



