PEWKES] ARCHEOLOGICAL OBJECTS 215 



The evolution of a culture as complicated and characteristic as this 

 demands time for its growth. It ma}' have reached its zenith and 

 have been on the decline when the island was discovered. 



The territorv inhabited by aborigines having- an Antillean culture 

 is insular, and according to well -recognized biological laws must have 

 been peopled from neighboring continents. It is logical to suppose 

 that prehistoric man, like the fauna and flora, was derivative rather 

 than autocthonous on the island. Moreover, it is evident that when 

 man came to Porto Rico he had advanced so far in knowledge of navi- 

 gation that he was no longer in a primitive condition, but possessed 

 culture sufficiently developed to make long voj^ages in seaworthy 

 canoes, to fashion polished implements, and was otherwise well ad- 

 vanced in technic arts. 



Another point is pertinent. His culture, as indicated by the prehis- 

 toric objects left on the island, was unique and characteristic. The 

 most striking stone objects, as the stone rings found in numbei's in 

 both Haiti and Porto Rico, are different from objects occurring in 

 either North or South America. It is evident from the time necessary 

 to develop such culture that the ancestors of the islanders had lived 

 for a long time in a distinctive environment before the}' went to the 

 West Indies or had inhabited these two islands for a comparativel}' 

 long epoch. 



This culture, while peculiar to the West Indies, was not confined to 

 any one island, like Porto Rico, for all the islanders have a certain 

 similarit}- in manners, customs, arts, and languages, which has led us 

 to call it by a special name, the Antillean, or Tainan, culture. 



With these preliminary ideas in mind, it is evident that we are con- 

 sidering a race culturally identical, extending from Floi'ida to South 

 America, the northern limits of which are as near to North America 

 as is its southern extension to South America. A portion of this 

 race inhabited the eastern end of Cuba. There are three points where 

 communication with the continent was possible and from which the 

 islanders mav have come: Venezuela in the south, Yucatan in the west, 

 and Florida in the north. Each route of entry has had its advocates, 

 and each presents strong arguments for acceptance by ethnologists. 



Porto Rico lying, as it does, in the middle of a chain of islands, 

 may have derived its first people from Haiti, the adjacent island, or 

 from the Lesser Antilles. It is improbable that its first settlers came 

 over the broad stretch of sea, north or south, or from Yucatan. 



Both Florida and Venezuela have claims to be considered the route 

 by which the earliest inhabitants of the West Indies passed fi'om the 

 continent to the islands. Each probably furnished a quota of colonists 

 to the neighboring islands. It may not be possible to discover from 

 existing data whether the first canoe load of aborigines which set feet 

 on Borinquen landed at the east or the west end, but it is possible 



