60 ISLAND CULTURE AREA OF AMERICA [eth. axn-. 34 



7. St. Kitts. 



8. St. Croix. 



9. Haiti-Porto Rico. 

 ■ 10. Cuba. 



11. Jamaica. 



12. Bahamas. 



The differences in prehistoric culture in these areas are mainly 

 shown in their ceramics, but these variations do not always occur. 

 They are mainly due to local causes, as geographical situation 

 and possibly acculturation of foreign elements. The pottery of 

 Trinidad should be ranlced very high, both in technique and decora- 

 tion, being closely related to that of the shell heaps of adjacent South 

 America. It may, however, not be far from truth to say that as a 

 rule there is a general similarity in pottery of prehistoric date 

 from Trinidad to Cuba. Some regions of individual islands, as west- 

 ern Cuba, appear to be wholly destitute of ceramic remains, and 

 possibly this is due to the persistence of tribes ignorant of this art 

 in these localities. 



The boundaries of the areas above mentioned overlap and con- 

 verge into each other to such an extent that there is some difficulty 

 in determining the limits of any one area, and it is impossible some- 

 times to discover to what area some of the smaller islands should be 

 referred. A determination of culture characters of some of the 

 islands is impossible without larger collections and renewed investi- 

 gations. ^- 



The urgency of a call for archeological field work in the Antilles 

 was long ago expressed by M. Guesde in a " personal history " quoted 

 by Prof. Mason, as follows : " In the presence of this collection 

 [Guesde] one is led to ask if these wrought stones are the work of the 

 Yguiris or of the Caribs, or if they would not belong to these two 

 races. We are in almost complete darkness on this point." ^' 



In the many archeological collections from the Lesser Antilles, 

 embracing thousands of specimens examined, the author has not 

 found a single example of the characteristic three-pointed stones," 

 not a single stone collar, elbow stone, or stone seat, which can be 

 referred without question to these islands. The fragment of a stone 

 collar seen in the Norby collection at Santa Cruz, Danish West 

 Indies, belongs to the Porto Rican area. Two stone collars, one of 

 which is in the British Museum and the other in the Guesde coUec- 



" At least two distinct cultures, probably more, existed in Santo Domingo-Haiti when 

 discovered. Tlie western end of this Island, like western Cub.i, was inhabited by cave 

 dwellers ; the eastern by agriculturists. 



'"Mason, Guesde Collection of Antiquities, p. 734. 



" Specimens of a fourth type of these pointed stones in the Heye collection were ob- 

 tained from the Grenadines, but these are somewhat different from the type of three- 

 pointed stones and may not belong to this group. 



