FBWKBS] CULTURE AREAS IN THE WEST INDIES 69 



been a mortuary vessel, as no bones were found near by; it appeared 

 rather to have been abandoned or dropped by its owner where it was 

 found. The shape of this vase is an uncommon one in prehistoric 

 West Indian pottery. In form it is enhirged equatorially. and tapers 

 above to a rim, which, as is rarely the case in West Indian earthen- 

 ware, is without handles or lugs, and below, in which region the 

 exterior is slightly convex, to the base. Decoration in the form 

 of incised lines appears on the surface of the upper area, but the 

 under portion is smooth and without ornamentation. This decora- 

 tion consists mainly of parallel grooves alternating with crescents, 

 and circles with central dots. The walls of the vessel ai'e thinner 

 than is usual in West Indian pottery, and the surface is little worn. 

 A noticeable feature of this receptacle is the base, which consists 

 of a circular stand, thus rendering stability to the vessel. Similar 

 bases of other specimens, being much more substantial than the 

 bodies, are frequently preserved entire while the remainder has dis- 

 appeared. This form of base is of common occurrence also in frag- 

 ments from St. Vincent and Grenada, but is rare in Porto Rico. 



Several bowls had been so long in the moist soil of which the 

 Chip-chip mound is composed that they crumbled into fragments 

 Avhen an effort was made to lift them from their matrix. Although 

 the forms of these liowls vary somewhat, several resemble that shown 

 in plate 2, B, which may have been used for condiments or for pig- 

 ment.^^ The walls of this vessel are thick, with smooth undecorated 

 surface ; its bottom is flat. The rim shows two opposite imperfections 

 that may indicate the position of heads which served as handles.'* 



A remarkably well modeled reptilian head is shown in plate 2, C. 

 Its great elongation distinguishes it from the head shown in plate 

 2, D, which is almost spherical and has the organs represented by 

 incised lines rather than in relief. The same general tendency to 

 rounded forms is exhibited in plate 2, E, F, G, but in these the nose 

 is notably exaggerated. 



The head, and especially the position and form of the nose, of the 

 handle shown in plate 2. /, remind one of pottery from the Grenada 

 region, a specimen of which is figured in the author's report on the 

 Aborigines of Porto Rico.^' In this instance the nose and mouth 

 are indicated by hemispherical protuberances; the nostrils are rep- 

 resented by parallel slits, the eyes by pits in the middle of a circular 

 disk, and the lips by a transverse furrow in a circular boss. A some- 

 what similar method of indicating the eyes is shown in plate 2, H. 



'^ Many fragments of red and green pigment were found in the mound. The majority 

 of the vessels here described are of gray or liright red ware. 



" After pottery objects were talten from the mound they hardened considerably, but the 

 bandies of this vessel may have been brolien from (he rim previous to its recovery. 



^ Twenty-fifth .\nn. Kept. Bur. .\mer. Ethn,, pi. Ixxxiv. 



