86 ISLAND CULTURE AREA OF AMERICA [eth.ann.34 



aborigines.'^ It would certainly be possible for Stone Age man to 

 have excavated them as easily as for Indians of Arizona and Mexico 

 to dig out the well-known cavate dwellings of the Verde or Eio 

 Grande Valleys. 



Certain depressions, which have a marked artificial appearance, 

 occur at various localities in Barbados and are called Indian ponds. 

 There is an estate known as Indian Pond which would certainly refer 

 them to Indians. One of these Indian ponds, situated near Mount 

 Gilboa, is mentioned by Eev. Griffith Hughes, and there are other 

 similar excavations in different parts of the island. 



Artifacts 



The collection of Barbadian prehistoric objects in the British 

 Museum is one of the most important known from this island. Dr. 

 John Hutson, of Bridgetown, has a considerable collection and there 

 is a cabinet of antiquities at Codrington College. The greatest as- 

 semblage of prehistoric objects from Barbados was made by the late 

 Mr. Taylor at Indian River and contains several whole pieces of 

 potter}^ and others slightly broken, besides a number of pottery 

 heads and fragments. 



Among tlie whole pieces of pottery there is a globular bowl like a 

 teapot, with snout on one side, reminding one of the form called the 

 "monkey," still used by the blacks in the West Indies, and one or 

 two platters of somewhat exceptional form. The pottery heads have 

 characteristic forms, but perhaps that shaped like the head of a shark 

 is the most unusual. 



Mr. Taylor's collection has several shell objects, among which 

 may be mentioned jierforated disks and cone-shaped perforated ob- 

 jects recalling spindle whorls. 



Among the problematic objects are two hourglass-shaped objects, 

 concave at each end and narrowed at the middle, which were prob- 

 ably used as rests for pottery. A stamp of disk shape, having a 

 handle in the middle and a design on one face, resembles pottery 

 stamps in the Heye collection, many of which came from St. Vincent. 

 These are flat angular shell plates decorated on their faces with 

 incised lines. Some are perforated near the border, while others are 

 without perforation. 



Among stone implements may be mentioned a ball girt with 

 grooves crossing each other at right angles. The few stone celts 

 resemble the Scandinavian type, but petaloid celts also occur. The 

 finest specimen is a well-made shell fetish having a head finely 

 carved at one end and a knobbed extension at the other. 



" The fnct that Indian implements have been found in some of these caves shows that 

 the aborigines utilized the cave shelters and natural caves of Barbados. 



