196 



ISLAND CULTURE AREA OF AMERICA 



[ETII. ANN. 34 



Fig. 45.- 



-Decorated panel and panel border of stone collar 

 (Latimer collection). 



these represent the underside of the lower jaw, not the upper part of 

 the head where ej-es, mouth, and nose are i^resent. . 



From the comparative data given above we are able to say that 

 wherever we have figures cut on decorated panel borders they prob- 

 ably represent a head, body, arms, or legs, often highlj' convention- 

 alized and sometimes lost. As the arms or forelegs appear in the 

 more completely represented form, figure 38, accompanied with the 

 l^roblematical lateral scrolls, we can not regard these scrolls as dupli- 

 cate arms or fore 

 ,* ^ limbs; if they are 



appendages they 

 must be posterior 

 limbs or legs. The 

 posterior append- 

 ages in all these 

 instances have 

 been brought for- 

 ward into the same 

 plane as that in 

 w h i c h the head 

 and anterior legs lie, and by this contortion have lost all likeness to 

 limbs. 



This interpretation of the ornamentation of the decorated panel 

 border of the stone collar i-educes it to a figure of the same general 

 character, but it takes no account of certain figures on the surface 

 of the panel itself. The figures engraved on this area are sufficiently 

 distinctive to bear certain resemblances whose meaning is doubtful 

 The decorated panels of several stone collars (figs. 39, 41, 4'2, 

 43) bear an incised ring or circle, sometimes with and sometimes 

 without a central 



pit. On each side I ^ ^, 



of this circle there 

 are constantly 

 represented well- 

 made figures, of 

 unknown signifi- 

 cance, that have 

 certain common 

 resemblances in all specimens in which they occur. It may be 

 assumed, but without positive proof, that these figures repre- 

 sent parts of the body; for example, the circle, which so often 

 appears in Antillean art, represents the umbilicus, while the in- 

 cised geometrical lines on each side of it resemble figures of legs 

 or arms. 



Vm. 46. — Underside of decorated panel of the Strube stone 

 collar. 



