252 



ISLAND CULTURE AREA OF AMERICA 



[ETH. ANN. 34 



In character the pottery from Cuba is practically the same as that 

 from Porto Eico. The collection made by me consists wholly of 

 fragments of clay heads from bowls or vases. The specimens shown 

 in figure 68 were obtained from Nipe Bay on the northern coast, 

 but I have seen almost identical fragments from Pueblo Viejo,^'' the 

 dance inclosure near Cape ]\Iaysi. 



The archeological evidences of a low culture stage in the western 

 provinces of Cuba are thus far negative, for no objects which can be 



ascribed without cjuestion to the 

 aborigines have yet been found 

 in those parts. The known pol- 

 ished stone implements, idols, 

 and like objects from Cuba re- 

 semble those characteristic of 

 the Tainan culture, and are con- 

 fined to the eastern end of Cuba. 

 Naturalists have long recog- 

 nized a marked difference in the 

 fauna and flora of the two ends 

 of Cuba. The prehistoric cul- 

 ture of these two localities was 

 also different. 



CONCLUSIONS 



It appears from both histori- 

 cal and archeological evidences, 

 so far as now known, that the 

 Tainan or Antillean culture 

 which was found in eastern 

 Cuba did not originate on that 

 island, but was introduced from 

 Porto Eico or Haiti, where it 

 reached its highest develop- 

 ment. The germ of this culture 

 came to both these islands from 

 South America, but had grown 

 into a highly specialized form 

 in its insular home. There were minor differences in the different 

 islands— Cuba, Jamaica. Santo Domingo, and Porto Eico— but these 

 differences were all modifications of the polished-stone age. 



There was considerable likeness in culture between the inhabit- 

 ants of the keys of Florida and those of the Cuban coast and the 



Fig. eo. — Stono idol (University Museum, 

 Havana). 



"> This inclosure has been described by Ferrer and others ; but one of the best accounts, 

 and the only one in English that Is linown to me, is by Mr. Stewart Culin : The Indians of 

 Cuba. Bulletin of the Free Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania, vol. 

 Ill, no. 4, 1902. 



