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



grade being from Trinidad, whicli indicates a special subculture area 

 so far as pottery is concerned. St. Kitts pottery ranks higher teeh- 

 nicallj' and artistically. 



One important difference between the pottery of the Lesser and 

 the Greater Antilles is the presence of a superficial slip in the former. 

 This is generally red in color, the paste is finer, and there is a supe- 

 riority from an artistic point of view in the ornamentation. The 

 incised decorations of pottery from the Lesser Antilles are rectilinear 

 or curved, but the lines have not the terminal pits which occur pretty 

 generally in potterj' from the Greater Antilles, Porto Kico, Haiti, 

 Cuba, and the Bahamas. The ornamentation of pottery from the 

 Lesser Antilles is not as commonly produced by applied relief figures, 

 and the relative number of effigy vases is less than in the Greater 

 Antilles. The ring-shaped base is common in the Lesser but rare in 

 the Greater Antilles. As a rule, animal heads are more common 

 in the former than the human heads so constant in Santo Domingo 

 potteiy. 



The pottery from Barbados is as a rule coarse, the relief decora- 

 tions low and crude. It can hardly be placed in the same category 

 as the beautiful ware from Trinidad. Grenada ceramics resemble 

 the Trinidad forms. 



The pottery from St. Vincent is quite distinct from that of St. 

 Kitts, which includes also Nevis. It resembles that from neighboring 

 islands, as Carriacou, and marks a distinct ceramic area. 



The island of St. Kitts had a development in ceramics quite distinct 

 from any other and shares with Trinidad the position of the highest 

 development of the i^ottery technique in prehistoric West Indies. It 

 is as a rule simpler in form and does not have the complexity of de- 

 velopment of handles, bigs, and superficial additions so prominent 

 in the pottery of the Greater Antilles. The forms are more graceful, 

 and incised decorations are less frequent. Perhaps it is more closely 

 related to pottery from Trinidad than to that from any other island, 

 but it is distinctly unique. This is likewise in conformance with the 

 character of stone implements, as notched axes, pestles, and orna 

 ments. On St. Kitts pieces of pottery with incised decorations filled 

 in with white -pigments are found, imparting an appearance of 

 painted ware — a condition not yet recorded from the other islands. 

 As a rule the heads found in pottery from St. Kitts are not as gro- 

 tesque but more realistic than those from the larger islands. 



Mr. Joyce -* has pointed out the resemblance of some of the heads 

 of Trinidad prehistoric pottery from Erin to that which occurs 

 "throughout the basins of the Aruka and Araau tributaries of the 

 Barima Kiver, not far from Morowhanna. The Aruka hills, iso- 



" Central American and West Indian Archaeology, p. 254. 



