FEWKEsJ WEST INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL DATA 261 



lilted eminences, stand now in a tidal mangrove swamp, and were evi- 

 dently at no very distant date actual islands." This significant rela- 

 tionship points to a cultural connection of the prehistoric inhabitants 

 of the strictly continental islands like Trinidad to those of the neigh- 

 boring coast of South America, as shown also by De Booy's archeo- 

 logical investigations on the island of Margarita. 



A word may be said in regard to the affinities of the pottery of all 

 the Lesser Antilles and that of the Greater from the chronological 

 point of view. The pottery from the former is often styled " Carib 

 pottery " ; that from the latter, " Tainan " or "Arawak." There may 

 be little foundation for these designations. "When Columbus dis- 

 covered America he recognized the difference between the inhabitants 

 of the Greater and the Lesser Antilles, and all the early writers have 

 regarded the two as distinct people and commented on their customs. 

 That the inhabitants of the Lesser Antilles were different from those 

 of the (xreater at the dawn of history should not lead to the state- 

 ment that objects found on the two groups indicate the same dif- 

 ference in culture. Many of the so-called prehistoric objects from 

 the Lesser Antilles antedate the submergence of the people who made 

 them by the Carib, and it is probable that the conquered people 

 might have been more closely related to those of Porto Rico ; in fact, 

 might be called Tainan or peaceful agriculturists. That the conquer- 

 ing race obtained by acculturation many features of culture of the 

 conquered is true; in fact, we know it appropriated the wives of the 

 Tainans, who transmitted a higher culture to the Carib of the 

 islands. The pure Tainan culture of the Lesser Antilles was no doubt 

 modified by mixture, but there is every reason to believe that the 

 antecedent form of life in the Lesser Antilles in ante-Carib days 

 had many points of resemblance to that dominant in Porto Rico in 

 the days of the advent of Europeans. 



Thus far little has been done in the determination of the relative 

 age of the different kinds of pottery found in the West Indies and 

 the comparative age of pottery from shell heaps, caves, and "juegos 

 de bola." Some of the shell heaps offer good opportunities for 

 stratigraphical studies, and caves should be excavated, paying at- 

 tention to the relative depths at which different kinds of pottery 

 occur. The provenience of many specimens of West Indian clay 

 heads in our museums is doubtful, and a more accurate knowledge 

 of the localities from which they were taken is a necessary pre- 

 requisite for exact generalizations on its distribution. The pottery 

 from Cueva de los Golondrinos, on the north shore of Porto Rico, 

 described and figured in plate Ixxiii of Aborigines of Porto Rico, is 

 quite crude as compared with the best Porto Rican ceramics and 

 would seem to have been the product of a people of different culture. 



