CONCLUSIONS 



The foregoing data may be discussed from two points of view — 

 first, the geographical distribution of the archeological material, and, 

 second, its distribution in time.^' 



A study of the geographical distribution of archeological objects in 

 the West Indies leads me to divide the area into three great divisions — 

 the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas. The 

 characteristic orographical feature of the Greater Antilles, as com- 

 pared with the other regions, is their size, their geological character, 

 and the extension of their axis east and west. The four great islands, 

 universally called the Greater Antilles, including Porto Rico, Haiti, 

 Jamaica, and Cuba, are tops of high mountain chains, reaching a 

 moderate altitude, composed of sedimentary, azoic and volcanic rocks, 

 in which the fii'st predominate. An extension of this mountainous 

 chain westward would unite it with the Mexican-Central American 

 highlands, Jamaica being continued westward by a submarine bank 

 which rises out of the sea in the Caymans. Many geologists are in 

 accord in the belief that formerly the Caribbean Sea was closed on 

 the north by a continuous elevated region extending practically from 

 the Yunque Mountain in eastern Porto Eico to the coast of Yucatan, 

 and others find evidences of this former communication well marked 

 in distriljution of animals and plants. It is an interesting fact to note 

 that cultural likenesses between the Greater Antilles and Central 

 America are limited to the islands of Porto Rico, Haiti, and Jamaica, 

 and the eastern end of Cuba. The western end of Cuba, where it 

 approaches nearest to Yucatan, has not a close likeness, culturally 

 speaking, to the mainland. As can be shown from the nature of the 

 artifacts characteristic of the culture of man in this region of the 

 Antilles, the indication of a derivation from Central America is not 

 close. Evidently it occurred in very ancient times, before a char- 

 acteristic Antillean cultiire had developed on the islands. The char- 

 acteristic cult objects from the Antilles do not occur on the main- 

 land but there is a likeness in fauna and flora. 



The geology of the Lesser Antilles is more closely allied to that 

 of South America, all the West Indies, from the Virgin Islands 

 to Trinidad and Barbados, having their longer axis north and south, 

 forming a chain of islands, either submerged peaks or volcanoes, 

 some of which are still active, or a submerged ridge of land extend- 

 ing from South America, having all the geological characteristics 

 of the adjoining region on the continent. The fauna and flora of 

 the Lesser Antilles are distinctly South American, and the cultural 

 relationship of the prehistoric inhabitants of these islands shows a 



" The relations of aboriginal culture and environment in the Lesser Antilles have been 

 discussed in my article in Bull. Amer. Geog. Soc, vol. xlvi, no. 9, 1914 ; reprinted as 

 Cont. Heye Mus., vol. i, no. 8. 



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