IOO SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



thus contrasting markedly with material to be later excavated at 

 St. Croix and St. Thomas. Although the time consumed in the study 

 of the Anegada shell midden and the Road Town kitchenmidden was 

 brief, the scientific results obtained were definite. The position of the 

 Road Town midden as one of the older in the aboriginal cultural 

 sequence of the Virgin Islands became evident. Thus the archeological 

 chronology of aboriginal cultural remains in the West Indies finally 

 assumed form. 



The next phase of the work of the expedition was the excavating 

 of prehistoric aboriginal Indian village sites on the island of 

 St. Thomas. This island is mountainous and presents a radically dif- 

 ferent aspect from that of flat, coralline Anegada. St. Thomas and 

 the other Virgin Islands proper belong geologically to the ancient 

 submerged continent of which mountainous Puerto Rico and the still 

 higher Santo Domingo constitute the main axis. Shore lines present 

 evidence of continued subsidence. The writer found quarters at the 

 Government Hotel which clusters around the tower of the infamous 

 pirate Bluebeard, the subject of many fabricated legends despite the 

 ponderous facts of the many rusted cannon and battlement stanchions. 



It was a pleasant daily morning journey indeed to labor upward 

 in a 1928 Marquette automobile over the hogback of the mountain 

 range just back of and above sleepy Charlotte Amalie and then down- 

 ward along the steep northern slope into the broad, flat valley which 

 terminates in the waters of Magens Bay. Much of this area is the 

 property of A. S. Fairchild, whose residence, Louisenhoj, rests astride 

 a peak of the central mountain massif. Mr. Fairchild kindly gave per- 

 mission to excavate on his land and cooperated in every way possible 

 to make the undertaking a success. 



The writer, whose previous experience in active investigation of 

 West Indian archeology was limited to the islands west of St. Thomas, 

 found at Magens Bay archeological specimens strikingly dissimilar to 

 the pattern of the Arawak culture of Santo Domingo. It became at 

 once apparent that cultural infection must have spread northward 

 from the islands of the Lesser Antilles which stretch southeastward 

 500 miles or more to the South American mainland. This made pos- 

 sible a comparison of the older Arawak (Taino-Igneri) culture trait 

 complex as typified in a midden at the extreme northeastern end of 

 Magens Bay valley with a later, more characteristically South Ameri- 

 can culture embodied in a series of nearby middens south and west of 

 the older Arawak site. Objects typical of each culture provided ample 

 data for a definite determination of aboriginal culture sequence in the 

 West Indies. The presence of red paint on the pottery vessels recov- 



