Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Fig. VII. Spindleshaped
implement,
sharpened at each
end.
254 / Appendix D.
amples of most of the types of sedimentary, metamorphic,
and igneous rocks being met with.
The most abundant material undoubtedly belongs to
the trappean series of rocks, including the trachytes, felsites,
rhyolites, and basalts, so prominent in various parts
of the island. Dolerite is rather common, as well as a greenish
schist, and others graduating between quartzites and
gneisses. A metamorphic siliceous green rock resembling
jade, and taking high polish, is met with, sometimes with
light and dark bands. Most of the material is such as occurs
in the island. The flint is the same as is derived from
various districts.
Practically all the specimens in Jamaica are picked up on
the surface of the ground by the peasantry and others, or are
found embedded in the superficial deposits. They are often
exposed by the heavy tropical rains, and are to be met with
in nearly every part of the island. In past times they were
apparently much more abundant than now, it being no uncommon
occurrence to meet with them while digging. Collectors
today obtain them largely from the country people,
who keep them in the bottom of their water- cooling jars;
the expressed purpose being to keep the water cool. They
are supposed also to have some influence in diverting lightning.
The petaloid ones are known amongst the peasantry,
as is the case in other countries, as “Thunderbolts,” and are
believed by them to fall from the clouds during the rains.
Occasionally broken specimens, evidently discarded,
have been met with in investigating the shell- mounds, and
several examples of shell implements have also been collected
from there.
The uses to which the Indians applied their implements
were no doubt varied. It is likely that they were employed
both as weapons and for industrial purposes, and perhaps
also for ceremonial functions; and though some axes, celts,
or chisels may have been held in the hand, others were fixed in wooden handles.
Somewhat similar examples, lent from British Guiana, give evidence of the
abrasion produced at the place of fixture; while others from the same source
show deep notches or grooves (see Plate X, Figs. 3 and 4, “Among the Indians
of Guiana”). It is remarkable that, of the several hundred examples represented
in our collection, only two much battered specimens, one of which is shown in