Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

258 / Appendix D.
In Porto Rico and Jamaica, two of the four principal islands of the Greater
Antilles, the implements are mostly the smaller almond- shaped celt, while axes
are rare; but, in the Lesser Antilles, axes are more numerous than the other
pieces. Not much is known of those from the islands of Cuba and Hayti. No
axes are mentioned in the “Latimer [35 is a plate] [36] Collection” from Porto
Rico; while “The celts, one hundred and thirty- five in number, are of the very
highest order of workmanship, being beautifully shaped, and many of them
the most highly polished stone implements in the National Museum” (p. 373).
M. Guesde states that celts are scarcer than axes in Guadaloupe.
In the Museum collections was a highly finished axe- head from Grenada
(Figure IX), lent by the Rev. T. W. Bindley, of Barbados; and, as already mentioned,
among the specimens from British Guiana are several examples of implements
with well marked notches for fixing more firmly in handles, while
larger ones present, in their abraded surface, undoubted indication of having
been also fixed to some handle.
Flint Implements
In Figure II (p. 7) are represented two flint flakes or spalls obtained from the
refuse- heaps in the island. From practically all these accumulations such flakes
have been collected, often associated with large cores from which pieces have
been chipped. The Richmond Hill and California caves have also yielded two
or three similar examples. None of the flakes appears as if fashioned for any particular
purpose, and no well shaped or elaborately worked specimens of fl int,
with one doubtful example referred to below, have been met with. Flint, arranged
in layers or in irregular masses, occurs naturally in various districts in
the Tertiary limestone of the island. In some of the parishes it is found in sufficient
quantity to be used as road metal. A specimen of such flint is in Dr. G. J.
Neish’s collection, but some doubt attaches to its significance. It is of an elongated
petaloid form, with the broader end carefully rounded; the sides and narrower
end are irregular, some parts showing a flaked, unfinished appearance.
The general surface is rough and pitted, apparently by weathering. It would appear
to be a block of flint of which the intention was to produce an ordinary
celt, but, from the unsuitable structure, that had been found impracticable.
Implements made of flint are also extremely rare in the other West India[n]
islands. In reference to specimens sent him, Dr. Mason writes: “I am astonished
to hear of the abundance of flint in Jamaica. In our Porto Rico collection
there is not one chipped object which was surely a tool. Your pieces are
spalls or cores.” In the introduction to the “Guesde Collection,” M. Guesde
states (p. 740): “I have had the good fortune to discover in Grande- terre, in a
piece of ground which had not been ploughed for 60 or 80 years, two tools of