Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

260 / Appendix D.
The “Latimer Collection” contains (Figure 20) a rough bell- shaped pestle, with
a rude human face on the top. Prof. Mason likewise considers this similar to the
San(to) Domingo specimens.
Mr. F. G. Bather lent a partially mutilated, bell- shaped, worn specimen,
which must also be regarded as a pestle (Plate IV, Figure 2). It was ploughed up
on an estate in Vere, is 4 1/2 inches in height and 2 3/4 inches across the base,
and made of a hard sandstone with a light brown patina. The base and lower
part of the body are smooth, as if used for rubbing other objects. The head, narrowing
upwards, shows little more than hints of ears, nose, and mouth.
Rollers. A massive spindle- shaped and an oval roller, evidently intended for
use with metates, are shown in Figure 6, Plate IV. The former specimen, with
an end broken off, is still 21 inches in length and 3 1/2 inches at its broadest diameter.
When perfect it would, no doubt, be over 24 inches long. Of smaller
examples some are short and oval, and others a narrow elongated spindle- shape.
They are mostly formed of some doleritic rock.
Mealing- stones or Metates. A well- finished, elaborate, three- legged metate,
carved out of a single block of dolerite, is shown in Figure 6, Plate IV. It is
24 inches long and 15 1/2 inches broad and somewhat sagged, standing at the
ends 15 inches from the ground and 13 inches at the middle. The sides and ends
bear a very perfect incised fret pattern, as also the lateral parts of the two contiguous
legs; while the outer area of the odd leg has an incised scroll pattern. A
leg, presented by Mr. Bowrey, has evidently been broken off a similar mealingstone.
Another tripod metate, lent by Mr. Lynch, of Spanish Town, is shown in
Figure 5, on the same plate, along with the upper flattened stone used with it. A
rude representation of a head, most nearly resembling that of a turtle, is carried
in front; the hinder part narrows a little. It is 23 1/2 inches long, 11 inches wide
at one end, 10 at the other, and stands 6 1/2 inches high in the middle. It was
still in use for grinding chocolate when first obtained. Forms similar to these
two are commonly employed today in Central America for grinding maize, and
now and again are met with amongst the peasantry in Jamaica. Two allied specimens
are referred to in the “Latimer Collection” (p. 376); and one from Nicaragua,
closely resembling the first mentioned Jamaican specimen, is figured in
Bancroft’s, “Native Races of the Pacific States,” Vol. IV., p. 61.
CHAPTER IV
POTTERY
From the various caves have been obtained the best and most perfect representatives
of the ceramic art of the Jamaican aborigine. Although quantities are
known from the kitchen- middens, it is only in a fragmentary condition. Both
the mounds and the caves however yield the same type. Eight nearly perfect