Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Aboriginal Indian Remains in Jamaica by J. E. Duerden / 267
Fig. XI. Jamaica wooden images in the British Museum.
fect, and show a considerable development of ornamental stone carving. They
represent a more elaborate head on a plain, truncated, conical body, terminated
by a flat base. The largest is 6 inches high and 3 1/4 inches across the base. It is
formed of a rather coarse sandstone, with a dark brown, external colouration
or patina. Originally the surface must have been very smooth, if not polished;
but, evidently as a result of the burial for a long period in the earth, it is now minutely
pitted and roughened. A distinct groove separates the body, about half
an inch from the base, into two very unequal parts.
The ears do not project much, the eye cavities are large and circular, and,
along with the open mouth, were evidently hollowed out by a process of grinding
not by chipping; the forehead and nose are conjointly represented by a triangular
area. Of special interest is the fact that the head is surmounted by a
double flat crown, the two halves of which, separated by a deep groove, show
an ornamental folded pattern. A curious account, from Peter Martyr, is given
below, in reference to children in the King’s village sometimes being born with
a double crown, for which exceptional feature a particular Zeme was regarded
as partially responsible.
The other specimen is somewhat smaller, measuring 4 3/4 inches in height
and 2 1/2 inches across the base. It is made of a close- grained mass of fossil
coral, of a considerable degree of hardness, and obtained, no doubt, from the