XXVI Congreso Internacional de Americanistas

- 6~
such as on one of the broad trays.· Présumably the painted · and unpainted
wares belong to the same culture and the same periodo
Nordenskiéild's hypothesis that the Arawak invasion of the Antille:>
occurred at a period before the introduction of painted pottery has beer.
decidedly upset since the publication of his work by the reinarkable
discoveries, by F. G. Rainey of the Peabody Museum of Yale University,
of highly ornamental and profusely painted pottery from deep
levels beneath unpainted pottery with high relief, presumably of Arawak
origin, in Puerto Rico (3). Culture-historians have not yet proposed any
explanation for this unexpected find. Apparently no burial urns were
found and the many flexed interments indica te that inhumation was thc
funerary custom of this people, whoever they were. Sorne of the ceramic
designs, especially the incised ones, resemble Tainan Arawak, but
the simple-silhouettte ollas, covered with painted designs in highly contrasting
colors, are anything but Insular Arawakan and bear rnu~h closer
resemblance to Marajo Island. The ~hapes, c010rs and designs oí thi s
Puerto Rican painted · ware, however, bear no resemblance whatever to
Santarem painted pottery, and no intimate cultural connection between
the two is pnsl1pposed.
One of the rrost surprising facts regarding Santarem pottery is the
difference from the pottery of lVLarajo Island at the mouth of the Amazon.
The affinities of Nlarajo seem to be on the whole with the Upper
Amazon. with the U cayali ane! tlle Conibo regions. Santarem, closer tn
the Jatter area, displays much less affinity with the west. On the other
hand, the affinities with the Isthmian region and with the Antilles, which
are so evident in the Santarem area, are lacking in Marajo, if we consider
only the typical Arawak pottery of the Antilles. There is sorne
resemblance, as just pointed out, between Marajoand the earlier, apparently
pre-Arawak, discoveries in Puerto Rico.
Marajo ceramics are on the whole of simple shapes with low relief,
·and highly omate painted, incised and carved or champ-levé decorations,
whi,le Santarem pottery is characterized by bizarre shapes, high relief,
and little painted or incised decoration. In addition to these general differences,
the Santarem elements of laterallydongated vases, caryaticl
vases, effigy vases, flaring ring bases, spool-shaped bases, constricted
necks and horizontal looped handles are rnissing in or not characteristic
of Marajo pottery. On the other hand Santarern 'cerarnics lack the Marajo
characteristics of burial urns, concave bases, !\v·hi(e slip and champlevé
decoration.
However, as would be expected, there are many resemblances between
Santarem and Marajo. The same colors, black and red, are employed in
the painted decoration in ooth. Certain featl1re s com111on to large parí-;
(3) "Science N ew Letter", March 30, )935, p. 200.