Identifier: puertoricoitsres00ober (find matches)
Title: Puerto Rico and its resources
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Ober, Frederick A. (Frederick Albion), 1849-1913
Subjects: Natural resources
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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p. One of the most complete collections in theworld, illustrating the arts and economy of ancientAmericans, is the assemblage of Puerto Rican an-tiquities in the Smithsonian Institution at Wash-ington, a gift of the late George Latimer, of SanJuan. Mr. Latimer was a resident merchant, whofor many years collected all the aboriginal antiqui-ties he could find, and finally sent them to Wash-ington, a priceless gift to his countrys capital.This collection was long ago-the subject of a mono-graph by the talented Prof. O. T. Mason, whopublished, in 1877, this most valuable contributionto ethnographical literature, fully illustrated. Although the common celts and ordinarystone implements are found elsewhere, yet thereare several types found nowhere else in the world.These are the so-called mammiform stones and collars. The mammiform stones are most sug-gestive of a human form buried under a mountain,with head and feet protruding. The name was sug-gested by the conical or conoid prominence in
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& THE INDIANS OF PUERTO RICO. 205 the centre, and of course is wholly arbitrary; butto any one who has seen the rounded and pyramidalhills of Puerto Eico, the resemblance is very evi-dent. They are as truly sui generis as the collars/which likewise are peculiar to this island, abso-lutely unique, and receive their appellation fromtheir resemblance to horse collars, though of stone.Some of these syenite collars weigh as much as sixty-five pounds each, and are from nineteen to twenty-three inches in length and from fifteen to seventeenin breadth. Many specimens are shown in theSmithsonian collection, in various stages of elabora-tion, but the majority are beautifully finished andpolished, with bosses and panels, sometimes on oneside and sometimes on the other. This peculiarityof ornamentation has given rise to the distinction ofright- and left-shouldered collars, presumingthat they may have served some use in pairs. Just what that use was no one can tell, thehistorians being silent

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