Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-06
A LONG LOST RACE
Remains Of Aboriginal Porto
Ricans Unearthed.
Gu RIOUS CUSTOMS
MANY RELICS FOUND AND
BROUGHT TO THIS CITY.
Success That Crowned the Efforts of
Well-Known Local
Scientist.

Copyright, 1903, by John Elfreth Watkins. Jr)
Written for The Evening Star.
The first remains Of the prehistoric. man
of Porto Rico, recently dug from the soil
of that island by DR.. Jesse Walter Fewkes
of the bureau of American ethnology have
just been brought to the United States Ma
tional Museum by that scientist, who be-
came famous for his excavation of numer-
Gus southwestern puebloS few years back.
Surrounded by piles of musty human
bones and eight hundred specimens of pot
terry, implements, ornaments and what not,
taken from the caves and mortuary mounds
of our new West Indian possession, this
enterprising archaeologist yesterday gave
me the first detailed account of his
fruitful search for the long lost abb
rigtne of that island. The Yankee school
boy of the future must be taught the true
story of Porto Ricos first people. DR..
Fewkes brings to the national capital the
first authentic information concerning them.
He is the first to have read their interesting
story in the crumbled ashes of the past.
While looking over the field near Utuado,
in the eastern central part of the island
fifteen miles south of Arecibo-Dr. Fewkes
noticed fragment of bone protruding from
a bank recently dug by road builders. That
piece of bone proved to be the golden key
which unlocked the long hidden secrets of
the lost prehistoric man. made one of the
ancestors of our domain by the treaty of
Paris.
A Mound of Death.
Scattered over the island. especially in the
inaccessible mountain regions, the archae-
ologist had come upon numerous fiat spaces
surrounded by stones. The country people
called these Enclosures ''juegos de bola''
Gall courts), and the tradition was that in
these places the prehistoric Porto Ricans
played ball-a game ascribed to them by
early Spanish writer's Finding the bone at
the foot of one of the high mountains near
Utuado the explorer examined it and found
it to be human. Near the spot was one of
these ball courts" one of the largest on
the island 1t was about one acre square.
To the south and Just outside the Enclosure
DR.. Fewkes' eye fell upon several mounds,
averaging about twenty feet in diameter
and ten feet high-mere hillocks which
would never have attracted the eye of the
layman. The doctor enlisted a corps of la
borers and babe them dig.
More than fifteen human skeletons were
found-nearly all crumbled to ashes Out
of the entire lot. be brought back two
skulls fairly preserved. ''TheSe are the
first skulls which can be identified without
doubt as belonging to the prehistoric Porto
RicanS,' he said yesterday, as he held them
in his hands lone. you will note has a
fattened forehead. indicating that the an
Client Porto Ricans. like several other
tribes artificially fattened their heads.
century indeed speak of the West Indian
islanders as f1attening their foreheads"
Your correspondent discovered in one of
these ancient accounts description of this
headbinding. Women compressed the skulls
of their young babies and kept them bound
until maturity, by which time their fore
heads had permanently retreated directly
from their eyes to their crowns. A similar
slipping was affected in the rear of the
Uranium. To have had such a deforrned
skull was to be aristocratic. just as it now
is to have deformed feet in China Thus the
crown of the skull by dnt of crowdiny
became so thick that the Spaniards in their
broadsword competitions had difficulty IN
cracking them open. 1t is further told
that the people of the Lesser Antilles arti-
ficially elevated rather than depressed their
foreheads.
Buried Sitting.
Buried in a sitting posture. DR.. Fewkes
found these prehistoric Porto Ricans.
Above their corpses had been placed pot
terry ornaments and stone implements.
Their skeletons indicate that they were a
people of large stature and the unusual
thickness of their skulls is apparent.
The ball courts were examined by the
doctor. At one end of the court adjacent
to the uncovered burial mounds he found
remnants which indicated that the space
had had a raised stone platform Upon this
had once stood a raised stone idol. For
many years this remained in front of a
house on sugar plantation at Arecibo,
whittier it had been carried. But during