SALADOID "INCENSE-BURNERS" FROM THE SITE OF E L CONVENTO, PUERTO RICO

Mela Pons Alegrfa

During the 1969 r e s t o r a t i o n of the s ixteenth cen tury Dominican convent in Old San Juan, R ica rdo E . Alegría d i scove red an old Indian s i te below the f loors of s e v e r a l of the r o o m s and g a l l e r i e s . It belonged to ea r ly Indian f a r m e r s who had lived in the a r e a centu­r i e s before the cons t ruc t ion of the convent by the Dominican f r i a r s in 1523. Const ruc t ion of the Convento 's foundations had g rea t ly d i s tu rbed m o s t of the abor ig inal s i te so that In­dian po t te ry , as wel l a s shell and stone a r t i f a c t s , w e r e mixed with ea r ly Spanish colonial re fuse such a s b r i ck , t i le and po t t e ry f r agmen t s .

The abor ig ina l po t te ry r e v e a l s that Indians belonging to the Hacienda Grande phase of the Saladoid (Igneri) cu l tu re in P u e r t o Rico had been the inhabi tants of the s i te (Pons Alegrfa 1973). Some diagnost ic t r a i t s co r r e spond to those d i scove red in the Hacienda Grande s i t e , Loiza (Ricardo Alegrfa 1965). They include c r o s s - h a t c h e d incised s h e r d s , elephant t runk - l i ke modeled p ro jec t ions , thin r e d painted she rds with fine inc i s ions filled with white pa in t , bot t le s h e r d s , and o the r s cha r ac t e r i z i ng the ea r ly phase of the Saladoid Indians of P u e r t o Rico . Up to now th i s complex of diagnost ic t r a i t s h a s only been r e p o r t e d in P u e r t o Rico for the Hacienda Grande and Convento s i t e s . Although t h e r e i s a s yet no Carbon-14 date for the s i te , the s imi l a r i t y of the m a t e r i a l with that f rom Hacienda Grande , whe re the C-14 date i s A.D.120 , l eads us to bel ieve that the Convento si te i s of s i m i l a r age and thus c o r r e s p o n d s to the beginning of the Saladoid occupation of P u e r t o Rico .

The pu rpose of th i s paper i s to r e p o r t on a type of v e s s e l p rev ious ly unknown in P u e r t o Rico unti l the Convento excavat ion. F r o m p a p e r s p r e s e n t e d during the f i r s t sess ion of th i s c o n g r e s s by Matt ioni (1975), Bullen and Bullen (1975), Jacques Pe t i t j ean Roget (1975) and Kirby (1975), we see that they a r e common in the L e s s e r Ant i l les . At El Convento they a r e r e p r e s e n t e d by 38 she rds which s eem to belong to s e v e r a l s im i l a r v e s s e l s which we have ca l led " i n c e n s a r i o s " ( incense b u r n e r s ) for the i r shape and physical c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s sugges ts a s i m i l a r function.

All of the s h e r d s s eem to belong to cyl indr ica l ly shaped v e s s e l s m a d e of thick, soft, p o r o u s , r e d clay which in m o s t she rds i s badly e roded . Many co r r e spond to body she rds a l ­though t h e r e a r e six base f r agmen t s . The l a r g e s t of these is approximate ly 8 cm high by 13 c m wide and 2 c m thick, being somewhat wider and th icker at and n e a r the base which is flat ( F i g . l ) . T h r e e body f r agmen t s , each composed of t h r e e glued s h e r d s , a r e decora ted and belong to the top sec t ions of ' f incensarios". In one, the r i m i s worn but the other two have wide flat r i m s . All decora t ions a r e incised applied e l emen t s such as coffee bean and but tons and b a r r e l i e f s (Fig. 2). The l a r g e s t of these f r agmen t s , an a lmos t comple te r i m ­med cy l indr ica l fo rm, is 7 cm high by 8 cm wide and 1 1/2 cm thick. It i s deco ra t ed by a h o r s e s h o e shaped lug- l ike des ign enveloping the outer por t ion of the r i m on half of the f rag­m e n t . This lug- l ike e lement i s r e m i n i s c e n t of the r ec tangu la r wedge-shaped lugs extending upwards f rom the r i m in the same d i rec t ion of the v e s s e l wal l desc r ibed by Rouse (1952)'as a d iagnost ic Cuevas s t r u c t u r a l e lement . The design of th i s lug- l ike modeled e lement cons i s t s of two coffee bean re l i e f s at each end of the h o r s e s h o e f igure , separa ted by a shor t inc ised l ine on each side f rom a cen t r a l button and ba r e lement . A wide, b road inc is ion contains the des ign and s e p a r a t e s it f rom the flat por t ion of the inner r i m (Fig. 3). Two l a rge coffee bean modeled e l emen t s d e c o r a t e the side wa l l s of the f ragment . Unfortunately the segment between them is m i s s i n g so that we have no way of knowing if they formed p a r t of a face or of another bu t ton-bar des ign . The opposite side b e a r s a c i r c u l a r i m p r e s s i o n w h e r e an a p ­plied e lement w a s broken-off.

These she rds a r e the only v e s s e l f ragments f rom the s i te with such thick, rough t ex ­t u r e d , p o r o u s , soft clay p a s t e . The type of decora t ion on r i m s and su r faces i s typical of the

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Type-A adorno described by Rainey (1940) fo r h i s Crab culture mater ia l f r o m Puer to Rice and by Bullen (1964) fo r Pea r l s Rim Lugged type f r o m Grenada. Both the decoration and the scarci ty of the mater ia l , leads u s to believe that they do not represent f ragments of common domestic vessels . The thickness of the vesse l walls and the porosity of the clay paste so un- character is t ic of the r e s t of the Saladoid pottery with which i t was found leads u s to believe that they were intentionally constructed to contain live coals o r to burn some unknown sub- stance, possibly res ins , seeds o r weeds.

We have included another smal l clay vesse l with th is group which although of differ- ent shape seems to have had the same o r s imilar function. I t i s a smal l cylindrical clay ves - se l covered with black soot inside. This smal l pot is a hollow cylinder 6 c m high and 3 c m in diameter with a thick, flat c i rcu la r and projecting base 6 to 7 c m in diameter and 1 112 c m thick (Fig. 4). The clay paste, though not a s thick a s in the previously described "in- cense burner" sherds , i s a lso thick, porous and in th is case cracked. Some substance was evidently burned inside. We believe the same mus t have happened with the other vessels , even though there i s no evidence since their inner surfaces a r e badly eroded.

We can only speculate on the u se of these vesse l s a s "incense burners" since the Saladoid (Igneri) people a r e only known to u s f r om archaeological evidence. Nevertheless we know that the culturally re la ted Tainos a s well a s the Car ibs of the L e s s e r Antilles used to produce smoke by burning seeds, res ins o r weeds in clay vessels . The ethnohistorical sources for the Antilles have demonstrated the use of pepper seeds (aiicapsicum fruten- scens) to produce a noxious gas which was used in war fa re (Alegrra 1975), -

Similar vesse l s a r e found in the archaeological l i tera ture of the L e s s e r Antilles. One reported by Fewkes (1922:Plate 3A, p. 70) f rom Trinidad i s the mos t s imilar one we have been able to find. The i l lustration of th is pot shows a cylindrical shape and modeled coffee bean decoration. Fewkes descr ibes i t a s "a smal l rude pottery res t , of spool shape, with flat base , ve ry thick walls, smooth undecorated surface and somewhat f laring rim". He believed i t was a pot r e s t and associated i t with others f rom St. Vincent which he had seen in the Heye Collection. Fewkes a lso descr ibes other clay cylinders opened at both ends, f rom St. Vincent and Grenada. One of these i s decorated with an anthropomorphic face relief (p. 120; fig. 11, p. 121). Open ended clay cylinders have been reported f rom Trou- maske Estate, St. Lucia by Haag (1964) who thought that they were "some kind of incense burners". Peti t jean Roget (1970:75) i l lus t ra tes a beautiful hyperbolic pottery object with in- cised modeled decoration which he thought could have been used "as a drum, a plate support, a chimney draft o r a perfume burner". They have a lso been reported by Mattioni (1972) for the Fond-Brul6 si te in Martinique. The Bullens and Ea r l e Kirby (1973) reported on some cylindrical sherds f rom Union Island in the Grenadines s imilar to those exhibited during the Second Congress for the Study of Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Les se r An- t i l les held at Barbados in 1967. They mentioned that some of these sherds were decorated with "buttons" o r other modelling. La te r these authors found many such Troumasge o r Brul6 cylinders during an archaeological survey of the Grenadines (Bullen and Bullen 1972). The Bullens a lso reported that while visiting Venezuela, they came ac ro s s th ree examples of s imilar clay cylinders f rom an excavation a t Carupano by Mario Sanoja and Iraida Vargas. One of these had a bar and button applied decoration. Cruxent and Rouse (1958) had reported on a clay cylinder described a s "separate annular base ring o r stand" f r o m the E l Agua Site in the Island of Margar i ta (Vol, I: 56; Vol. 11: 19). Barbotin (1971-74) believes that these Troumasee o r Bruld type clay cylinders correspond to ones described in Fa ther Breton's Dictionary a s being used for cooking fish.

These cylinders seem to have a geographic distribution during Saladoid t imes that goes f rom Venezuela to Puer to Rico. In most c a se s they a r e opened on both ends and could represent pot res ts . We believe that those with bases , a s the ones in E l Convento, possibly had another use, such a s containing live coals for use a s incense burners. Future findings in the Les se r Antilles will clarify their function.

2 7 4 INCENSE BURNERS FROM. E L CONVENTO

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