EXCAVATIONS AT MAGENS BAY


 he did not feel was in the pathological range; but osteophy-
 tic lipping on the facets of two ribs at the costotransverse
 joint and at the distal end of the left radius he considered
 pathological. Whether the cause was traumatic, infectious,
 or degenerative was not possible to determine from the
 present fragments. If this lipping is a dcgelneative phenome-
 non, the age of the individual at death probably was well
 beyond the stage of a young adult.
 Except for the fact that these bones are not large, there
 is no data on which to base a decision as to sex.
 Nor do the bones recovered provide data for (laif) ing
 as to race. Therefore any inference must come from the
 archaeological interpretation of the location, context, and
 manner of burial.

 There is no reason to believe this burial to be other than that
of an Indian. The relatively recent interment of a female Negro
(report of M. T. Newman, Aug. 29, 1960, to Registrar, United
States National Museum) was found by the Davises immediately
adjacent to the north wall of Test II. In that instance, evidence
of a pit was noted while the bones were in a better state of preser-
vation than those of the burial in Test I.
 There are several possible explanations for the lack of a skull
with the burial found in Test I. Special treatment of the heads of the
dead (preservation of the head in a basket hanging from a post in
the hut) is known for the Greater Antilles (Loval 1935: 552-53) and
may have been practiced in the Virgin Islands. There are also
Carib references to cannibalistic practices including heads and to
unspecified part of the bodies of enemies kept as trophies (Sturte-
vant 1960: 41).
 Examination of Table 1 shows that there are in the ceramics of
Magens Bay typological differences with depth which have chro-
nological implications. Considering first the plain wares, 55.3 per-
cent of all sherds from Test I are in the first two levels while the
percentage of Botany Plain for these same two levels is practically
the same, 57.8 percent. Only 29.8 percent of Magens Plain, on
the contrary, was found in the two highest levels. Decorated sherds
of Magens paste with 30.0 percent and Magens Griddles with 28.1
percent for the upper half of the cultural deposit agree in their