Nericagua, Corobal, and the Upper Orinoco Ceramic Sequence

Summary

Nericagua, Corobal and The Upper Orinoco Ceramic Sequence

William P. Barse, Smithsonian Institution

This presentation reviews the relatively unknown ceramic complexes of Nericagua and Corobal defined in the late 1950's by Clifford Evans and Betty Meggers, currently housed in the Smithsonian Institution curation facilities. The range of variation in ceramic vessel shapes and their decorative motifs of these two complexes will be compared to neighboring ceramic assemblages in the northern Tropical Lowlands to assess broader stylistic correlations, e.g. between Arauquin phases in the Llanos of Venezuela and the Monou-teri ceramic complex in the Upper Orinoco River drainage originally defined by Erika Wagner. Evidence for paleosol correlations with late ceramic assemblages further downstream will also be explored. Seriation data from test pit excavations suggest that many of the Nericagua sites and several of the Corobal sites were excavated from buried paleosol contexts. Potentially, such buried paleosols can be linked to well-dated allogenic paleosol contexts with Arauquin ceramics located downstream from the Atures Rapids that are present in a number of sites along the Orinoco River.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage