Early Ceramics in the Coastal Guianas

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Coloring Outside the Lines: Re-situating Understandings of the Lifeways of Earliest Peoples of the Circum-Caribbean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ancient ceramics (beyond 2000 BC) have been found in the western part of the Guianas, notably in the coastal swamp areas of Guyana from the 1950s onward (Alaka). They are also known from the Courantyne River in Suriname (Kauri) and have only recently come to light in western French Guiana. The latter have been found at the terraces of the Lower Maroni River (Saint-Louis) between Suriname and French Guiana but also buried deeply in the White Sand Formations between the Sinnamary and Kourou Rivers in Central French Guiana (Eva 2), dubbed recently Balata for French Guiana. These ceramics are believed to be part of a larger early ceramic complex that emerges between Guyana and to the east of the mouth of the Amazon River (Mina) from ca. 3000 BC. In French Guiana they are also found in combination with rock-filled pits or earth ovens marking the introduction of earthenware and different modes of food preparation. The absence of griddles is notable for this complex and clearly differs from the (much) later ceramic complexes in the Guianas which appear by the end of the first millennium BC.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Coloring Outside the Lines: Re-situating Understandings of the Lifeways of Earliest Peoples of the Circum-Caribbean   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38400.0