ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN 
BRITISH GUIANA 
By Cxiirrorp Evans AnD Brtry J. Mreccrers 
INTRODUCTION 
BACKGROUND OF THE BRITISH GUIANA ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
Contributions to the archeology of British Guiana can be traced 
sporadically for nearly a hundred years. The pioneer was W. H. 
Brett, whose interest in the local shell middens was aroused during 
his residence as a missionary in the Pomeroon District in the latter 
half of the 19th century. During approximately the same period, 
KE. F. Im Thurn devoted considerable time to the investigation and re- 
porting of ethnography and archeology in the colony. Since the 
bulk of our own monograph deals with pottery, it is somewhat sur- 
prising to note Im Thurn’s comment that “up to February in the 
present year (1884), in the course of much digging and collecting of 
the stone and other implements of the old inhabitants of Guiana, I 
had met with surprisingly few pieces of pottery; nor had I even heard 
rumors of any large deposits of such objects” (1884, p. 123). As is 
typical in the development of scientific archeology, the attention of 
most travelers was attracted principally to petroglyphs. Unfortu- 
nately, they are among the most difficult type of archeological remains 
to place in a chronological or cultural framework and therefore of 
little use in the reconstruction of local prehistory. 
During the 20th century, a number of coastal sites were visited by 
A. Hyatt Verrill, Walter E. Roth, J. E. L. Carter, Vincent Roth, and 
Cornelius Osgood. ‘These people laid the basis for a generalized 
picture of coastal archeology, leading to the formulation of various 
theories about the racial, tribal, and linguistic affiliations and origins 
of the people who left the sites. The data accumulated up to 1945 
and the hypotheses they inspired have been admirably summarized 
by Osgood (1946, pp. 21-42), and the reader who wishes more details 
on the history of archeology in British Guiana will find them in his 
report. 
As long as intensive archeological work remained largely restricted 
to the Andean portion of South America, there was little reason to 
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