BE d 
Teas ARCHEOLOGY IN BRITISH GUIANA 33 
Level 50-80 cm__. Black, oozy, wet muck with sherds, shells, and rock 
intermixed occurs from 55 to 80 cm. Most of the 61 
sherds were in a zone from 55 to 65 cm., with a thick 
shell and ash layer below. Water reached at 80 cm. 
A small sample of shells was collected from this site. This included 
Mytilus falcatus Orbigny, Crassostrea rhizophorae Guilding, Neritina 
zebra Bruguiére, and Phacoides pectinatus Gmelin. 
N-16 > AKAWABI CREEK SHELL MIDDEN 
Akawabi Creek flows into the Wauna River, which in turn is a 
tributary of the Koriabo River. A shell midden is located on the left 
bank of Akawabi Creek at the first sharp bend above the mouth (figs. 
4, 22). The bank here rises to 3 meters above creek level and then 
levels off over a rather large area. At the front, along the creek, 
there is a knoll a meter higher in elevation than the bank (fig. 24), 
and the shell midden is located on the northeast part of this rise. 
Later, 2 Mabaruma Phase village reoccupied the site and the sur- 
rounding area (see pp. 73-75). More recently, the whole area has 
been under cultivation, and the part occupied by the site has been 
leveled and a school constructed. In 1953 there was a house on the 
high knoll, northwest of the edge of the shell midden. 
Verrill (1918 a, pp. 18-15) visited Akawabi Creek and tested the 
shell deposit. He found it to be 3 to 6 feet in thickness and “in most 
places it was very barren of relics” (op. cit., p. 14). The three burials 
he encountered appear from their associated pottery (op. cit., figs. 
10-12) to belong to the later Mabaruma Phase occupation (see p. 75). 
At the time of our visit, the shell midden was 12 meters long by 
5 meters wide (fig. 24). Test A, at the center of the site near the 
edge of the 4-meter contour line, showed the deposit to be 85 cm. deep. 
Soil was mixed with ash, shells, crab remnants, and rock chips 
throughout the entire deposit. Sherds were encountered only in the 
upper 10 cm. In contrast to the dark-gray midden refuse, the sterile 
soil was granular, gray-brown sand containing particles of decom- 
posed granite. 
Cut 1, a 2- by 1-meter excavation, was placed near the high knoll, 25 
meters from the margin of the major shell midden concentration. 
Each 15-cm. level had the following materials and characteristics: 
Level .00-.15 m__ Disturbed soil from recent leveling of the land for agri- 
cultural purposes; 124 sherds, quartz chips, fragments 
of stone tools; black loose loam with numerous lateritic 
concretions. 
Level .13-.30 m__ Soil conditions the same; 33 sherds; 1 bone fragment. 
Level 30-.45 m__ Black soil: no shell: 6 sherds; lateritic rocks abundant. 
