BE d 
pyeusen ARCHEOLOGY IN BRITISH GUIANA 61 
with typical plain and decorated types of the Mabaruma Phase. Pre- 
sumably, this contact eventually resulted in the assimilation of the 
Alaka Phase population. 
Analysis of the stone artifacts from Alaka Phase sites shows a 
parallel pattern of change. Crude, percussion-made tools, such as 
choppers, core picks, flake picks, and scrapers, occur at all sites and 
are diagnostic of the Phase as a whole rather than of any of its parts 
(Appendix, table 1). Implements showing abrasion or polishing 
occur only at the pottery-producing sites. The only abraded tool 
from N-8 is a small flat object that may have been part of the polished 
bit of a chisellike tool. However, the remaining three sites, N-9, 
N-11, and N-16 have celts, manos, metates, mortars, and pestles in 
sufficient quantity to indicate a significant change in the stone-tool 
inventory. This change, although not exactly correlated with the 
pottery sequence of innovations, nevertheless is sufficiently parallel to 
it to suggest that a general alteration in the total culture was taking 
place (table B).° 
The addition of manos, metates, pestles, and possible hoes to the 
stone-tool inventory implies the appearance of a new subsistence 
resource in the latter part of the Alaka Phase. Since it does not seem 
likely that this new tool complex would have developed to exploit 
a previously unused wild food, it must reflect the introduction of 
agriculture. This conclusion could be strengthened if it were possible 
to show an alteration in the wild food diet or settlement pattern 
corresponding with the appearance of these artifacts. Unfortunately 
such evidence is not clear-cut. 
Two kinds of locations were selected for habitation by the Alaka 
Phase people. Four of the sites are surrounded by mangrove swamp 
where the ground surface is subject to inundation at high tide and 
in the rainy season, and covered with slippery, soft mud and roots 
when the water is out. ‘Two of the sites are on high land at the edge 
of the swamp. Since the shellfish food supply was no less accessible 
to one location than to the other, a reasonable excuse for swamp 
living seems to be superior advantages for defense. This being the 
case, the acquisition of incipient agriculture would not necessarily 
be accompanied by an exit from the swamp as would be expected if 
swamp living were primarily motivated by accessibility to the food 
supply. 
4The major portion of this site 1s preceramic and a more refined seriation would have to 
distinguish between the preceramic and incipient ceramic aspects. However, for the 
purposes of this analysis, sites are classified in terms of their total artifact sample. In 
the case of N-8, this technique suppresses the preceramie component, while the analysis 
of shellfish species brings it out (table C). 
6 Osgood’s (1946, p. 50) tabulation of the artifacts from the Barambina stratigraphic 
excavation shows the same addition of pottery and ground and polished stone tools to a 
preceramic, percussion-made tool industry. 
