E d 
Erenags ARCHEOLOGY IN BRITISH GUIANA 75 
abundance to a depth of 40 cm. Associated were quartz chips, fire- 
burnt stones and a few bones incuding the shaft of a human femur. 
Since this was the most productive part of the site, the bank was cut 
inward to enlarge the sample. This excavation, designated as Test B, 
covered 3 square meters. An attempt at a controlled stratigraphic 
excavation proved unsuccessful. A 2- by 1-meter cut was placed in 
the high part of the site as far as possible from the area of intense 
Alaka Phase occupation, but Alaka Phase refuse was nevertheless 
intermixed with Mabaruma Phase artifacts from each level. The 
sherd sample was small, and analysis showed it to be contemporary 
with the material from Test B, so the two collections were combined 
to increase the sample for seriation purposes. 
Although we encountered no burials, Verrill (1918 a, pp. 14-15, 
figs. 7-12) reports excavating three skeletons on his visit to N-16 in 
1917. These came from the shell midden, but Verrill concludes that 
“the condition of the shells proved that the dead had been placed in 
graves dug in the shell mound” (op. cit., p.15). Further evidence that 
the burials belong to the later occupation is the association of a pottery 
vessel with one of the skeletons. It had been placed inverted over 
the occiput. The type of plain pottery cannot be identified from the 
photograph (op. cit., fig. 11), but the shape is typical of the Mabaruma 
Phase. The three skeletons were side by side, with the legs flexed and 
the faces toward the east. Verrill (op. cit., p. 15) identifies the central 
skeleton (which had the bowl) as male and the others as female. 
A few crude stone implements were found in the vicinity, but Verrill 
is probably correct in suggesting that these are accidental associations 
from the shell refuse midden rather than burial offerings. Verrill’s 
“very careful search of the entire hill” (loc. cit.) failed to locate any 
other burials. 
N-17: WAUNA 
In 1917, Verrill searched the hills near Akawabi for additional 
sites and found only one place that produced “several earthenware 
heads and fragments of decorated pottery” (1918 a, p.15). This may 
be the same place we discovered on the bank of the Wauna River, just 
above its junction with Akawabi Creek (figs. 4,22). Here, the bank 
rises 2 meters and then slopes back up the flank of the high Wauna 
Hills that rise to the west. The site covers an area 65 meters along 
the bank by 20 meters wide. A modern settlement occupied the same 
area in 1953 and the ground surface had been cleaned of all vegeta- 
tion, exposing the black soil and sherd refuse. Tests showed the de- 
posit to be 10 to 20 cm. deep, but erosion and modern habitation made 
it possible to collect only a small sherd sample. This identifies the 
site as belonging to the Mabaruma Phase, but is not large enough to 
use for seriation. 
513186—60——7 
