We BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 177 
CHRONOLOGICAL POSITION OF THE TYPE: Although found throughout the entire se- 
quence, the type is most popular in the earlier part of the Mabaruma Phase 
where it reaches a popularity of 4.5 percent (fig. 48). 
MABARUMA PLAIN 
PASTE: 
Method of manufacture: Coiling; breaks along coil lines very distinct. 
Temper: Waterworn sand particles or quartz and feldspar particles from de- 
composed granite. Temper grains range in size from 0.5-4.0 mm., with 
the majority 1-2 mm. Abundant, unevenly distributed in the clay. 
Particles extremely prominent on both surfaces and in cross section due 
to the contrast between the gray-white rock color and the orange- 
brown to orange-gray paste (pl. 30, f). 
Texture: Very granular, but not friable; poorly mixed, leaving air pockets, 
a sort of layered appearance and clumping of temper particles. Occa- 
sional pieces of black ash from leaves, stems, and other extraneous vege- 
table matter are scattered through the paste. 
Color: Half of the sherds are brown to tan to orange through the cross sec- 
tion; others are brown or tan along the exterior and interior in band 
ranging from paper thinness to 3 mm, with a gray to black core. 
Firing: Oxidized, complete to incomplete; fire clouds often present. Usually 
the interior and exterior are same shade of tan or brown suggesting the 
vessel was fired mouth up, but in a few cases the interior is dark gray with 
high carbon content indicating that the jar or bowl was fired mouth down 
so that smudging occurred on the interior. 
SURFACES: 
Color: Exterior—orange, tan, or brown with some black fire clouds. 
Interior—usually the same color as the exterior, but sometimes dark gray. 
Treatment: The surfaces tend to erode easily because of their rough, uneven, 
granular texture and the protruding large hunks of temper. Both sur- 
faces treated the same, ranging from fairly even, well scraped and 
smoothed to coarse with the coil lines barely erased by scraping, leaving 
holes, depressions, and irregularities so that the body wall thickness 
varies considerably on each sherd. Dragged temper particles often create 
grooves in the clay; crackle lines around the large temper particles are 
also common. 
Hardness: 2.5-3. 
Form: 
Rim: Direct with flattened or rounded lip, rarely tapered or slightly 
thickened ; exteriorly thickened producing a broad flat top with rounded 
lip; sharply everted, slightly thickened on the interior; with rounded lip. 
Body wall thickness; 5-15 mm. ; majority 6-8 mm. 
Body diameters: 20-36 cm. 
Bases: The four types of bases seem to be found on both jars and bowls 
but in the absence of complete vessels it is impossible to associate any 
specific base with a particular vessel shape. 
A. Flat, slightly thickened sometimes with a convex center, joining the 
sidewalls at an angle of 25 to 45 degrees; diameter 6-12 cm.; 
base thickness 8-12 mm. (fig. 46, A). 
B. Flat pedestal, slightly thickened, with the pedestal rising 8-10 mm. 
at a steeper angle than the body wall but not vertically ; diameter 
10-12 em. (fig. 46, B). 
