118 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull, 177 
0 | “26M 
Ficure 47.—Pottery artifacts of the Mabaruma Phase. a, Cylindrical stamp. 0, “Spoon.” 
lines or short straight ones. The general features correspond to 
stamps used elsewhere in South America for body painting. 
Worked sherd.—A Koberimo Plain sherd from the surface of N-19 
has been worked into a rectanguloid outline 4.6 by 2.7 em. and 7 mm. 
thick. One end is worked from both surfaces, producing a sharp 
edge; the other edges are rounded. The sherd is almost flat, from a 
vessel with a body curvature of 30 cm. It may have been used as a 
scraper in pottery making. 
THE SITE SEQUENCE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS 
The seriated sequence for the Mabaruma Phase is based on the 
analysis of five stratigraphic excavations of three to seven levels each. 
Although the presence of 4 plain pottery types complicates the pic- 
ture, all the cuts show a similar pattern of ceramic change. Coarse- 
tempered Mabaruma Plain, the dominant early type, begins at N-1 
with a frequency of 57.6 percent, increases rapidly to 65 percent, 
and then begins a gradual decline (fig. 48). Its late history is some- 
what erratic and at the latest site it varies in frequency between 10 
and 20 percent. The decrease in Mabaruma Plain is accompanied 
by an increase in fine-sand-tempered Hosororo Plain from 27 per- 
cent to 56.9 percent. Steatite-tempered Hotokwai Plain starts at 
6.4 percent, reaches a climax of 59.5 percent near the middle of the 
sequence, and then declines rapidly. Koberimo Plain, tempered with 
sand containing an abundance of mica, is characteristic of the late 
part of the Phase. It occurs only sporadically until about the mid- 
dle of the sequence, after which it increases to a maximum of 27.8 
