THE KORIABO PHASE 
DESCRIPTION OF SITES AND EXCAVATIONS 
The Koriabo Phase is represented by 4 sites, 3 in the Barima River 
drainage and 1 on a tributary of the Waini River. All are habita- 
tions and all had sufficient depth of refuse for stratigraphic excavation. 
N-2: KORIABO 
A high bank on the right side of the Barima River, just below the 
mouth of Koriabo Creek, has been occupied for several decades by a 
Government Rest House, used by officials and travelers on government 
business. Probably because of this, the archeological site on the same 
spot has come to the attention of a number of visitors. The first 
report appears to be that of Elias Toro, a Venezuelan anthropologist 
who was a member of the 1905 British Guiana-Venezuela boundary 
commission. He describes the site as containing an abundance of 
“utensils of quartz, clay adornos .. . and the remains of pots and 
burial urns of baked clay” (in Osgood, 1946, p. 82). Verrill (1918 a, 
p. 17) describes Koriabo as “a lateritic hill of decided red colour,” 
which produced “no shells but numerous pieces of decorated pottery, 
heads and many finely finished stone implements.” He illustrates 
several decorated sherds from the site (op. cit., fig. 18), all of which 
are Mabaruma Phase trade material. <A 1920 visitor was J. A. Bull- 
brook, a geologist who undertook considerable investigation of the 
shell middens in Trinidad. He noticed that sherds from Koriabo 
contained flecks of gold as natural inclusions in the clay from which 
the pottery was made (Osgood, 1946, p. 36). 
The bank on which the site is located is bounded on the upriver 
or west side by Koriabo Creek, which flows into the Barima River 
almost at right angles (fig. 4). The land rises rapidly to 4 meters 
above the February water level, and then gradually for 2 meters more 
(fig. 50). Near the riverbank, in the area of highest elevation, there 
was in 1953 a small frame building used intermittently by traveling 
Government employees and another similar structure fallen into disuse. 
The surface surrounding these buildings and extending to the bank 
of the creek was covered with thick grass. The rest of the summit was 
overgrown with small trees and brush, but had formerly been cleared 
for gardening. Clumps of large cane were scattered along the summit 
of the creek bank. Testing showed the site to extend for 78 meters 
along the creek and 33 meters inward, with its northern and western 
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