E d 
eae ARCHEOLOGY IN BRITISH GUIANA 183 
late period, sand-tempered Abary Plain begins to increase, but it 
never reaches the maximum frequency of the other two types. Deco- 
rated sherds of Abary Phase manufacture utilize incision and applique 
modeling. Incised sherds are crude in execution and simple in 
motif, while applique is confined to nubbins with punctate or gashed 
centers. Neither type is abundant and both occur throughout the 
Phase sequence. 
Polished stone tools are characteristic, and include adzes, axes, and 
hammerstones. A few manos, metates, and rubbing stones also occur. 
One stone and one pottery bead are the only evidence of personal 
ornament. 
The presence of plain and decorated sherds at the earliest site show- 
ing Mabaruma Phase influence or derived by trade from the Mabaruma 
Phase can be used to suggest the time of arrival of the Abary Phase. 
No European trade materials were encountered at any of the sites, so 
that the survival of the Phase until European contact cannot be 
proved although it is probable. 
COMPARATIVE DATA, CONCLUSIONS, AND INTERPRETATIONS 
Our brief survey of the Abary River produced evidence of a single 
archeological complex, designated as the Abary Phase (fig. 58). No 
shell middens have been reported from this region, nor is there any 
other indication of an earlier nonceramic cultural occupation. The 
relatively inhospitable nature of this part of the coast, with its sea- 
sonal inundation, probably explains its failure to be more intensively 
inhabited in aboriginal times. 
The Abary Phase makes its appearance at the earliest site in a fully 
developed state, and a number of features of the pottery suggest that 
it is intrusive not only into the Abary River area, but also into British 
Guiana. For one thing, the major plain wares are characterized by 
kinds of temper that are rare or absent in the other archeological 
Phases established in the colony. The sherd temper of Taurakuli 
Plain was encountered nowhere else, and the cariapé temper of Tiger 
Island Plain is paralleled only in occasional sherds of the other 
Phases. In the Northwest District, on the Rupununi savanna and on 
the upper Essequibo, the principal tempering material is sand. A 
second clue to the origin of the Abary Phase lies in the occurrence 
of features suggesting influence from the Mabaruma Phase of the 
Northwest District. These consist of certain kinds of decoration and 
distinctive vessel shapes reproduced in the paste of the plain pottery 
types characteristic of the Abary Phase, as well as of sherds from 
trade vessels of Mabaruma Phase manufacture. Detailed examination 
of this evidence will help to reconstruct the origin of the Abary Phase. 
To facilitate interpretation of the significance of sherds with Maba- 
ruma Phase styles of decoration, table F was prepared, listing the 
