258 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 177 
hexagonal beads cut from a long tube, 1.0 to 1.5 mm. thick and 2.0 
mm. in diameter, with the hole 0.5 to 1.0 mm. in diameter. 
THE SITE SEQUENCE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS 
The sequence of Wai Wai habitation sites is established by known 
times of occupation given by American missionaries who remembered 
the date of abandonment. HK-2 and K-11 are partly contemporary, 
E-2 having continued to be inhabited for about 2 years after E-11 
was abandoned. In 1952 there were five Wai Wai villages, varying 
from 3 years to less than 1 year inage. Although the pottery sample 
from the archeological and ethnographic sites is smaller than would be 
ideal, it is unselected. Consequently, it does not seem likely that a 
larger number of sherds from the same sites would reveal more pro- 
nounced differences in paste, surface, vessel shape or other features. 
If this conclusion is valid, Wai Wai pottery is unusually uniform. 
However, it is probable that this appearance of uniformity partly 
results from lack of time depth in the remains, and that if the sites 
represented 100 years instead of only 10, a variation in one or more of 
the pottery characteristics could be discerned. 
A possible Taruma influence on the Wai Wai ceramic tradition is 
indicated by the similarity of Erefoimo Incised to Kanashen Incised. 
Kanashen Incised, a major decorated type of the Taruma Phase, con- 
tains several well-defined design motifs, one of which is diagonal 
crosshatch (pp. 216-217). Erefoimo Incised occurs in small fre- 
quency in the abandoned Wai Wai villages, and was not being made in 
1952. It is a crude type of incision compared to Kanashen Incised 
and employs crosshatch in zoned panels rather than a continuous 
band. ‘The similarities between the two types of decoration may be 
coincidental. However, some such borrowing might be expected to 
have occurred during the long period in which the Wai Wai and the 
Taruma were in rather close contact (pp. 268-269). 
The size of the sherd samples from E-2 and E-11 ought to be useful 
as a basis for correlating site duration and population with rate of 
refuse accumulation. Indeed, the results of such calculations for 
E-2 appear encouraging (Meggers and Evans, 1957, p. 256 and table 
J). Further consideration, however, suggests that there are a number 
of variable factors that minimize the significance of any conclusion. 
E-2 was inhabited by a variable population, and the houses were 
moved around during the period of occupation. A standard test of 
1.5 by 1.5 meters, used as a basis for calculating rate of refuse accu- 
mulation, is not necessarily correlated with the occupation period but 
may equate with only a fraction of it. If this is true, the fact that 
the formula for estimating rate of refuse accumulation® gives a 
82,600 sherds per 1.5 by 1.5 meter area=100 years (Meggers and Evans, 1957, p. 252). 
