E and 
pees ARCHEOLOGY IN BRITISH GUIANA 301 
material will be discussed typologically. The provenience data for 
each specimen can be found on tables 36 and 37 in the Appendix. 
Stone ARTIFACT TYPES 
The 76 stone objects from Rupununi Phase sites can be classified 
into 10 types of tools. Two cores and twenty-four flakes were col- 
lected from various sites. Method of manufacture is percussion 
flaking or grinding. The majority are of four kinds of stone: syenite, 
quartzite, sandstone, or felsite. Less commonly employed are granite, 
chalcedony, quartz, andesite, and chert. 
Anwvils—Two stones have pecked out depressions at the center of 
both flat surfaces, indicative of use as anvils. Both are quartzite 
pebbles with almost flat, parallel upper and lower surfaces and fiat 
sides. The smaller is circular and the edges show pecking marks left 
by shaping. Diameter is 7.4 cm., thickness at center 3.8 cm. Use has 
worn depressions 1 cm. in diameter and 1 mm. deep on both faces. 
The second example is rectanguloid, 10 cm. long and 5.5 cm. wide. 
Thickness varies from 2.8 cm. at the end to 4.2 cm. at the center. A 
double concavity has been worn at the center of each face. The 
depression on one side measures 3.0 cm. by 1.2 cm. and 2.0 to 3.0 mm. 
deep; the one on the other surface is the same except 3.7 cm. long. 
Both ends of this specimen are slightly battered from use as a 
hammerstone. 
Awes (fig. 119, pl. 61).—Fourteen complete or fragmentary axes 
were recovered from the site survey and three others were in the pos- 
session of local ranchers. With one exception, all are made from 
naturally rounded, waterworn pebbles, so that a minimum of grinding 
and polishing was required. The butt is flat or convex, the sides are 
straight and parallel, and the blade is convex. Both faces are rounded 
and the edges of the sides and butt are typically flattened. The upper 
end has notches at each side whose contour suggests that they were 
made by working a cord with sand abrasive from side to side until a 
groove 4-10 mm. deep was produced. The notches are approximately 
opposite one another, and their distance from the butt end varies from 
1.7 to 2.3 cm., or between one-fourth and one-third of the length of 
the ax. This position of the notches enhances the stubby, squatty 
appearance of the axes, which is one of their diagnostic features. One 
specimen has a double set of notches, 5 to 7 mm. apart. The blade 
is frequently battered, suggesting that after it was damaged from 
cutting, an ax was often used for hammering. Less frequently, 
the butt end was used for this purpose. Where the blade is preserved, 
it is formed by the junction of the two faces along the mid line. 
Seen from one of the faces, it is not necessarily symmetrical, some- 
times curving farther up one side than the other. The smallest 
