306 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 177 
choppers and hoes or raw materials from which small chips were 
struck for insertion into manioc graters. 
Natural stones.——A globular, hematitic-clay concretion with a 
natural perforation through the center was found at one site. It 
shows no evidence of use for hammering or pounding, for which its 
perforation for hafting would make it suitable. It could have been 
used as a club head. Diameter is 6.5 cm. The hole, directly through 
the center, has a diameter of 1.5 cm. at one end and 2.5 cm. at the 
other. 
A naturally eroded stone has a long “handle” of convenient shape 
with a slightly downcurved end whose lower edge shows abrasion 
lines. This edge is parallel to main axis of the tool. The material 
is fine-grained quartzite. The length is 21.7 em., width at the center 
1.8 cm., tapering to 1.2 cm. toward the rear end. The abrading edge 
at. the front is 3.2 em. long. 
Porrery Tyre DESCRIPTIONS 
A total of 8,468 sherds and 26 complete vessels, exclusive of trade 
pottery at, R—-40, form the basis for the classification of pottery types 
of the Rupununi Phase (Appendix, table 37). None of the vessels 
and only 29 of the sherds showed any kind of decoration (except for 
occasional small nubbins). The complete specimens were predom- 
inantly from cemetery and ceremonial sites, while the habitation sites 
produced the bulk of the sherds. The pottery types have been named 
according to the binomial system and the descriptions are arranged 
in alphabetical order. 
KANUKU PLAIN 
PASTE: 
Method of manufacture: The use of coiled construction is attested by nu- 
merous sherds with one or two edges broken along the coil line (pl. 63, 
m-—-p). The break is clean, leaving one surface convex and the other con- 
cave, and indicating that the clay was handled when too dry to give a 
strong bond. Coils are generally 0.7 to 2.5 em. wide, in conformity with 
the typically large size of the vessels. Several bases also show coiled con- 
struction. Occasional base sherds have an impression on the exterior of 
a simple twilled mat upon which the vessel was placed during manu- 
facture (pl. 67, e). A few sherds from the necks of a few jars have the 
coils unerased on the exterior (pl. 63, g-h). 
Temper: 
Granitic sand, with a high percentage of quartz and feldspar. The 
rounded nature of the grains suggests sand rather than crushed 
rock. At some sites there is a considerable amount of mica in the 
temper, apparently reflecting the composition of the localsand. Typi- 
eal size range of particles is minute to 38 mm., with occasional larger 
hunks. Temper is very abundant and prominent in both cross sec- 
tion and surface. 
Particles of black ash were observed in rare sherds from R-3 and R-20, 
Cave 8. Details are the same as for this variant of Rupununi Plain. 
