320 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull)177 
which it is obtained makes it seem highly improbable that it could 
occur accidentally. The rare and sporadic occurrence suggests deriva- 
tion by trade, and in this connection it may be significant that cariapé- 
tempered sherds were found only at sites in the north savanna. How- 
ever, the sherds are too highly eroded and the potential area of origin 
too little known to venture any identification. A more positive state- 
ment can be made abcut certain decorated sherds from R-40. They 
are in every respect identical with sherds of Onoro Stamped (pl. 46, 
d, h) and Kanashen Incised (pl. 41, 7) from Taruma Phase sites in 
the upper Essequibo area and must have come to R-40 from that source. 
R-40 seriates between R-3, dated as pre-1850, and R-19, dated as 1850- 
1900, suggesting that this trade took place around the third quarter 
of the 19th century. The archeological evidence for the Taruma Phase 
(pp. 263-269) makes this date reasonable. The only cause for surprise 
is that there is not more evidence of this kind of contact, since trade 
between the two groups of Indians is attested by ethnographical and 
other documentary sources. The only other archeological indication 
is a pot rest fragment from R-8, a site that seriates slightly earlier than 
R-40. The form resembles the common type of pot rest from the 
Taruma Phase, suggesting Taruma Phase origin. Sherds of Koriabo 
Scraped and Koriabo Incised from R-40 are less readily explained as 
reflecting trade because of the presumed difference in the chronological 
position of the Rupununi and Koriabo Phases (see p. 334), 
Unclassified decorated sherds are so few and represent. such a 
variety of techniques, each restricted to a single site or period, that 
external influence seems the only logical explanation. A single mica- 
tempered sherd. with a band of punctates bordered above and below 
by an incised line came from R-22. Jt is unparalleled in the Rupununi 
Phase, but both temper and decoration are reminiscent of Kaituma 
Incised and Punctate, Motif 3, from the Mabaruma Phase. R-2, the 
site immediately following R-22 in the seriated sequence, produced 
sherds with white slip and no other surviving ornamentation. White 
slipping is also found in the Mabaruma Phase and its presence at R-2 
might be attributable to continuation of contact with inhabitants of 
the Northwest District. The next appearance of decorated sherds is 
somewhat later at R-40, and this time modeling is the decorative 
technique employed. Vessel sherds with low relief on the interior or 
exterior and fragments of figurines are both present in an abundance 
that is without parallel in the Rupununi Phase sequence. Other in- 
novations at Site R-40 are incised lines on the interior of base sherds, 
and white slipping, one sherd of which hasan annular base. Model- 
ing was the only technique that was sufficiently popular to be carried 
on. Both R-9 and R-6, which follow R—40 in the seriation, produced 
a few modeled sherds or figurine fragments. 
