PREHISTORIC MOUNDS AND RELICS OF THE 

 NORTH WEST DISTRICT OF BRITISH GUIANA. 



A. Hyatt Verrill. 



There are two distinct types of Indian mounds in the North West 

 District of British Guiana, the first consisting of immense accumulations 

 of shells on the lowlands near the coast or estuaries ; the other formed 

 of masses of shells superimposed on the hills and often many miles from 

 the present sea coast or rivers. The former are more common in the 

 Pomeroon and Monica districts than in the true North West and are 

 nothing more than " kitchen-middens,'' accumulations of refuse from 

 feasts and temporary camps, and throw little or no light upon the habits 

 or identity of the makers. Several have been excavated and accounts of 

 their contents have been published by Brett and others. Such stone 

 implements and pottery as they contain were either accidentally mislaid 

 or cast aside as worthless by their owners while the human bones are 

 evidently the remains of cannibal feasts. 



The mounds of the other type are, I believe, confined entirely to a 

 limited area in the extreme North West and have not hitherto been in- 

 vestigated to my knowledge. 



In addition to these shell mounds there are many high hills in the 

 district, on which there are no shell accumulations, and on the surface of 

 many of these are large numbers of relics in the form of stone implements, 

 earthenware images, ornaments and miniature heads and fragments of 

 highly decorated pottery. The presence of these relics has never been 

 satisfactorily explained but they have usually been attributed to Carib 

 occupancy and it has been assumed that the pottery was the remains of 

 broken and discarded vessels from ancient camps or villages. From a 

 careful study and investigation of these mounds and relics carried out 

 during July and August, 1917, I am convinced that this theory is 

 erroneous, while excavations in the mounds of the district led to many 

 remarkable and valuable discoveries which tend to bear out my theories 

 and shed new light on the prehistoric inhabitants of North West British 

 Guiana. 



It often has been thought that the shell mounds and pottery of this 

 district were of post-Culumbian origin and while this may be true of the 

 coastal kitchen-middens it is certainly not the case with the hill mounds 

 and decorated potteiy of the North West, for these were made when the 

 eutiie district was covered by the sea and the present-day hills rose as 

 islands from the waves. In proof of this there are numerous undercut 

 and wave-wen ledges and boulders, as well as small areas of sea beaches 

 and shell sand beneath the thin layer of vegetable mould and alluvial soil 

 on the bases of the hills. Moreover the immense quantities of sea-shells 

 which comprise the mounds could not have been transported for any 



