NO. 1 CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA 69 
the abundance of wild-plant and faunal resources would have made 
it possible for such a group to support itself rather easily, and even 
to have attained the beginnings of social stratification or occupational 
specialization, with a rudimentary agricultural technology. 
Subsequent to the Saladero Phase, around 900 B.C., a new group of 
immigrants filtered into the middle and lower Orinoco, perhaps com- 
ing from the north coast of Colombia, where stylistically similar 
pottery from the Malambo Phase on the lower Magdalena River is 
carbon-14 dated at around 1200 b.c. (see Angulo, this volume). This 
new complex, known as the Barrancas Phase, is characterized by a 
predominantly plastic style of pottery decoration based on modeling 
and incision, in which a profusion of biomorphic modeled and incised 
adornos is the most outstanding feature. 
The elaboration and competence of the Barrancoid style of decora- 
tion indicates that at the time of their arrival in the Orinoco valley 
the potters already possessed a high degree of technical skill in the 
ceramic art, the fruit of a long tradition. Griddles suggest the use of 
manioc, although the presence of manos and morters raises the ques- 
tion as to the extent to which the Barrancas people depended upon 
manioc as a staple. 
The Barrancas Phase appears to show great uniformity and con- 
siderable expansive power. The final portion of the Saladero Phase 
shows strong Barrancoid influence, particularly along the eastern Car- 
ibbean coast. By contrast, there is little evidence of Saladero influ- 
ence on the plastic style of the Barrancas Phase. 
Toward the end of this first ceramic period, at about the time of the 
beginning of the Christian era, the Saladero Phase moved toward the 
east coast of Venezuela where it appears under the name. El Mayal 
Phase, carbon-14 dated at 1795 ±: 80 years (Cruxent and Rouse, 
1958, p. 15). These people from the Orinoco probably came into con- 
tact with the earlier shellfish-gathering groups that had persisted 
along the coast. In any case, the pottery-making cultures adopted a 
mixed subsistence economy, including both seafood and agriculture. 
This adaptation was maintained until the time of the Spanish Con- 
quest and is reflected archeologically in the pottery-producing shell 
middens along the eastern coast. 
Subsequently, certain stylistic elements of the Saladero and Bar- 
rancas Phases appear to have diffused into the Antilles, giving rise to 
a series of ceramic complexes whose style is reminiscent of those of 
the Orinoco Valley. 
Ceramic Period II. — Around a.d. 400 the Arauquin Phase appears 
on the llanos of Apure and Guarico bordering the Middle Orinoco. 
