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Trinidad’s Lithic Era People (est BC 9000-7000)

Peter O’Brien Harris Abstract: I try to reconstruct the culture of this early people. Direct information is minimal: three pieces of early environmental data, two lithic artifacts, and three flake-scatter campsites. I use the ethnography of the 20C Colombian Nukak to provide a comparative set of beliefs, religious institutions (numerous), economic and political institutions (minimal), camp layout, artifacts (men’s, women’s, joint), rainforest starch (no cultivation), and protein. I expand the archeological data with a regional survey: Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, and an excavation on the Lower Amazon. Trinidad seems to be part of a Lithic culture area defined by the Guianas-Amazon watershed (Figure 1), stemmed points, and possibly painted rock sites. It does not seem related to the Joboid series of northwest Venezuela. Résumé: J’essaie à reconstituer la culture de cet ancien peuple. Il y a peu d’informations directes: trois sur l’écologie ancienne, deux artifactes lithiques, et trois gisements de bivouac. J’utilise l’ethnologie des Nukak de la Colombie du vingtième siécle, pour offrir une série comparative des croyances, des institutions religieuses (nombreuses), des institutions politico-économiques (minimales), plan de bivouac, artisanat (masculin, féminin, mixte), féculents et viandes de la forêt (sans cultivation). J’élargis les données archéologiques avec une étude régionale: Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, plus une fouille à l’Amazone Inférieure. La Trinité semble former partie d’une région culturelle définie par les pentes Guianas-Amazone (Figure 1), les pointes à pied, et peut-être les rochers peints. Elle ne semble pas se lier à la série Joboide du nord-ouest de Venezuela. Resumen: Trato de reconstruir la cultura de este pueblo antiguo. Información es limitada: tres datos pertinentes al temprano medioambiente, dos artefactos liticos, y tres talleres. L’etnografía contemporanéa del grupo Nukak de Colombia nos ha permitido manifestar una serie de referentes sobre las creéncias, instituciones religiosas (numerosas), instituciones político-económicas (mimimas), disposición del asentamiento, artefactos e implementos (masculinos, femeninos, y mixtos), proporción de ingesta de almidón y protéinas provenientes de la recolección y de la caza (no son cultivadores). Extendo los datos arqueológicos a partir de un survey regional que comprende Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, y una excavación en el Bajo Amazonas. Trinidad posiblemente forma parte de una cultura litica definida para la cuenca Guianas-Amazonas (Figure 1), puntas pedunculares, y quizá las piedras pintadas. Al parecer no tiene relación con la serie Joboide del noroeste venezolano.

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Environment

During the global ice age (BC 19,000-12,500), Trinidad is a different world.

Temperature and sea level are much lower. Savana vegetation dominates in areas of modern rainforest. And megafauna are present. Six finds of prehistoric megafauna1 in southwest and south Trinidad confirm this open landscape. A subsea pollen sample off the east coast at 22 fathoms2 below modern shows a shoreline mixture of mangrove and savana pollen dating to BC 15,870 (Harris 1991). This means the Columbus Channel and Gulf of Paria are dry land at this time, and Trinidad is part of Venezuela.

BC 12,500-7,500 is a period of change. Temperature and sea level rise dramatically, with two small oscillations. The savana is mostly replaced by rainforest. The megafauna become extinct. By BC 11,500 Trinidad is a virtual island, with a narrow landbridge connecting our southwest peninsula to the Orinoco Delta3. If invented, the canoe would give easiest access.

Lithic Remains

Lithic remains currently comprise: one stemmed point, one plano-convex scraper, and

three flake-scatter camp sites (Figure 2)4. The Stemmed Point (Figure 3) was found at Biche in east Trinidad, 10 km from the sea,

at 40 m elevation (Harris 1991). Its dimensions are 9.2 x 3.8 x 1.35 cm x 36.8 g. The body has been thinned with a soft hammer. The margins have been finished by pressure flaking, and near the tip the edges have been ground for 1 cm to improve penetration. Its sturdy manufacture plus pressure flaking suggest a date ca BC 9000. Solidity, thickness, and weight suggest a hand held spear. Good lateral symmetry means it would also be good for throwing (Rodríguez pc 2009). The rock is a high quality brown chert, most likely from the Querecual formation of northeast Venezuela near Barcelona (Figure 1.1), some 400 km from Biche by canoe (Frampton pc 2009). This rock source suggests invention of the canoe by BC 9000, the date proposed for the Biche point.

There are many ethnohistoric reports of spears as a standard Indigenous hunting and war weapon: long staves with a fire-hardened point (early 17C Guyana), as sharp as steel (18C Orinoco). The Indians attack the larger animals such as bush hog and jaguar at close quarters, with wooden spears as long as themselves tipped with a broad lancet-shaped piece of iron of European manufacture (1920s, upper Negro) (Roth 1924: 169, 170).

The Plano-convex Scraper (Figure 4)) was found on surface at the pottery site of Atagual in west Trinidad (AD 0-700), 13 km from the sea, at 165 m elevation. Its dimensions are 9.3 x 5 x 1.4 cm x 66g. The dorsal face shows centripetal flaking. The ventral face has a clear bulb of percussion. The platform has been removed by controlled flaking followed by fine retouch. Pressure flaking is absent. This tool type has a long date span (say BC 14,000-8000). Its function is planing a medium to hard material, such as wood or bone. All four margins are worn (Rodríguez pc 2009). The rock is an indurated siltstone, probably porcellanite from the Erin formation of southwest Trinidad. Coastal exposures would be accessible by canoe some 60 km from Atagual (Frampton pc 2009).

1 Mastodon, Megatherium, Mylodon, and Glyptodon (Saunders 1960). 2 One fathom = 1.83 m. 3 I locate this landbridge at Soldado Rock. But Boomert locates it at Erin Point (2000: fig 4). 4 Sites are shown in their drainage basins. The fractured line shows the 100 m contour. The swamps are based on the 1971 Soils Map, and represent the approximate period BC 5000- ca AD 1900.

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I know of no ethnographic parallels, but the short-handled iron adze of the Warao master canoe maker may be considered functionally similar. It is sacred, and is curated in a special basket at the east end of his house (Wilbert 1976: 340).

The Camp Sites are three small surface scatters of chert flakes and cores. Some flakes show signs of use. All are in southwest Trinidad, close to the sea or inland water, 15 m or less above sea level, and far from sources of chert (Figure 2). They are assumed to be seasonal camps: variously for hunting (Fyzabad: southwest shore of former Oropuche Lagoon), fishing (Savaneta: west-coast north of Lagoon), and visiting a sacred place (Pitch Lake Southwest: west-coast west of lagoon). The absence of formal Lithic artifacts suggests a later date, say BC 7000. In fact Boomert feels they are Banwarian, but the presence of Lithic rather than Archaic artifacts near a similar site in Guyana, Tabatinga (Evans and Meggers 1960: 22, fig 109), suggests he may be wrong. Today all three Trinidad sites have been destroyed by construction.

Nukak Ethnography

The Nukak number 400-500 persons, and exploit a 10,000 km2 area of rainforest

(Figure 1.2): ie twice the size of Trinidad. They live in bands of 30-40 persons. They move camp 70-80 times per year, exploiting a seasonal circuit of wild plant and animal resources. Their focus is daily band survival. They have no cultivation. There is no formal leadership above band level.

A 1963 massacre by recently arrived colonos resulted in missionary contact in 1975. In 1988, following a colono shotgun raid to rescue an abducted child, 43 Nukak (women, youths, children: but no men) emerged from the forest. Ethnographic work started soon after, but was shut down in 1996 by Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionárias de Colombia (FARC). Ethnographer and missionary data from this short research window are summarized by Politis (2007, 2001).

Beliefs include a four-level universe and numerous spirits: • World of Above is located in the sky, and is the opposite of Nukak daily life. A huge

open plaza contains permanent colono-type houses with galvanized iron roofs, large gardens of cultivated crops, and a single central Kupé tree. Rainforest occurs only at the edges. This world contains a senior male spirit who smokes a giant cigar. Also the Sun who leaves his camp in the east each morning to distribute food animals. When he re-enters camp in the evening, he paints himself red.

• World of Below is deep below Earth. It contains dangerous spirits, and the Nukak who failed to reach Earth through the Hole of Origin (also located in the East).

• Earth contains the rainforest. Also a male ancestor spirit, probably the howler monkey, who created many animals and trees, and probably Blowpipe Hill. Also his wife, whose urine created the plant for dart poison.

• Underground Place is just below Earth’s surface, and contains “House of the Tapir”, where the ancestral clan spirits of Tapir, Deer, and Jaguar live during the day. There is also a poorly documented “Water House”, home of the spirits of caiman, capybara, and various kinds of fish.

Deceased Nukak have three spirits: • 1st spirits lead a life of fun and plenty in World of Above. Their activities

continuously affect Earth: eg when they have a lot of sex, a certain tree on Earth fruits abundantly.

• 2nd spirits live in “House of the Tapir” during the day, and feed at night in the forest in the form of their ancestral clan animals. Killing these animals is taboo.

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• 3rd spirits live in dark places in the forest, but roam around at night to molest sleeping Nukak.

“Chest spirits” are probably the personal spirit assistants of Nukak with shamanic powers. They can visit all four levels. They are always traveling east in search of the truth drug, éóro baká, “the true red”. When people take this drug, it lodges itself in their heads in the form of a red substance, and they can “see the shadow of that which cannot be seen”.

Religious Institutions

Religious Institutions are numerous. Blowpipe Hill is a sacred place: in the east; probably created by the male ancestor spirit;

only source of the best blowpipe stems. The ancestors of all living Nukak saved themselves from the flood by climbing to its top. It is distant (up to 150 km). Initiation of young men takes place during the all-male trek there. Most of all, it is the source of éóro baká, the “true red”, the hallucinogenic “truth drug”.

“House of the Tapir” is a sturdy shelter, built near a chontaduro orchard, allegedly for the Tapir to use at night. But the investment of labour and time is many times that of a wet season camp. But the Nukak also say that when the “chest spirits” return from the east, “they share the drug with the other spirits who dwell in the House of the Tapir, who ask for it singing and extending their hands. The chest spirits distribute it among them. They also give éóro baká to the living”. “They are extremely clean and bathe often with special water from the underworld. They laugh, they paint themselves with éóro, and they stick feathers to their bodies as decoration”, and play flutes (Politis 2007: 91). I suggest “House of the Tapir” may be a sacred place for group consumption of the “truth drug”.

Chontaduro Orchards are very small clearings deep in the forest, which contain the only domesticated plant cropped by the Nukak, Bactris gasipaes, the peach palm; plus some felled trunks for breeding palm grubs, and sometimes achiote bushes and wild plantain. The trees were “planted by the ancestors”, and are cropped by the living. The Nukak say “Our great grandparents are buried here”, and inter-band mourning rituals often take place in the orchard or nearby. They also say that in the past non-domesticated fruit palms and achiote (for red colouring) were planted round the “House of the Tapir”5. I suggest Chontaduro Orchards may be the botanical signatures of long perished “Houses of the Tapir”.

Mourning Rituals are a night-time lament for dead relatives between two bands related by kinship, sometimes near a chontaduro orchard. There is chicha, dancing, violence, shared tears, and mournful singing. The sites of this ritual can be recognized long after by a high concentration of the fruit trees used for chicha (Dacryodes peruviana).

Annual Fruit Feasts celebrate the harvest of two trees mentioned in the Myth of Origin: the kupé in the wet season (Dacryodes chimantensis), and chontaduro in the dry.

A silent Hunting Ritual is performed each time a hunter kills. Initiation of Young Men takes place on the long all-male trek to Blowpipe Hill to collect

new stems. It includes carving a personal bone flute. Spirit-related products and personal artifacts are also numerous. They are often

coloured red (possibly like the evening Sun). Shamanic items include the hallucinogenic “truth drug”, and a venomous wild tuber from the World of Below which is “cleaned” through shamanic songs “by certain men and women”.

Men’s items include: the loin-kilt, the bone flute made during initiation from a Deer shin bone or Jaguar upper arm, cane panpipes, the 3-m blowpipe and pot of curare for daily hunting of monkeys and birds in the canopy, and formerly no doubt the stone axe heads.

5 Oenocarpus bataua, Attalea maripa, Attalea sp, and Bixa orellana.

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Women’s items include: string bracelets for band members (knees and ankles for all; wrists for men only), red body paint, chicha, and the black clay pots for making the chicha.

Joint items include: teeth necklaces for the young, teeth pendants for adults, sieves to process chicha, and a small leaf box to store personal artifacts: such as monkey bone spatula to apply body paint, piranha jaw to cut hair (now largely replaced by scissors), mirror fragments, etc. Economic and Political Institutions

Economic and Political Institutions are minimal and based on kinship. When the men go to distant Blowpipe Hill, they also bring back new stems for male affines. During band visits, gifts of red paint and mirror fragments are exchanged, largely between women.

Bands belong to territorial groups, where leadership is exercised informally, by “old ones” with shamanic powers. The band leader and his wife are the only formal leadership institution. Bands comprise 2-8 domestic families, the basic social unit. Band decisions are made with the agreement of other family heads. Certain adult women have significant weight in this process.

Camp Layout reflects this pattern. Each family builds its own hearth and shelter. These face a central space for band and ritual activities, and back the forest. Wet season camps (say 32 weeks of the year) have a back wall and roof of tall platanillo leaves (Phenakospermum guianensis). Dry season camps (say 20 weeks) are open. The hammocks of the senior couple are hung first, and near the centre. Visiting young men build a temporary shelter outside the camp. The band prefers to dig a water hole in nearby low ground, rather than use a stream or pond. Artifacts and Craft Resources

Tools can be divided into those transported from camp to camp, and expedient items discarded in the forest or at the old camp.

Mens’ artifacts. Transported items include the spiritual artifacts listed above; plus iron axe, darts, 2.5 m spear with fire-hardened point at each end for opportunistic group hunting of peccary, and formerly a pair of firesticks (now replaced by matches). Discard items include: expedient spear, tree-climbing hoops, fruit picking pole, fish trap, grills and spits; (plus in dry season) barbasco, fishing harpoon and bow, torch for smoking out beehives.

Womens’ artifacts. Transported items include the above spiritual artifacts (however chicha pots are often stored by a chontaduro orchard); plus hammocks, gourds, baskets, and swizzle stick. The 50-cm wooden mortar made by women is sometimes carried by a man, and sometimes stored in the old camp. Discard items include: pestle for the mortar, carrying strap, grater, and formerly bamboo knife.

Joint artifacts. Transported items include the above spiritual artifacts; plus sieves to process chicha. Discard items include expedient bags.

Food

Campsites seem to be selected to exploit nearby seasonal plant and animal resources. Starch. Daily consumption of palm, plant and tree fruit per person is almost the same in

the dry season as in the wet. Heavy use is made of two palms and one plant which fruit year-round, six wet season species, and three dry6. Fleshy fruit are eaten at the tree. Hard shell fruit are carried to the camp for processing. Phenakospermum seeds for instance are ground into flour in the mortar, wrapped in green leaves, and boiled as a good source of 6 Oenocarpus bataua, Atalea sp, Phenakospermum guianensis (year round). Mauritia flexuosa, Oenocarpus mapora, Astrocaryum aculeatum; Dacryodes peruviana, D. chimantensis, local name Teruke (wet season). Iryanthera ulei, Naucleopsis mello-barretoi, Helicostylis cf tomentosa (dry).

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carbohydrate. Some hardshell fruit are mashed, swizzled, and drunk as a milky liquid. Many seeds germinate when camp is abandoned, and the Nukak return to check their progress.

Protein. Hunting is year-round. Monkeys of various species are the major source of meat. Birds are a regular item. Tortoises are found weekly. Occasionals include aguti, caiman, armadillo, frog (especially at the start of the wet season: Apr-May), and small rodents. Peccary herds are unpredictable, and bring occasional abundant meat for the men. But the meat is taboo for women and children.

In the wet season palm grubs are farmed in felled chontaduro palms. The dry season adds honey, and fishing with barbasco. The stunned fish are typically collected by women. Daily meat consumption (excluding peccary), in 4 recorded episodes totaling 68 days, averaged between 0.27 and 0.09 kg per person. On some days, especially travel days, no meat was brought in at all.

Frequent moves place minimal stress on local plant and animal resources. Also since camps do not destroy the forest canopy, the germinating seeds continuously create new patches of useful plants.

Lithic Trinidad The Nukak show how Lithic bands could have exploited their environment, and even

managed it to some extent. Good quality chert is clearly a scarce and distant resource, and chert artifacts are likely to be sacred. This suggests the Point was used to hunt game more spiritually important than peccary; the Scraper was used to make spiritual artifacts - possibly even canoes; and that both tools were curated in a man’s small personal-type box.

Camp sites probably mark seasonal visits by canoe, to a distant environmental or spiritual resource, apparently carrying one’s own supply of chert.

Regional Archaeology

Northwest Venezuela

The 4-phase Joboid series occurs north of the Cordillera de Mérida (Figure 1.3), at over 45 quartzite quarry/workshop sites in the uplands of the Pedregál river, and at 2 megafauna kill sites in the lowlands near its mouth. Plano-convex Scrapers are present in phases I-IV. Narrow Leaf-shaped El Jobo Points (5-18 cm) characterize phases III-IV (Figure 5). Small Stemmed Points (ca 5 cm) occur as a minor element in phase IV (Rouse and Cruxent 1963).

Phase III is dated by a juvenile mastodon, with a piece of El Jobo point in situ, and a date of BC 11,500 from its presumed stomach contents (Bryan et al 1978). One may speculate series dates of ca BC 14,000-8,000. Southwest Venezuela

Two triangular Stemmed Points with contracting stems have been excavated at Culebra (Figure1.4), near the Atures rapids just upstream of the change from Upper to Middle Orinoco, at the western edge of the Guiana Shield. The complete example is 8.8 cm long. They are made of non-local chert. Boomert assigns them to the Canaima series (below). They are associated with Spokeshaves, flake Scrapers showing retouch or use-wear, and core fragments: all made of quartz or quartzite (Barse 1989, 1990: in Boomert 2000). Barse gives them a comparative date of BP 9400-8000 (1997).

Assuming invention of the canoe by these dates, we should remember the Makiritare tradition of a group migration up the Upper Orinoco, probably in the late 18C, then across the Venezuela-Brazil divide to the Uraricuera (Figure 1.5), the Upper Branco, and Mount Roraima, to obtain access to Dutch iron goods on the Lower Essequibo (de Civrieux 1980: 11).

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Southeast Venezuela Triangular Stemmed Points with contracting stems (up to 7.5 cm) are present in

campsites or workshops at Canaima on the Upper Caroní (Figure 1.6). They are associated with Choppers, small Plano-convex Scrapers, flat bifacial Knives, and Hammerstones. All are made from jasper which is locally abundant (Rouse and Cruxent 1963, in Boomert 2000). Boomert also reports Stemmed Points in the valleys of the Río Caroní, and Plano-convex Scrapers in La Gran Sabana south of Canaima, and north of the Venezuela-Brazil divide.

South of the divide eighteen painted rock sites cluster round the junction of the Uraricuera with the Upper Branco (Figure 1.7). One at least, Pedra Pintada, has been dated to Lithic times (Pereira 2001: 221). I have already mentioned a historic canoe route between the Upper Orinoco and the Uraricuera. We need to bear in mind access to Canaima on the Upper Caroni. To the northeast Mount Roraima is part of the same divide, and contains nodules of agate (John Streetly pc 1960s). Guyana

Six Stemmed Points are reported as isolated finds in rivers along the Essequibo drainage: one (17.5 cm) in the Barima (Figure 1.8), three (12-8 cm) in the Cuyuni (Figure 1.9), two (14.4-6.7 cm) in rivers of the Rupununi Savana (Figure 1.10). They vary in size, shape, and rock7 (Roth 1924, 1929; Evans and Meggers 1960). Only one, from the Rupununi Savana on the Guyana-Brazil divide, resembles the Biche point in style (Figure 6).

Two technological periods may be present: Earlier (thick), and Later (thin, invasive scars, sharp shoulders). The Rupununi also contains a flake campsite, Tabatinga, similar to those in Trinidad for which I have proposed a date of BC 7000.

Again assuming invention of the canoe by this date, the locations along the Essequibo drainage, and the cluster of painted rock sites west of the Upper Branco, make one ask if the Amazon-Rupununi-Essequibo canoe route recorded in 1553 on an early Spanish map (Ojer 1966 I: Lám II), and frequently emphasized by Boomert, could have existed in Lithic times. Surinam

One isolated Plano-convex Scraper is reported from the mid-Corentyne drainage. At its head on the Surinam-Brazil watershed, the Sipaliwini Savana (Figure 1.11) contains 27 quarry/workshops, which give us a full artifact assemblage including five Point types, but no dates or food remains. One Chopper has been found in the Parú Savana south of the divide in Brazil (Boomert 2000). These raise the possibility of another ancient route between the Lower Amazon and the Guianas Coast via the Corentyne.

Point types (Versteeg 2003) include: Stemmed (7-9 cm) (Figure 7), Stemless (9-11 cm), Forked-base A (5-7 cm) (Figure 8) and B (4-11 cm), and Sharp-shoulders (5-6 cm) (Figure 9). Thin body and fine rechipping suggest they belong to my hypothesized Later period. Rock types are rhyolite and quartz (Boomert 2000).

The full artifact assemblage follows, together with some functions suggested by Nukak ethnography:

• crude bifacial Chopper, Ovoid Chopper (15-20 cm): breaking or cutting poles for shelters, spears, arrows, etc.

• Plano-convex Scraper, Spokeshave (6-10 cm): shaping wooden implements. • Ovoid Knife (11 cm): basketry, butchering meat. • Pointed Pebble: ?crushing hardshell fruit. • Hammerstone (7 cm): shaping lithic implements. • five Point types (4-11 cm): hunting.

7 Red jasper (2), chalcedony, quartz, chert, heavy agate.

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Lower Amazon. Isolated Stemmed Triangular Points (9-7 cm) in my hypothesized Later style (Figure

10) have been found on the lower Tapajós (Figure 1.12). Two comparative points south of the Amazon have been dated to BP 9400-8000 (Barse 1997)8.

Monte Alegre is a 250 m high sandstone outcrop on the north bank of the Amazon, say 80 km downstream from the Tapajós junction. Here a painted cave, Caverna da Pedra Pintada, has given a multicomponent stratigraphy of: sterile (50 cm), Lithic (30 cm), sterile (30 cm), Pottery (65 cm). The Lithic strata, 17 (10-25 cm of blackish sand) and 16 (5-20 cm of dark grey sand), contain shallow hearths, concentrations of carbonized seeds, abundant pigment and lithics, rare faunal remains, only a few post intrusions, and one burrow (Roosevelt et al 1996).

Dates. Fifty-six carbonized plant remains were dated: 49 by AMS and 7 by conventional C14. The 49 AMS dates consistently show a 330 year period (BP 10,560-10,230). The C14 dates tend to be 500 years earlier.

Rock Paintings. The Caverna paintings are 2 cm to 2 m long, in red and occasionally yellow. Motifs are geometric, human, animal, and include adult and child-size handprints. Painting clearly belongs to the Lithic strata, which contain hundreds of lumps and drops of red pigment. By contrast, the Pottery strata contain just one piece of pigment rock.

The Caverna is one of 13 painted rock sites in the Monte Alegre-Alenquer area of the north bank (Figure 1.13) (Pereira 2001). If rock painting is a Lithic indicator, this area must have been sacred in the Lithic era. It seems suspiciously close to a sacred lake of the Pottery era, where early European reports say a powerful female spirit, arguably divine ancestress of the Arawak nation, created the sacred green Amazon-stone muiraquitãs (Boomert 1987).

Lithics. These include over 30,000 flakes from toolmaking. Broad bifacial thinning flakes and fine narrow regular retouching flakes, are common throughout. Techniques include: percussion and pressure flaking, bifacial and unifacial flaking, heat treatment, and isolated platforms prepared by pecking and grinding. The few tools recovered include four Plano-convex Scrapers, but no clear Point types.

Three rock types are used, all available nearby (quartz crystal, quartz breccia, and chalcedony). Initially they are present equally. But increasingly chalcedony predominates (up to 90-97%).

Plant remains include thousands of carbonized fruit and wood fragments. Particularly common are three sandy soil palms, two of which fruit year-round, and seven forest trees, which mostly fruit in the wet season (Dec-Feb)9. One fruit is commonly used today as bait for fish.

Faunal remains are small (1-20 mm), poorly preserved, but quite diverse. Fish are the most abundant, representing sizes from 5 cm to 1.5 m. Other species include large rodents (many juveniles), tortoises and turtles (many juveniles), shells (including freshwater pearly mussels), bats, small rodents, small toads, snakes, birds, and large land mammals (over 65 kg) possibly ungulates.

Ethnographic reconstruction. The Caverna contains abundant evidence of two male activities: painting a sacred cave; and manufacture of lithic Points, presumably a key Lithic era skill. Shallow hearths, plant and faunal remains suggest periods of residence or intermittent visit.

These data recall the Nukak all-male treks to Blowpipe Hill: where adults collect new blowpipe stems, and young men learn sacred lore and manufacture a personal sacred bone 8 Lagoa Santa BP 9374 (Hurt 1964), Río Paranapanema BP 8000 (Chymz 1984). 9 Attalea microcarpa, A. spectabilis, Astrocaryum vulgare (palms). Hymenaea cf parvifolia and oblongifolia, Sacoglottis guianensis, Talisia esculenta, Bertholetia excelsa, Byrsonima crispa, Mouriri apiranga (trees), Vitex cf cymosa (fishbait).

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flute which they carry with them for life. Perhaps the Caverna was a similar distant sacred place, where adults helped initiands learn lithic manufacturing skills, and renew the sacred paintings. Points made at the cave would be considered sacred artifacts personal to the maker, and would be carried away by him.

Conclusions

New Culture Area. I wish to propose the Guianas-Amazon watershed (Figure 1) as a new Lithic culture area, defined by Stemmed Points, and possibly painted rock sites. I believe the Biche Point belongs to this proposed culture area, and is not related to the Joboid series of northwest Venezuela.

Silicified Rock is clearly a scarce and important Lithic resource, for which people are prepared to travel. A network of usable outcrops seems to exist along the Guianas-Amazon divide, and also peripherally (eg Querecual formation in northeast Venezuela). Archeologists and geologists need to collaborate to map these outcrops, and look for quarry/workshops in their vicinity.

Caverna da Pedra Pintada. Given the prevalence of isolated finds and undated quarry/workshops in the Lithic era, Roosevelt’s excavation has produced a remarkable set of reference data: dates of BP 10,560-10,230, toolmaking debris, plant and animal remains, and rock painting.

Painted Rock Sites. The possible relationship with Lithic remains needs to be investigated.

Canoe Travel. The early date of BC 9000 suggested by the Biche Point rock source needs to be confirmed by other data. Recorded Indigenous canoe routes crossing the Guianas-Amazon divide, and radiating north-south and east-west, need to be inventoried, mapped, and compared with the pattern of Lithic remains.

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Acknowledgements Firstly I wish to recognize two heritage-minded citizens: Jameel Baksh, the school

student who found the Biche Point; and the late Clyde Rampersad, South Section member of the Trinidad and Tobago Historical Society, who found the Atagual Scraper. I thank the Archaeology Department of the University of the West Indies and the Pointe a Pierre Wildfowl Trust Museum respectively for permission to study these two artifacts. I thank Reniel Rodríguez of the Universidad de la Montaña, Puerto Rico for his lithic analysis, and John Frampton of BioStratigraphic Associates (Trinidad) Ltd for his identification of probable rock sources. I thank Gustavo Politis and his colleagues for their detailed ethnography of the Nukak, before the research window was closed prematurely, and hope I have not misinterpreted their data. I thank Russell Byer of Town and Country Planning Division for the Lithic site map, and the late John Streetly for information on Mount Roraima. I also wish to thank Arie Boomert (2000) for the detailed and wide-ranging information on regional lithic archeology contained in his publication.

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Figure 1. The Guianas-Amazon watershed. Approximate locations are:

(1) Querecual formation: most likely rock source of Biche Point. (2) Nukak territory. (3) Upper Río Pedregál: Joboid quarry/workshops. (4) Culebra. (5) Río Uraricuera. (6) Canaima. (7) Cluster of painted rock sites near junction of Uraricuera and Branco. (8) Barima River. (9) Cuyuni River. (10) Rupununi Savana. (11) Sipaliwini Savana quarry/workshops. (12) Mouth of Río Tapajós. (13) Cluster of painted rock sites in Monte Alegre-Alenquer area, including Caverna da

Pedra Pintada.

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Figure 2. Trinidad Lithic era sites: * Isolated find, ▲ Campsite. Also shows drainage basins, 100 m contour, and swamps from BC 5000 to say AD 1900.

Figure 3. Biche Point, length 9.2 cm.

Figure 4. Atagual Plano-convex Scraper, length 9.3 cm.

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Figure 5. El Jobo Points, length as is 9.3 cm (left) and 10.7 cm (right). (Rouse and Cruxent 1963 Pl 3E-F).

Figure 6. Ireng River Point, length as is 14 cm (Evans and Meggers 1960: Pl 8a).

Figure 7. Sipaliwini Savana Stemmed Point, length 8.8 cm. (Versteeg 2003: Pl 3.9).

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Figure 8. Sipaliwini Savana Forked-base Point A, length 6.8 cm (Versteeg 2003: Pl 3.12).

Figure 9. Sipaliwini Savana Sharp-shouldered Point, length 5 cm (Versteeg 2003: Pl 3.10).

Figure 10. Tapajós River Point, length 8.5 cm. (Oliver 2001: Pl 2.3).

44

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