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Early Pottery in the Amazon: A Correction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Denis Williams
Denis Williams*
Affiliation:
Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology, P.O. Box 10187, Georgetown, Guyana
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Abstract

Based on submission forms and other documents deposited in the Smithsonian Institution archives on termination of the Smithsonian Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory in 1986, Anna Roosevelt argues that shell middens on the coast of Guyana and northeastern Brazil contain pottery, and that the dates support her argument that “Amazonian early pottery is the most securely dated early pottery in the New World” (1995:128). Pending publication of a detailed monograph, I maintain that the Guyana sites in question are preceramic and thus offer no support to Roosevelt's thesis.

Tomando como base los formularios de entrega y otros documentos depositados en el archivo de la Smithsonian Institution cuando se cerró el Laboratorio de Fechados Radiocarbónicos en 1986, Anna Roosevelt sostiene que los conchales existentes en la costa de Guyana y el noreste de Brasil contienen cerámica, y por lo tanto los fechados de estos sitios corroboran.su argumento de que “la cerámica temprana de Amazonía tiene los fechados más confiables del Nuevo Mundo” (1995:128). En vista de la demora en publicar la evidencia detallada, quiero hacer constar que esos sitios son precerámicos y por tanto los fechados no apoyan las interpretaciones de Roosevelt.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , April 1997 , pp. 342 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1997

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