Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T04:34:59.419Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An Account of Some Recent Excavations at Seba, British Guiana*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

J. E. L. Carter*
Affiliation:
Brighton, Trinidad, B.W.I.

Extract

This paper concerns an excavation carried out by the author at a newly reported prehistoric site at Seba in British Guiana. The work done was very limited, being intended originally to be only exploratory, but by a fortunate chance an unusual and substantial cache of stone and pottery artifacts was found in one of the trial pits. This yielded a considerable amount of information about both the material and non-material culture of the site, thus lending more interest and value to the work than normally expected from excavations of such small extent.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1943

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I would like to acknowledge here my indebtedness to the United States and British Army authorities who made this work possible, to Mr. J. A. Bullbrook for much invaluable information about the archaeology and geology of British Guiana, to Mr. K. Barr for his geological opinion on the material, to Miss Dorothy Mathison for hours of patient work put into the reconstruction of the pottery vessels, and to Professors Cornelius Osgood and Irving Rouse for advice and help in connection with publication.

References

Acosta, J. 1930. “Las ruinas de Zaculeu.” Anales Sociedad de Geografía e Historia de Guatemala. Vol. 6, pp. 454465.Google Scholar
Burkitt, R. 1930. “Explorations in the Highlands of Western Guatemala.” Museum Journal. Vol. 21, pp. 4172.Google Scholar
Butler, M. 1940. “A Pottery Sequence from the Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.” In The Maya and Their Neighbors. New York.Google Scholar
Carnegie Institution Of Washington 1936–1943. Year Books, Nos. 35–42.Google Scholar
Carnegie Institution Of Washington 1936. “Important Maya Discovery in the Guatemalan Highlands.” Carnegie Institution of Washington News Service Bulletin. Vol. 4, No. 6.Google Scholar
Caso, A. 1941. “El complejo arqueol ógico de Tula y las grandes culturas indígenas de M éxico.” Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropologicos. Vol. 5, pp. 8595.Google Scholar
Dieseldorff, E. P. 1926–1933. Kunst und Religion der Mayavölher. Berlin.Google Scholar
Dutton, B. P. 1939. “Excavation in Guatemala. Tajumulco—a sacred precinct.” El Palacio. Vol. 46, pp. 99107.Google Scholar
Dutton, B. P. 1943. A History of Plumbate Ware. Archaeological Institute of America. Papers of the School of American Research.Google Scholar
Dutton, B. P. and Hobbs, H. R. 1942. “Excavations at Tajumulco, Guatemala.” Ms.Google Scholar
Gamio, M. 1926–1927. “Cultural Evolution in Guatemala and Its Geographic and Historical Handicaps.” Art and Archaeology. Vol. 22, pp. 203222; Vol. 23, pp. 16–32, 71–78,129–133.Google Scholar
Johnson, F. 1940. “The Linguistic Map of Mexico and Central America.” In The Maya and Their Neighbors. New York.Google Scholar
Kidder, A. V. 1935. Notes on the Ruins of San Agustin Acasaguastlan, Guatemala. Carnegie Institution of Washington Pub. No. 456. Contribution No. 15.Google Scholar
Kidder, A. V. 1936. “Disertaci ón acerca de los hallazgos arqueológicos en el Valle de Guatemal..“ Anales Sociedad de Geografia e Historia de Guatemala. Vol. 13, pp. 3236.Google Scholar
Kidder, A. V. 1940. “Archaeological Problems of the Highland Maya.” In The Maya and Their Neighbors. New York.Google Scholar
Kidder, A. V. 1940a. Pottery from Champerico, Guatemala. Carnegie Institution of Washington. Notes on Middle American Archaeology and Ethnology, No. 2. Washington.Google Scholar
Lothrop, S. K. 1926. “Stone Sculptures from the Finca Arevalo. Guatemala.” Museum American Indian, Heye Foundation, Indian Notes. Vol. 3, pp. 141171.Google Scholar
Lothrop, S. K. 1933. Atitlán. An Archaeological Study of Ancient Remains on the Borders of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala. Carnegie Institution of Washington Pub. No. 444.Google Scholar
Lothrop, S. K. 1936. Zacualpa, a Study of Ancient Quiché Artifacts. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Pub. No. 472.Google Scholar
Mason, J. A. 1940. “The Native Languages of Middle America.” In The Maya and Their Neighbors. New York.Google Scholar
Maudslay, A. P. 1889–1902. Archaeology. Biologia Centrali-Americana. London.Google Scholar
Merwin, R. E. and Vaillant, G. C. 1932. The Ruins of Holmul, Guatemala. Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Memoirs, Vol. 3, No. 2.Google Scholar
Saville, M. H. 1919. A Sculptured Vase from Guatemala. Museum American Indian, Heye Foundation Leaflet No. 1.Google Scholar
Saville, M. H. 1924. “Mayan Sculpture from Western Guatemala.” Museum American Indian Heye Foundation, Indian Notes. Vol. 1, pp. 9396.Google Scholar
Seler, E. 1902–1923. Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur amerikanischen Sprach und Alterthumskunde. Berlin.Google Scholar
Seler, E. 1904. “Antiquities of Guatemala.” U. S. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 28, pp. 75121.Google Scholar
Smith, R. E. 1940. “Ceramics of the Peten.” In The Maya and Their Neighbors. New York.Google Scholar
Stirling, M. W. 1941. “Expedition Unearths Buried Masterpieces of Carved Jade.” National Geographic Magazine. Vol. 80, pp. 277302.Google Scholar
Strebel, H. 1901. “The Sculptures of Santa Lucia Cozumahualpa, Guatemala, in the Hamburg Ethnological Museum.” Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution. 1899, pp. 549561.Google Scholar
Termer, F. 1930. “Archaologische Studien und Beobachtungen in Guatemala in den Jahren 1925–1929.” Tagungsberichte der Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde Bericht über die 1 Tagung, 1929, in Leipzig.Google Scholar
Termer, F. 1931. “Zur Archäologie von Guatemala.” Baessler Arch. Vol. 14, pp. 167191.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E. S. 1939. Excavations at San Jose, British Honduras. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Pub. No. 506.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E. S. 1941. Dating of Certain Inscriptions of Non-Maya Origin. Theoretical Approaches to Problems, No. 1. Washington.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E. S. 1941a. “A Coordination of the History of Chichen Itza with Ceramic Sequences in Central Mexico.” Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropológicos. Vol. 5, pp. 97111.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E. S. 1943. Stone Sculptures from Southeastern Quezaltenango. Carnegie Institution of Washington. Notes on Middle American Archaeology and Ethnology, No. 17. Washington.Google Scholar
Vaillant, G. C. 1935. “Chronology and Stratigraphy in the Maya Area.” Maya Research. Vol. 2, pp. 119143.Google Scholar
Villacorta, C. A. 1941. Vaso de Guastatoya (El Progreso), Guatemala. Publicación del Museo Arqueológico, No. 1.Google Scholar
Villacorta, J. A. and Villacorta, C. A. 1927. Arqueología Guatemalteca. Guatemala.Google Scholar
Wauchope, R. 1941. “Effigy Head Vessel Supports from Zacualpa, Guatemala.” In Los Mayas Antiguos. Mexico, D. F. Google Scholar
Wauchope, R. 1942. Notes on the Age of the Cieneguilla Cave Textiles from Chiapas. Middle American Research Records, Vol. 1, No. 2. New Orleans.Google Scholar