Around 5000 BC—thousands of years after peopling by hunting people—shellfish gatherers settled on the Guianas coast. Sedentarism began, followed later by the invention of pottery and agriculture.
At this time, only the areas with large quantities of shellfish were inhabited. This was at the extreme east on the coast of Para State, on the right bank of the mouth of the Amazon and on the western coast in Guyana, between the Orinoco delta and the Essequibo River. In Suriname, French Guiana and Amapa, from the Essequibo River up to the Amazon, there is no large colony of shellfish. In this area, the muddy banks brought by the Amazon flux prevent the development of shellfish. The limited amount of shellfish present on the coasts of Suriname, French Guiana and Amapa is not enough to provide food for hunter-gatherer groups. Shell middens have not been found on these coasts up to now, and it is unlikely they will be found in the future, for the reasons outlined above.
On the other hand, shell middens are numerous to the west and east and this is where gathering people settled. On the coasts of Maranhao (Brazil), Guyana and Venezuela, where large quantities of shellfish live, pre-ceramic and early ceramic sites are shell mounds or sambaquis (Mina, Alaka, Warao cultures). These mounds are one of the most impressive prehistoric remains of the Guianas. They were progressively made by the significant consumption and dumping of shellfish. Houses were built atop the mounds, which could reach several meters high. At the mouth of the Amazon, there are 40 sambaquis of the Mina culture, dated between 3700 and 1300 BC. In Guyana, the Alaka culture is dated from 6000-1400 BC (Evans and Meggers 1960; Williams 2003).
More or less at the same time, a tradition of semi-sedentary fishermen-gatherers appeared in the lower Amazon. They based their diet on the intensive exploitation of fish resources, and they began to cultivate some plants. These groups made the first pottery around 5080 BC in the Taperinha site near Santarem, and even earlier ca. 5600 BC in the cave of Pedra Pintada. In this last site, ceramic production continued up to 2500 BC (Roosevelt et al. 1991; Roosevelt 1995). It is probably that they first used gourd vessels and impermeable baskets. Pottery was necessary in order to cook by boiling some of the plants to make them digestible for humans (Oliver 2001). The first ceramic vessels had simple shapes, rarely decorated with simple motifs.
The presence of polished stone axes in one sambaqui of Mina culture, dated 1900-1500 BC, suggests incipient agriculture. However, neither Mina culture nor Alaka culture have yielded evidence of domesticated plants. They could have begun to cultivate some plants, but their diet was based on fishing and shellfish gathering. In other areas of Amazonia, scant data indicate the beginning of agriculture probably by the slash-and-burn technique between 4000 and 3000 BC. For example, maize remains dated at 3300 BC have been collected in the Ayauchi Lake in Ecuadorian Amazonia, at the foot of the Andes (Bush et al. 1989).
The oldest ceramic style actually recognized in Amazonia occurs at Taperinha, a sambaqui near Santarem, dated ca. 5700-4300 BC. It has plain pottery tempered with crushed shells that looks like pottery of the Early Alaka and Mina cultures (Roosevelt et al.
1991). Whether Early Alaka pottery of the Guyana coast (and Mina of the Amazon mouth area) has a similar ancient age still has to be proven.
World History
