Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology

Early Ceramics in the Caribbean / 107
larities with some of the early pottery of the Valdivia phase of Ecuador (Meggers
et al. 1965), as well as with the well-known styles of northeastern Venezuela
known as Santa Ana and Tocuyano (Sanoja 2001:4). According to
Sanoja, the material of Camay exhibits characteristics that correspond to socalled
Periods B (4300–4000 b.p. or 2350–2050 b.c.) and C (4000–3400 b.p.
or 2050–1450 b.c.) of Valdivia. This suggests a chronological correlation that,
if con¤rmed, would substantially revise the theories of the peopling of the
Venezuelan northeast, the Andean region, and Lake Maracaibo, besides shedding
light on some of the particularities that characterize the later ceramic
styles of the region. This new perspective makes the Venezuelan northeast a
nuclear center whose cultural in®uences would have contributed to shaping
the aboriginal societies of much of northeastern South America. The groups
of the Camay and Quibor valleys may have begun to develop tribal or neolithic
social characteristics in the second millennium b.c. and initiated the
transition toward complex hierarchical social forms around the ¤rst millennium
(Sanoja 2001:17–18; see Arvelo 1995 for a different position on the social
developments in this sequence).
In Central America, some shell middens like Monagrillo (4500–3200 b.p.
or 2550–1250 b.c.), located in the Gulf of Panama, have evidence of a ceramic
industry related to the use and exploitation of nearby resources in the mangrove
swamp. The pottery at this site supports the impression that this location
was home to an important phase in the dispersion and exchange of ceramic
traditions in the Americas. A marked similarity between this ¤rst
Panamanian pottery and that from sites in Colombia, such as Puerto Hormiga,
supports this view (Veloz Maggiolo 1991). 1 To this we have to add the
bene¤ts of the marine resources that in some general ways may have in®uenced
the shifts of the ¤rst foraging/ceramic groups under similar conditions.
In general, the shell middens with ceramics from Colombia, the coast of
Venezuela, Guyana, and Panama may re®ect a phase of growth and intensi¤cation
of foraging lifeways in the continental or riverine Caribbean, characterized
by experimentation with some horticultural practices and the manufacturing
of wood-working instruments and tools. Assemblages of simple
pottery appear to be correlated with an increase in site size and the production
of grinding tools. All this seems to be in agreement with the transformations
that took place in the economy of foraging societies, in which the consumption
of vegetable foods shifted from marginal importance to become a central
production process. It is important to keep in mind that in spite of the peculiarities
of each site, pottery is an element present at each one. While this does