Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1989 - 26

First
the

Pottery
New

World

Six-thousand-year-old ceramics have
been found on the southwest coast of
Ecuador,suggestingthat cerámicproduction began and flourishedindependently
in the New World. The origin of these
early ceramics has been the subject of
heated debate in recent years. Some
scholarshave suggestedthat ceramicproduction wasimported from Asia, perhaps
by seafaring Neolithic Japanese fishermen. Until now, arguments for local
development have been theoretical since
no antecedents for the earliest known
New World pottery had been found.
Jonathan Damp, along with a team of
archaeologists from Ecuador and Chile,
and with the help of the Guayasamin
Foundation, has been working on the
6,000-year-old site of Altomayo, where
research has yieldedevidencesupporting
local development.
Early ceramics, dating from 3500 b.c.,
have been found at several sites in southwestEcuador: Valdivia,Real Alto, Loma
Alta, and Punta Concepción. Other,
perhaps contemporary, examples have
been found at Monsu and Euerto Hor-

miga in Colombia and at Mina at the
mouth of the Amazon. Damp, who holds
a doctorate in archaeology from the
University of Calgary, had determined
that the Real Alto site was originally on
the coast of Ecuador. Today, due to a
pronounced change in sea level, the
site is located a mile inland at an elevation of more than 70 feet. Based on this
information, Damp's team felt that earlier ceramics might be found on older
raised beachesfurther inland. The search
yielded Altomayo, a site 2.5 miles from
the coast and 115 feet above sea level.
Although much of the Altomayomaterial
resembled that of the early ceramic
Valdina culture (3500-1500b.c.) at Real
Alto, the most exciting finds were several
burnt clay objects recovered in a preceramic context, belowthe Valdinaoccu26 Archaeology

pation. Some of these clay pieces appear
to have been deliberately molded and
fired. One of these finds is a small fragment of rolled clay, another has one fingertip impression, and a third is the size
of a tangerine with severalfinger impressions. Additionally,the team discovered
what may be the NewWorld'searliestfigurine. The stone object appears to be a
prototype for Early Valdina stone and
clay figurines.
It is estimated that the Altomayo site
was occupiedsome 6,000years ago. If the
date is correct, the finds could represent
an experimentalstagein ceramicproduction. It appears that Damp and his colleagues may have persuasive evidence
favoring the local development of ceramics in this part of the New World.
Egypt's

Endangered

Settlements
A Boston University archaeologist
has returned from Egypt disturbed by the
destruction of Predynastic sitesabovethe
Nile floodplain in Upper Egypt. While
acknowledging Egypt's need to cultivate more land to feed its burgeoning
population, Kathryn Bard urges that
"massivesetdement archaeology"be carried out before these important sites are
destroyed. Last summer, Bard, with
funding from the National Geographic
Society,surveyedknownPredynasticsites
in the Hu region, assessingtheir present
condition. Herewith a portion of her
report:
What our survey showed was very
spotty preservation of sites that were in
much better condition when Sir Flinders
Petrie did his fieldworkhere 90 years ago.
Petrie's Cemetery U, near Hu, has now
been partially quarried, and the remaining surface is covered with asphalt. Undoubtedly a Predynastic village existed
near this cemetery,but there is no longer
any evidence of one. A worker at the
quarry told us that the asphalt gets so hot
at midday in the summer that a little girl
"drowned"in it last year. Petrie recorded
very deep grave pits at Cemetery U, and
I suspect that the child fell into one of
thesepits and then couldnot get out of the
soft, hot asphalt.
Just east of Cemetery U we relocated
the general area of another of Petrie's
Predynastic cemeteries (R), which was
destroyed by housing construction for
the Nag Hammadi Aluminum Factoryin
the 1950s. No trace remains of Petrie's
site. Fortunately,an Old Kingdom ceme-

Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1989

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1989