The Guaico Tamana Site in Trinidad: A New Early Holocene Site That Predates Banwari Trace

Abstract The recently discovered Guaico Tamana site in the eastern portion of the Central Range of Trinidad dates to the early Holocene. It is at least 1,000 years older than the Banwari Trace site, long thought to be the oldest site in Trinidad. A contracting-stemmed spearpoint recovered from Guaico Tamana is similar to another contracting-stemmed specimen recovered from the Biche site in 1988. The two sites are relatively close to Chert Hill and Malchan Hill, the two primary chert sources in Trinidad. However, some redeposited chert cobbles were locally available at the Guaico Tamana site. Much of the site has been disturbed, but some intact deposits remain that reflect multiple episodes of site use over many decades or even centuries. Test excavations in these deposits resulted in the first documentation of a biface-reduction technology in Trinidad, which contrasts with bipolar-percussion technology characterizing most subsequent lithic reduction in Trinidad. We propose a new Early Archaic complex called Guaico Tamana, which succeeded the El Jobo complex and preceded the Early Banwari Trace complex of the Banwarian subseries. We suggest the Guaico Tamana complex encompassed an early Holocene temporal span of about 9500–8000 BP (10,750–8880 cal BP).