Archaeological Investigations between Cayenne Island and the Maroni River

<p>Archaeological Investigations between Cayenne Island and the Maroni River (PhD Dissertation Leiden University)</p><p>Abstract:<br>Stratigraphic archaeological research in French Guiana is barely 50 years old and has been conducted primarily in the coastal zone, stretching approximately between 5 and 50 kilometres from the Atlantic coast to the Precambrian Shield. This bias, mainly caused by means of modern infrastructure, has sketched an archaeological record concerning pre-Columbian French Guiana focussing on the Late Ceramic Age (AD 900-1500) of Cayenne Island as well as the western Holocene coastal plains. The present study contains the results of six archaeological investigations, conducted from a compliance archaeological perspective, in order to enhance our knowledge of the afore-mentioned coastal area. It not only presents us with fresh archaeological data on the (Late) Archaic and Early Ceramic Age, a hiatus that is now partially fill up, but also sheds new light on the Late Ceramic Age of this specific region concerning funerary rites, ceramic series and subsistence.</p>