Manao ceramics and the role of the Manao in the Amazonia.

Abstract

This article describes the Manao ceramics collected by Johann Netterer in 1830 or 1831. This set of ceramical pieces is formed by jugs and bowls decorated with large incisions and painting, applied after baking. Comparisons with the contemporary ceramics of the Negro river and of the upper Amazony indicate that the forms of these vessels have close relations with the Baniwa ceramics of the I?ana river, even if the painting on the latter is applied prior to baking. A Baniwa jug collected also by Netterer demonstrates that the two indiginous traditions already differred at that epoch. Everything points to the fact that the commom ancestry of Manao and Baniwa ceramics may be found in the araquinoid tradition of the Orinoco river.