The Wonotobo Falls (

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

: ''Wonotobovallen'') are a series of

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

s in the

Courantyne River The Courantyne/Corentyne/Corantijn River is a river in northern South America in Suriname and Guyana. It is the longest List of rivers of Suriname, river in the country and creates the border between Suriname and the East Berbice-Corentyne region ...

Sipaliwini District Sipaliwini is the largest district of Suriname, located in the south. Sipaliwini is the only district that does not have a regional capital, as it is directly administered by the national government in Paramaribo. History Sipaliwini was created ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

near the border with Guyana. The waterfalls are not navigable. A pre-Columbian petroglyph site is located near the falls.

Overview

The waterfalls are situated about from the mouth of the

. The complex consists of the ''Dutchman Fall'', the ''Blue Crane Fall'', the ''Frenchman Fall'', and the ''Englishman Fall''. To pass the falls, canoes have to be transported five kilometres overland. Wanapan, an

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...

village, is located at the bottom of the falls. In 1836,

Robert Hermann Schomburgk Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (5 June 1804 – 11 March 1865) was a German-born explorer for Great Britain who carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies, and also fulfilled diplomatic missio ...

was the first person to venture beyond the falls. Wonotobo is a Kalina word. According to Schomburgk, the full name was "Mawari Wonotopo" (the spot where the

blue crane The blue crane (''Grus paradisea''), also known as the Stanley crane and the paradise crane, is the national bird of South Africa. The species is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Description The blue crane is a tall, ground-dwelling bird, ...

sleeps).

Petroglyphs

At a distance of about 200 metres from the falls, there is an abandoned Amerindian settlement. In July 1959, Dirk Geijskes discovered

petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other description ...

and pottery near the settlement. A total of 33 petroglyphs have been found. A carbon dating of charcoal yielded an age of 1900 ± 40 BP making it the oldest complex in the

Guianas The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: * French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France * ...

at the time. Most of the petroglyphs are in the Corantijn Basin, and provide an important insight into the ceremonial, mythical and religious world of these precontact indigenous peoples. The petroglyphs at

Werehpai Werehpai is an archaeological site in Suriname consisting of several caves containing petroglyphs of pre-Columbian origin. The site is located about from the village of Kwamalasamutu. With 313 identified petroglyphs, Werehpai is by far the large ...

, which were discovered later, turned out to be significantly older. The site is also well known as the habitat of Pseudoplatystoma, a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of several South American

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...

References

Bibliography

*{{cite web, last1=Boomert , first1=Aad, url=https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/AA/00/06/19/61/00261/9-6.pdf , year=1983 , title=''Saladoid Occupation of Wonotobo Falls, Western Suriname'' , publisher=Proceedings of the IX International Congress for the Study of Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Lesser Antilles, location=Montréal Archaeological sites in Suriname Pre-Columbian archaeological sites Sipaliwini District Waterfalls of Suriname Pre-Columbian art Petroglyphs in South America