This paper analyzes the culture history of the little-known Okhotsk culture and makes suggestions about its relationships with neighboring cultures. The Okhotsk culture is important in understanding the cultural history of the northern Pacific because it shows no affinities with the Ainu and Japanese cultures and has an economy remarkably like that of the more distant Aleut and Eskimo. The Okhotsk culture appears to have historical relationships with cultures in Siberia and Manchuria. The maritime hunting economy of this culture was probably derived from the Eskimo via Bering Sea and the Siberian coast. Other cultural elements, the most noticeable being ceramics, were of mainland origin and served as an influential force in forming Okhotsk culture. Once established on Sakhalin, this culture moved southward along the northeastern coast of Hokkaido, where a secondary and later cultural center developed. Migrations up the Kuriles occurred shortly thereafter. This culture probably flourished for at least a thousand years, beginning in Sakhalin several centuries before Christ and persisting until sometime after A.D. 1000 and possibly until the 17th century in the Kuriles. Several unsolved problems concerning the Okhotsk culture are presented.

The chronological position of the ancient Koryak culture and its ethnic affinities are discussed here with reference to three important archaeological investigations on the Okhotsk seacoast. In 1958 the Magadan Regional Museum excavated four previously unknown settlements on P'iagina Peninsula in Kip-Kich and Itkilan bays, on Cape Keitevan, and on Varganchik Spit. Several common traits, such as topography, dwelling types, and material elements, make it possible to speak of these settlements in terms of their relative chronological and ethnic positions. The economic base and permanent settlement patterns are generally similar to those of the ancient Eskimos. This similarity is due to influences from other cultures and to convergence. Material objects bear close resemblances to some found in the Punuk stage of the Bering Sea, the Neolithic and early Bronze Age cultures of eastern Siberia, and in the Neolithic of southeastern Asia. This evidence provides a basis for establishing the chronological position of the P'iagina material, which may be placed between the early Bronze Age sites of the Lena Basin and the Punuk stage of Eskimo culture. The settlements have been assigned a place in the Koryak culture complex as a new stage or a local variant. This placement is based upon dwelling types and material complex, for example, blubber lamps.

On the marine terraces of the IAma River on Cape Travianoi a settlement of two dwellings was discovered. The house remains are in the form of elongated knolls. There was good preservaiton of artifacts, which included many household utensils of wood and a few of bone and stone. The material complex shows that the inhabitants utilized metal instruments, and this indicates that the dwellings were constructed at a late date. It is concluded that they are protohistoric but preceding the arrival of the Russians.

The Atargan settlement excavated in 1959 has the largest number of dwellings of those now known on the Okhotsk coast. The report includes a detailed description of a Koryak dwelling structure. Examination of the Atargan excavations indicates that the local Koryak population knew the use of metal before the Russians arrived. Pottery types, bone artifacts, and decorated artifacts are very similar to materials from complexes of the first millennium A.D. in the Bering Sea area.

The material cited in this report introduces evidence which indicates that the diffusion of iron among people dwelling along the Okhotsk seacoast originated from the Yakutia districts, where the remains of the early Iron Age are known, and that during this time the local population of Koryaks was also receiving elements from the Bering Sea tribes of the Punuk stage.

Radiocarbon dates from caves and shellmounds in central and southern Brazil indicate occupation extending over a 10,000-year period, during which major climatic changes occurred. Correlation of these dates with geologic context of the sites indicates a close agreement with the theoretical climatic fluctuation and changes of sea level proposed by Fairbridge.

Nambe is a Pueblo Indian town whose history is very poorly known. In 1962 arrangements were made to excavate in the village ash piles so that the data might be used in the tribe's land claim. Sherds from the excavations indicate that the people of Nambe have utilized this site from 1350 to the present. By checking surface survey materials against tribal tradition, a history of movements from highlands to lowlands has been out-lined. (1) From 1350 to 1425 there were five villages in a north-south line and two in an east-west line in the high foothills, but the adjoining farm lands were insufficient and in peaceful periods some of the inhabitants of these defensive sites came down to the present Nambe during the summer to farm where water and land were more available. (2) From 1425 to 1550 only one of the high defensive sites continued to be occupied; the others were abandoned, and the people moved down to live in Nambe on a year-round basis. (3) Between 1550 and 1700 the last defensive site was abandoned and Nambe pueblo housed the tribe, but the old lands near the ruins were still used for hunting, gathering, religious shrines, and some farming. (4) The Spaniards found the Nambe area attractive and settled near the pueblo. This began an acculturative process which has involved mixing of blood, loss of Indian lands, and amalgamation of the two cultures. Nambe is now one of the least "native" of the northern Pueblo Indian towns.

El Chayal is an extensive obsidian workshop site in an area of major obsidian deposits northeast of Guatemala City. Surface collections include a great number of elongated, unretouched flakes that were probably used as blanks, stemmed projectile points resembling the Wells type, shouldered knives, very large discoidal scrapers, a heavy chopper, bifacial utility implements, and large unretouched blades similar to that found with the Iztapan mammoth in Mexico. Pre-Columbian pottery does not occur. On the basis of this absence, and from a comparison of the artifacts with stone tools from other regions in Mesoamerica, it is believed that the El Chayal industry can be dated to the middle and late Archaic period, roughly from 5000 to 1500 B.C.

Thorne Cave is a site in Cliff Creek Canyon, north-eastern Utah. Between 5000 and 2000 B.C. alluvial fill in the canyon reached the level of Thorne Cave and formed its floor. At this time, and intermittently for perhaps the next 200 years, peoples with a Desert Archaic cultural tradition camped on a dune near the cave mouth while the canyon and the cave continued to fill. Stratified camp debris was washed into the cave, and alluvium accumulated well above the cave brow, leaving a dead space in the dome area of the cave roof. Dissection of canyon alluvium later re-exposed Thorne Cave and washed away much of the evidence of human occupation. Radiocarbon-dated charcoal indicates that the site was occupied as early as 4230±250 years B.P. Materials recovered from Thorne Cave include redeposited charcoal and food-bone scrap; projectile points, small choppers and scrapers, manos, and grinding slabs; bone awls, needles, a pendant, a flaking tool, and a scapula seed-header; and impressions of twined basketry.

Geologic interest in Thorne Cave stems from its link with valley alluvium along Cliff Creek, which accumulated to a height of 48 ft., continued to build up another 13 ft. while men lived here, and then reached 30 ft. higher — sealing in the signs of man. Mineralogic study shows that ground water then circulated through the cave deposits for a considerable time. The alluvium is correlated with the lower part of the Tsegi Formation of the Navajo country. Cutting of a terrace at mid-depth in the valley alluvium reopened Thorne Cave, probably before the Christian era, and desert varnish then began to form on the cave brow. Radiocarbon dates from presumably correlative deposits suggest that the cave debris is about 4000 years old — a conclusion consistent with dates of 4230 and 4170 years from Thorne Cave.

Between 1956 and 1960, 20 ceramic figurines were discovered in Mound 42Ut111 at the Hinckley site west of Utah Lake in northern Utah. Circumstances of the discovery are discussed, as well as two other finds previously made in Utah Valley. Comparisons are made with figurines from the Fremont and Sevier areas, particularly from sites just north and south of Utah Valley. On the basis of these comparisons and a consideration of other items, such as ceramics, house type, and ecological setting, it is hypothecated that Utah Valley was a cultural center for northwestern Utah. It is proposed that this area be called the Provo culture area.

The reinterpretation of the Mabaruma phase, British Guiana, by Lathrap does not introduce new evidence that requires abandonment of the original estimate of about A.D. 500 for its introduction from the Orinoco delta.

On the basis of ethnohistorical data, Clune has questioned the identification and use of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican stone objects formerly known as “padlock stones” or “sling stones” and recently designated by de Borhegyi as “ball-game handstones.” According to de Borhegyi, these stones were used by players in the Mesoamerican ball game to deflect or propel a high-arching ball. Archaeological evidence strongly supports the inference that “ball-game handstones” and such ball-game paraphernalia as stone yokes and palmate stones were used in the ball game as it was played during Early and Late Classic times (A.D. 200-900) along the Gulf coast of eastern Mexico and in the Maya area. The indiscriminate use of Spanish and other early ethnohistoric records may be misleading in the reconstruction and interpretation of cultural events that occurred centuries earlier in a variety of places.

Selected key traits are discussed as illustrations of the ceramic constellations of the Woodland and Mississippi traditions. Surface texturing is shown to be the dominant Woodland ceramic trait and an interest in vessel form, the dominant Mississippi trait. It is pointed out that the constellations outlined as characteristic of the two North American traditions can be observed in the early ceramic complexes of the Mediterranean region as early as the sixth millennium B.C.

The locations of certain mounds at the Cahokia site indicate that the rate of Mississippi River channel migration in the American Bottoms in the Upper Mississippi Valley has differed from the rate of channel movement in the Lower Mississippi Valley. The American Bottoms was probably the most favorable section of the Mississippi River Valley for long-term prehistoric settlement with regard to location within the present meander belt of the river.

In the past six years a number of pits dug into cobble-stone beaches of Lake Superior have been discovered. These are as much as four feet in depth and some are large enough to accommodate several people. They do not appear to have been roofed, and the small amount of animal bones, charcoal, potsherds, and other objects suggests that these pits were used as occasional shelters from the wind by Indians fishing through the ice on Lake Superior.

In 1953 it was suggested that bifurcate-stemmed projectile points might serve as a horizon marker in the southwestern United States. Since then material has been reported which indicates that this is also true for the eastern United States. There are two types of bifurcate-stemmed points: a larger form which may be older than 5000 B.C. and a smaller form which appears to be more recent.

In 1932 Haury described lead-glaze pottery from the Southwest. In view of his report, it appeared desirable to find out whether the makers of such pottery suffered from lead poisoning. A series of 46 bone specimens from Kinishba, where lead-glaze pottery was made, and a control series of 33 specimens from Point of Pines, where such pottery is not known to have been made, were screened by X-ray and by X-ray diffraction. The 11 most promising specimens were then analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Lead was found in quantities believed to be below the toxic range; concentrations in the control series from Point of Pines were, with few exceptions, higher than in the experimental series from Kinishba.

A partially reconstructed, flat-bottomed, pottery vessel from central Nevada is described and compared with similar vessels from the Great Basin and adjacent areas. It appears to have been made by the historic Shoshone Indians.

Nonceramic designs are rarely described from southern New England. One is here illustrated and its elements examined. Several controlled speculations as to its meaning are advanced. These include attenuated Southern Cult motifs, depicted natural-history phenomena, and the possibility of its being a map or a record of some cultural event. No conclusions are drawn. Re-examination of similar artifacts in local collections may reveal additional scratched designs.

The Sheep Island site in the McNary Reservoir area of the Middle Columbia is unique in showing a burial stratigraphy, with flexed burials underlying a cremation “floor” and cremation pits. Both are prehistoric, whereas the nearby Berrian Island site on the north shore of the Columbia shows an abundance of historic flexed “cedar cist” burials. The presence of a mixed Salish and Sahaptin population in the area in early historic times casts doubt on these “cedar cist” burials as typically Sahaptin.

Because of its dependence on presence-and-absence counts, the Dempsey-Baumhoff ordering technique may not be as useful as the Robinson technique in two kinds of situations: (1) when artifact mixture has occurred, and (2) when the types used are based on continuously varying attributes and overlap one another to some extent because of normal variation in the attributes.