Intensive archaeological survey on Chapin Mesa in Mesa Verde National Park disclosed remains of soil and water conservation devices built and used by the Pueblo II and III inhabitants. Low stone masonry check-dams across intermittent drainages formed farming terraces, while associated seasonal field houses sheltered their tillers. Larger dams near clusters of house sites stored water for domestic use. Water from the extensive collection system for the largest of these, Mummy Lake, was subsequently led through the long Far View Ditch to the late Pueblo III Cliff-Fewkes Canyon cliff dwelling group. These various adaptations to an undependable environment may be symptomatic of the underlying causes for the ultimate abandonment of the Mesa Verde.

J. A. Ford has recently (1959) offered a revision of the traditional view on Canadian Thule culture origins. He suggests that Canadian Thule is not derived directly from Birnirk, but that the eastern Thule migrants were contemporaries of the post-Birnirk Nunagiak stage. The further revised hypotheses of this paper are based on data generally unavailable for Ford's analysis. These hypotheses state that: (a) by A.D. 900 Birnirk existed as far east as Amundsen Gulf, (b) a Nunagiak-like culture was carried to Victoria Island, (c) the Birnirk-Nunagiak development occurred generally along these coasts, (d) a proto-Thule stage existed about A.D. 900-1100 between Birnirk and Nunagiak, and (e) this proto-Thule, developing into Canadian Thule in transit, spread across the eastern Arctic, entering Greenland by A.D. 1100.

Excavations by the University of Arizona Archaeological Field School in the summer of 1962 indicate that this small site in the Sulphur Spring valley was occupied from A.D. 1250 to 1325. Architectural remains consist of the two adobe-walled room-plaza complexes. Burials were extended inhumations and primary cremations. The artifact inventory is characterized by its simplicity and lack of elaboration. Locally made pottery was primarily plain red and brown with both smudging and texturing. Most of the painted pottery was traded into the site from the surrounding Chihuahua, White Mountain, Tonto Basin, and Tucson areas. The site apparently represents an essentially Mogollon complex with strong contacts with the Babicora phase in Chihuahua and additions from the general Western Pueblo sphere of influence. A Ringo phase, A.D. 1250-1350, is tentatively defined.

Botany, which once bred the belief that the two oceans surrounding the New World formed a complete barrier for pre-Columbian voyagers, now demonstrates that some form of trans-oceanic contact has taken place. A reappraisal of contact areas seems warranted. Current geographic misconceptions concerning feasible aboriginal sea routes are examined. It is erroneous to believe that hypothetical voyagers from, for example, southern China to Peru can make a short-cut by way of the Pacific equator. The route between these two antipodes is a complete semicircle of equal length in dead miles whether we go by way of the middle Pacific, by way of Hawaii, or even by way of the Aleutian Islands. In traveling distance and time the route north of Hawaii is far shorter due to the flow of the main currents. A true traveling distance is not measurable unless we know the ratio between the surface speed respectively of the vessel and the current. Thus, an aboriginal craft plowing the ocean surface with a speed of 40 miles per day will have to cross about 1000 miles of surface water to get from Peru to the Marquesas Islands, but 7000 miles to get from the Marquesas to Peru.

Three feasible routes of aboriginal oversea arrivals to the New World, and two of departure, are suggested and named after European voyagers who initiated the route in historic times.

Six sites attributable to the Coalescent tradition in the Fort Randall and Big Bend reservoir areas of South Dakota are arranged in a seriation indicative of their temporal relationships on the basis of the popularities of certain pottery types and the presence or absence of European trade goods. Three sites fall within the prehistoric segment of the continuum, ca. A.D. 1500-1700, and three in the protohistoric segment, ca, 1700-1750. It is postulated that the sites were occupied by Arikara prior to their movement upriver to join others of the same tribal affiliation after invasion of the region by the Dakota. Certain ceramic types are proposed as time markers and sequences are revised in the light of new data.

This paper describes and demonstrates an improved statistical method for determining chronological sequences among archaeological sites. The method, derived from a system of measurement called contextual analysis, depends on the pattern of artifact types present and absent at each site rather than on the relative frequency of occurrence of types. The process of contextual analysis is presented in sufficient detail to provide a guide for other studies.

For purposes of demonstration, the chronology of 16 central California burial sites, originally analyzed by Heizer, Fenenga, Lillard and others, and subsequently re-examined by Belous, was again reworked. The results showed an extremely high measure of agreement with Heizer's chronology, a rank order correlation coefficient of .96 being obtained. This high agreement is taken as evidence not only that a purely statistical method of establishing dependable sequences is possible, but also that contextual analysis is a sufficiently sensitive technique to solve the archaeological problem.

The recent discovery and excavation of the Levi site, a stratified campsite near Austin, Texas, has uncovered several artifact types previously unknown in Paleo-Indian cultures. In the earliest occupation zone a scraper, two utilized flakes, and a chopper were associated with the remains of tapir and dire wolf. Following this is a zone dated at 10,000 ± 175 B.P. in which a possible Clovis point and a Plainview point were associated with bones of Equus sp. and Platygonus sp. Artifacts from this zone include burins, burin spalls, scrapers, and prismatic blades. Above this lies the major occupation zone with a large sample of projectile points showing a combination of attributes characteristic of both Plainview and Angostura points. These are considered as belonging to the Plainview-Angostura complex. Radiocarbon dated at 9300 ± 160 B.P. to 7350 ± 150 B.P., this zone yielded burins, burin spalls, polyhedral cores, prismatic blades, seed-grinding stones, knives, and scrapers; in all, over 400 artifacts. The uppermost zone at the Levi site contained a mixture of artifacts assignable to Archaic and later cultures.

Evidence indicates that the interior culture of Chukotka was using bronze implements at the end of the second and beginning of the first millennium B.C. and the population had become somewhat sedentary. The similarity between late Neolithic and early Bronze Age of Chukotka and the pre-Eskimo Arctic cultures of America is apparent; it also is probable that during this period Chukotka formed part of the area of development of the Yukagir and the Chukchi. The first significant archaeological collection from Chukotka, made by N. P. Sokol'nikov in 1904-07, can be divided into two main cultural groupings on the basis of stone-working techniques; the older group, probably from near Ust'-Belaia, is typical of the continental Neolithic of northeast Asia, and the other group appears to be of the “splitting adz culture,” 7th-8th centuries A.D., and probably was found upstream from Markovo. Burials from the Ust'-Belaia cemetery had associated stone artifacts and pottery similar to ones from Yukutia and the Lake Baikal region of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age; further corroboration of this dating includes associated bronze artifacts and a radiocarbon date of 2860 ± 95 B.P. from another mound in the same cemetery site.

Two recent series of radiocarbon analyses, from Muaco and Rancho Peludo in western Venezuela, would seem at first glance to provide the oldest dates in the New World for stone projectile points and for pottery respectively. However, both series raise problems of interpretation. The Muaco dates may refer to one of several pre-projectile-point complexes, rather than to the El Jobo complex, which has projectile points; and the earliest Rancho Peludo dates may pertain to an occupation of that site by Paleo-Indians of the Manzanillo complex, prior to the ceramic occupation.

In northeastern Bolivia, on savanna lands subject to seasonal inundation, there are many thousands of pre-Spanish earthworks including drained fields, causeways, mounds, canals, and circular ditches. Additional information is presented here on the nature, quantity, distribution, purposes, and antiquity of these only recently described earthworks, along with a brief review of similar features in South America and elsewhere.

Among a collection of whole pottery vessels from the Huarmey valley, Peru, is one piece which is almost certainly a master or matrix for manufacturing molds for mold-made pottery. The piece probably dates in the period between Late Tiahuanaco and Inca-Chimú.

In a recent article, Stuart Struever made certain statements which deserve comment. Discussion of the possibility of pre-maize agriculture in the eastern United States appeared in print as early as 1924. Sunflower and marshelder seem to have been among the plants domesticated, but not giant ragweed. The evidence for cultivation of amaranth and chenopod needs more careful evaluation. The archaeological occurrence of unusually large seeds may be good evidence of domestication, but the occurrence of chenopod at the Pomranky and Hodges sites in Michigan does not appear to be good evidence.

An undecorated gold disk, considered to be a pectoral in an early stage of manufacture, is described. This specimen is from a stone-covered grave in the Province of Bocas del Toro and is attributed to the Chiriqui culture.

Swanton's original identification of Yuchi with Chisca and hence with Mouse Creek does not seem sufficient to establish a firm Mouse Creek-Yuchi relationship. Comparisons of material from the Yuchi site in Alabama with material in Tennessee may indicate a closer relationship with Dallas focus rather than with Mouse Creek.

Very little has been published to date relating to the manufacture of early buttons. This is particularly true of plain, nonmilitary buttons which lack makers' names on their backs. Enough evidence has been assembled from dated garments or excavations to warrant a description of basic button styles, particularly when these styles can be assigned dates of manufacture to aid the archaeologist in the interpretation of his sites.

During September of 1958 M. B. McKusick and C. N. Warren conducted archaeological excavations on San Clemente Island, California. In 1959 the result of their work was published. They delineate three cultural complexes for the island which are named “Milling Stone,” “Mortar and Pestle,” and “Big Dog.” The data presented by McKusick and Warren are examined and their three cultural complexes are rejected because these complexes are not adequately supported by the data.

The designation pot-hunter, as used by American archaeologists, is examined with respect to both its provenience in England and its relatively recent reinterpretation in the New World. Rather than being coined in American archaeology to designate “a hunter of pots,” this appellation, with its explicit derogatory connotation, clearly has its roots in various sporting events of 16th-century England. The essence of its meaning, then, does not relate to pots or vessels, per se, but to non-scientific attitudes and behavior toward antiquities. Pot-hunter has been reinterpreted in North America to signify the archaeological vandal or spoiler and, although specific definitions of the term often lack precision, there is a remarkable consensus among North American archaeologists as to its import. The functional utility of pot-hunter, in categorizing a segment of individuals interested in antiquities, is clearly demonstrated by its tenacious persistence in North American archaeology.

A revision of Great Lakes geologic history involving the temporal position of Glacial Lake Algonquin and some post-Algonquin lake stages requires corresponding revision of certain archaeological interpretations. Indications are that the Paleo-Indian occupations of the upper Great Lakes area are somewhat earlier than heretofore supposed.

Gunnerson's postulated reconstruction of Plateau Shoshonean prehistory, based on linguistic data and geographic correlations of prehistoric and historic groups, is questioned on the basis of archaeological evidence, which indicates that a complete replacement of the prehistoric culture pattern took place in the 1100's in the Virgin River area of Nevada.