The rock art of Writing-On-Stone has been the focus of detailed interpretation relying on concepts of group migration. Indeed, results of previous research at Writing-On-Stone have been pivotal in reconstructions of northwestern Plains group distributions. It is apparent that many anthropomorphic petroglyphs and pictographs contain elements and co-associations that allow chronological ordering from prehistoric through protohistoric and historic times. Cluster analyses described in this paper offer a more objective means of assessing changes in anthropomorph depictions through time, leading to a critical evaluation of prior concepts concerning stylistic changes and Native group distributions. In particular, the analyses demonstrate that rock-art anthropomorphs at Writing-On-Stone are more strongly interrelated than previously thought. We believe there is no need to invoke a Shoshonean presence in this area to account for differences in late prehistoric and historical-period rock-art anthropomorph styles.

The value of marine resources and coastal environments to hunter-gatherers has long been debated, with the archaeological record frequently invoked as the ultimate test for various arguments. Optimal-foraging principles suggest that the temporal priority of the exploitation of one resource over another indicates its value with respect to subsistence efficiency, a crucial variable in overall reproductive success. If coastal habitats are highly valuable, their exploitation should be seen early in the archaeological record; if not, a time lag should be evident between the initial exploitation of terrestrial and coastal environments. A review of the archaeology of early marine-resource use in prehistoric California reveals complex patterning that does not exclusively support one position or the other. Certain of these data accommodate the traditional model of an adaptive transition between specialized hunting of terrestrial big game during the Paleoindian period and diversification, including marine-resource exploitation, during the Archaic period. Others, however, suggest that shellfish were part of the diet of the initial colonists of western North America, indicating the value of this resource to mobility-restricted members of hunting and gathering groups.

Four separate lines of evidence show that the Cedar Mesa Basketmaker II were dependent on maize horticulture: the settlement pattern of the mesa-top Basketmaker II; stable carbon-isotope analysis of Basketmaker and other skeletal remains from the Cedar Mesa area; and two different analyses of coprolites and midden constituents from the Turkey Pen Cave site (a Basketmaker II site in Grand Gulch, which drains parts of Cedar Mesa). All of these analyses concur with a dependence on maize horticulture for the Cedar Mesa Basketmaker II, a dependence not differing significantly from later Pueblo inhabitants of Cedar Mesa and elsewhere. Whether other Basketmaker II variants were as reliant on maize is uncertain, but there are good indications that at least some, and probably all, were. By 2,000 years ago the Basketmaker II peoples on Cedar Mesa were not modified hunters and gatherers, but relied on maize.

The contents of stratigraphically distinct archaeological proveniences, such as trash and fill, floor assemblages, and collections from the modern ground surface, ordinarily are treated separately during analysis and interpretation of assemblage variability. Once an interpretive framework has been constructed that integrates artifact use and discard with the formation of these various deposits, patterned differences in assemblage content can be exploited to yield information about site function, occupation duration, and abandonment processes. This approach is demonstrated through an analysis of the distribution of one-hand manos, two-hand manos, and trough metates at Anasazi sites in southwestern Colorado.

Descriptions of Indians in northern Mexico with copper artifacts occur in the sixteenth-century expedition reports of Cabeza de Vaca, Francisco Ibarra, and Father Rodríguez. The phrasing of Cabeza de Vaca's account indicates that both copper bells and plates were excavated from abandoned villages and then traded widely. Statements given in all three journals point to the site of Paquimé, or Casas Grandes, in Chihuahua as the most probable source. Since Casas Grandes was deserted in the sixteenth century, it is suggested that the copper objects found among the Indians in northern Mexico by Cabeza de Vaca, Ibarra, and Rodríguez were looted from Casas Grandes rather than obtained by trade from west Mexico or Mesoamerica.

This paper reports on several experiments carried out to explore the transformations of the archaeological record affected by trampling. These transformations include changes in artifact distributions and formal alterations that should be taken into account when carrying out studies of activity areas. The experiments were made on dry, hard-packed surfaces and in the same sediments after a rain. The materials used were bones, obsidian flakes, sherds, and fragments of brick and wood. The analysis focuses on vertical displacement, horizontal displacement, and damage (breakage, microflaking, and abrasion), paying special attention to the response of the trodden substrate and its implications for the whole process. The interaction of trampling with other formation processes (e.g., maintenance) also is considered. The main patterns observed in the trampled materials are vertical and horizontal size sorting, and characteristic size distributions in sherds. These empirical generalizations are then integrated in a model that can help to identify trampled contexts and assess their potential for behavioral inference.

The experimental hydration of obsidian for up to 30 days is described at relative humidities (RH) of 60, 90, 95, and 100 percent and at temperatures of 150, 160, and 175°C. Under isothermal conditions, the rate of hydration increased by as much as 25 percent between 60 and 100 percent RH. The RH dependence is nonlinear, with the majority of the rate increase occurring between 90 and 100 percent RH. The effect of RH can be related to the driving force for molecular water diffusion in obsidians as described by the chemical potential difference between water sorbed onto the obsidian surface and intrinsic water in the obsidian. The differences in hydration rates caused by RH differences in experiments approximate the error commonly described for obsidian-hydration dating. These results suggest that obsidian-hydration dating requires a knowledge of the site temperature and relative humidity in order to accurately generate age estimates.

The use of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) on human bone from early Maya burials at Cuello, Belize provides direct dating of the Preclassic population, and assists resolution of the chronological problems discussed by Andrews and Hammond (1990).

A recently described set of ceramic artifacts have been functionally assigned to saltmaking by MacKinnon and Kepecs (1989), who concluded that saltmaking activity was focused on producing salt for commoners. While we are in agreement about saltmaking activities along the Belizean coast, we propose that saltmaking there perhaps was oriented toward meat and fish preservation for transport into interior population centers during the Terminal Classic period.

This comment corrects statements attributed to me by MacKinnon and Kepecs (1989). What I said was that the rise of the Maya state could not be explained by a massive need for salt imported from great distances, not because salt was archaeologically invisible, but because I was skeptical about any monocausal explanation; furthermore, I did not see that such a massive salt need even existed during the period of state formation.

In response to the comments on our 1989 paper “Prehispanic Saltmaking in Belize: New Evidence,” we agree with Valdez and Mock that it is possible that some Prehispanic saltmaking sites in Belize may have been oriented toward the preservation of animal-protein resources, but caution against extending the interpretation of their NRL site to the status of generalization. While we may have misinterpreted Marcus, we wish to clarify that we never implied that salt production was a causal factor in Maya state formation.