As a result of possibilities seen during a canoe trip from the Ottawa River through Grand Lake Victoria and down the Harricanaw River during the season of 1946, the authors, in 1947, completed a second trip to James Bay by way of Lakes Mistassini and Albanel and the Rupert River (Fig. 11). This trip would not have been possible and certainly we would have missed many pleasures if it had not been for the cooperation of the Hudson's Bay Company. We remember with pleasure our contacts with Messrs. McLeod, Jeffreys, and Duncan and we are particularly grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Parson, Mr. Glenn Speers, and Mr. and Mrs. Archy Michiel for their unparalleled hospitality. Space does not permit acknowledgment of the assistance of many who took an interest in our journey but we must mention Mr. Carrier, the personnel of the Department of Transport, and Dr. Watson of the Dome Exploration Limited.

Edward and Murray Rogers have generously presented to the Peabody Foundation, Andover, the collection of stone tools obtained during the trips described in the preceding paper. It is my privilege to offer a description of these fascinating specimens together with some comments. In doing this I do not wish to divert attention from the task the Rogers' accomplished. The material and the accompanying information which they brought back is, and will remain, of considerable importance to the archaeology of the “Far Northeast.”

Few of us have the slightest conception of what the two men went through in order to make these data available to us. The region is difficult to travel in; even the Indians do not move around during the summer any more than they have to.

Present-day knowledge of the Red Paint burial complex in Maine rests chiefly upon the work of Willoughby and of Moorehead, done in the latter part of the last, and the first quarter of the present, century. Without doubt, the most extensive report on the subject is Moorehead's Archaeology of Maine, in which summary accounts of excavations at twelve Red Paint sites were set forth. Unfortunately, certain details pertaining to the burials were obscure. In particular, more data were desirable upon the character of the deposit—whether burial or ceremonial offering—as well as upon the indications of age. With the purpose of securing this information, the authors in June, 1947, undertook limited excavations on the Hathaway farm at Passadumkeag, Maine. Here Moorehead had excavated seventeen graves; without exhausting the possibilities, we were able to uncover seven more.

Within the past twenty-five years excavations and comparative research projects have revealed much concerning Central Andean prehistory. The result of this period of intensive research has been to bring about a systematic treatment of the geographical and chronological phases of the area. With such a large amount of data available it now becomes possible to follow certain detailed aspects of Central Andean prehistory in their development from one time period to another, and to designate their spatial position. The tripod pottery form offers such an opportunity, not only for the Central Andean area itself but also for immediately adjacent areas.

The tripod is a rare form in Peru and Bolivia and for this reason adapts itself to comparative study. It has been of great interest to archaeologists since Kroeber pointed it out as a distinct form and suggested North Andean, and possibly Central Amercan, relationships for the cursive tripod style (Kroeber, 1925, p. 212).

Our knowledge of the prehistory of interior Alaska is still very limited. Nearly all archaeological work in the territory has been in the Eskimo and Aleut regions. In the interior planned, systematic surveys have been conducted by Froelich Rainey, Frederica de Laguna, and Frederick Johnson, but most of these deal with relatively recent Athapascan sites. The only definitely pre-Athapascan site is the “Campus site” on the University of Alaska campus.

From time to time random specimens are found in connection with road work, farming, and mining. Artifacts discovered in the Tanana Valley muck deposits, often at great depths, suggest, but do not prove, that man was contemporaneous with mammoth and other now extinct animals of the Pleistocene. One specimen found in association with a mastodon jaw, but not actually embedded in the bone, adds to the circumstantial evidence that man was here in the late Pleistocene, if not earlier.

The excavation and restoration of Zaculeu, now in progress, is a project of the United Fruit Company, under the direction of John M. Dimick. The site of Zaculeu is in the western highlands of Guatemala about 3 kilometers from the town of Huehuetenango. At least one more season's work is planned, but the general outlines of the archaeological picture are already emerging.

The most important contribution which the work at Zaculeu will make to the archaeology of the Highland Maya is in furnishing a continuous record of architecture and pottery from Early Classic times to the Conquest, a period of nearly 1000 years (PI. XVI). The initial occupation of the site was contemporary with the Early Classic (Tzakol) phase of the lowlands and the Esperanza phase at Kaminaljuyu, to judge from several pieces of pottery found in graves. There was intensive building activity and many burials were incorporated in or dug through the stairways of terraced platforms.

Since its inception by Ritchie1 the term “The Archaic,“ or “The Archaic Pattern,” has seen considerable usage. However, it appears that the definition or delineation of this pattern, as it exists, is not serviceable. If this be true, there is then an anomalous situation in that: (1) Manifestations which have been classified by Webb and Dejarnette, Webb and Haag, Fairbanks, and Lewis and Kneberg, as components or foci of the Archaic, are thereby correlated at the pattern level. (2) The concept in terms of which they have been so correlated is inaccurate.

Ritchie's most concrete formulations are:

The long postulated archaic level in New York recently confirmed by intensive work in the Southeast consists of an aggregate of discrete foci, sharing a hunting-fishing-gathering economy. Its chief characteristics are the absence of horticultural traces, ceramics, and the smoking pipe. (Italics mine.)

A recent paper by George R. Horner, covering work done by Wheaton College at the Fisher site, Will County, Illinois, contains several statements requiring comment. In order to comment on these points it will be necessary to outline certain material contained in an unpublished manuscript of the writer.

The well-known Fisher site, consisting of 12 mounds and over 50 house pits, was initially excavated by George Langford. Later work was conducted by several University of Chicago field parties, and a W.P.A. expedition. The site is located on the point of land formed by the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers as they approach their confluence and unite to form the Illinois. Four cultural horizons can be recognized at the site: (1) long-headed burials without grave goods in the gravel beneath the mounds, (2) three periods of Upper Mississippi occupation, (3) Late Woodland, and (4) Historic. We are only concerned with the Upper Mississippi occupations in the present note.

During the month of May, 1948, Dr. Douglas Leechman of the National Museum, Ottawa, spent some time on the northern Plains. Included in his Manitoba itinerary was a rapid survey of the more important sites in the southcentral portion of the province. While on the Lowton site (S. W. Sec. 26, T. 5, R. 16, W. 1st.), one of the party, Dr. R. D. Bird of Brandon, Manitoba, recovered from the surface the curved knife with the deliberately fashioned scraper end illustrated in Figure 21.

The illustrated blade fragment (Fig. 22) turned up in a purchased lot of archaeological specimens at Kotzebue, in 1941. It appears to be the tip of a long, thin blade broken clean near the middle. It is diagonally flaked from translucent, smoky chalcedony, a material which shows up occasionally in sites of the Kobuk River region. The Yumalike flaking, in some cases all the way across the blade leaving each face rounded rather than longitudinally ridged, is not, however, reported from other sites in Alaska.

This object was offered for sale along with various artifacts of types common in our excavations. The Eskimo to whom they belonged said they had been all collected and saved for some time by members of his family.

In a recent article by John M. Goggin the Kissimmee region of Florida is said to be little known archaeologically and only a few sherds are mentioned. Although Goggin Has made his analysis primarily on the basis of pottery types, he does mention other artifacts in some instances, so that his silence on projectile points in the Kissimmee region may be indicative of meagre or non-existent data.

A recent article in American Antiquity entitled “Symposium on River Valley Archaeology” summarizes the present status of one of our most important and urgent problems in American archaeology today. Additional information concerning this subject, particularly with reference to the progress made in the Colorado River Valley, should be mentioned at this time.

The National Park Service has been concerned with survey and salvage operations in proposed reservoir areas along the Colorado River and its tributaries for many years. Long before final construction work was completed on Hoover (formerly Boulder) Dam in 1935, several C.C.C. archaeological crews were at work under National Park Service direction in the areas to be inundated, particularly along the Virgin and Muddy rivers in southeastern Nevada.

The excellent and exhaustive study by Drs. Kidder, Jennings, and Shook of the ceramics excavated at Kaminaljuyu contributes considerably to the understanding and interpretation of Teotihuacan symbolism. A group of stuccoed and painted tripods, excavated at Kaminaljuyu, includes seven vessels whose decorative style is Teotihuacanoid, whereas the other four are Mayoid in style. All these tripods are considered to have been made and decorated at the site mentioned.