Archaeological explanations of Hohokam canal design have stressed the importance of preventing seepage and evaporation. These features are shown to be less important to flow than is the shape of the ditch (ceteris paribus). Models which accurately reflect prehistoric irrigation practices must be based on accurate assumptions about water delivery systems.

This paper is a preliminary descriptive report of an archaeological reconnaissance undertaken during the summer of 1949 in southern Labrador and northern Newfoundland. The project will be continued in the summer of 1950, but since the prehistory of the area is both interesting and relatively unknown, I have thought it worth-while to write a brief account of the work as far as it has progressed.

The general purposes of the investigation are to delineate the culture of the Beothuck, or Red Indians, who once inhabited Newfoundland, and to trace their derivation; to clarify the manifestations of Cape Dorset Eskimo culture first noted in Newfoundland by Jenness (1929) and Wintemberg (1939, 1940); and to check on the possibilities of contact between the Beothuck and Dorset Eskimo with a view to tracking the diffusion of certain traits which, it is believed, occurred during the Archaic period.

Recent excavations at two sites located along the coastal margin of the Los Angeles basin revealed three features created as a result of communal mourning ritual during the Intermediate Period (ca. 3000–1000 cal B.P.). Detailed analysis of constituents, structure, and context indicates that formation of these dense concentrations of ground stone implements, unmodified cobbles, other artifacts, and cremated human remains involved deliberate equipment production, sequential implement fragmentation and treatment including burning and pigmentation of items, and secondary interment of incomplete objects and bodies in pits within locales often used for this purpose over many generations. The large size and evident manipulation of objects as part of communal mourning ritual indicates that actions would have been readily visible to a gathered assembly. Thus, while the meaning and significance of these practices remains to be thoroughly explored, the data suggest that communal mourning ritual may have played a significant role in community-building and the maintenance of identity within a region with a dynamic population history.

A major theoretical issue in studies of the cultural ecology of Central Mexico has been the role of irrigation in the evolution of the state in that area. A major methodological problem has been the location and dating of prehistoric canal systems. A recent discovery near Xalostoc, of a stratified canal system (representing three distinct periods) in the exposed profiles of contemporary adobe extraction pits, offers an ideal situation for dating of prehistoric canals. All three are apparently Pre-Coyotlatelco in date and the settlement history suggests that some of them are contemporary with Teotihuacan.

Ensor and Roemer (1989) claim that our debitage categories inherently are linked to our interpretations (i.e., are not interpretation free), that we have dismissed unfairly the work of lithic analysts who use stage typologies, and that our view of lithic reduction as a continuum is questionable. In responding, we review the descriptive and interpretive limitations of stage approaches, and explore terminological issues that arise from Ensor and Roemer's zealous adherence to stage approaches. Finally, we reiterate our position that approaches like ours, which seek to describe and interpret distinctive assemblages of lithic artifacts, are more likely to yield productive results than those, such as stage approaches, which focus on identifying distinctive artifacts.

In a series of recent publications, Truncer (1999, 2004a, 2004b, 2006) presents a hypothesis that during what he interprets as the peak period of use (2500-1500 cal. B.C.) in eastern North America, steatite (soapstone) vessels were specialized cooking tools used to process mast. A key component of Truncer's hypothesis building is his interpretation of an analysis of fatty acids extracted from charred residue adhering to four steatite sherds, which he interpreted to be consistent with mast. This is the only component of his hypothesis building that directly links steatite vessel use to mast processing. Here we convey the results of a reassessment of Truncer's analytical results and the results of our own analysis of phytoliths and fatty acids extracted from charred residue adhering to three sherds from the Hunter's Home site. Our results undermine this key component of Truncer's hypothesis building and therefore the hypothesis itself.

This paper describes the contemporary clay mine at Hacienda Yo’ K'at, Yucatan, and documents the archaeological association of a restored sherd-tool of Puuc slateware in a collapsed tunnel of the mine. The shape of the sherd and its in situ position suggest that it was used to gather clay in the mine during the period of A.D. 800-1000. The paper suggests the relationship of these data to the neutron activation studies of Yucatan pottery and their contribution to the study of ancient Maya trade.

This paper builds upon DeBoer's (2001) assertion that models of ancient North American cultural systems can be enriched by incorporating gambling as a dynamic and productive social practice using the case study of the Ancient Puebloan center of Chaco Canyon (ca. AD 800–1180). A review of Native North American, Pueblo, and worldwide ethnography reveals gambling's multidimensionality as a social, economic, and ceremonial technology in contrast to its recreational associations in contemporary Western society. I propose that gambling was one mechanism through which leaders in precontact North America—and, specifically, at Chaco Canyon—integrated diverse communities, facilitated trade, accumulated material wealth, perpetuated religious ideology, and established social inequality. I present evidence of gambling at Chaco Canyon in the form of 471 gaming artifacts currently held in museum collections in addition to oral traditions of descendant Native cultures that describe extensive gambling in Chacoan society.

Midden profiles encountered in archaeological excavation frequently appear homogeneous despite their known stratigraphic complexity. As an aid to definition of significant zones of deposition, soil pH profiles can be constructed to supplement visual recordings. Such a profile was constructed and shown to be of considerable value in site interpretation. Soil pH zones agreed with known artifact distributions and visual features. The method employed is simple, adaptable to field use, and of sufficient accuracy to provide useful results.

After emancipation, most African Americans remained tethered to agricultural economies, while others migrated to cities seeking better opportunities. Although bioarchaeologists have made significant interventions in researching people of African descent, there are relatively few published comparative studies that address their morbidity and mortality after slavery. This study compares the bioarchaeological evidence for rural and urban southern United States populations to address disparities in health and longevity. It considers the biological effects of racism, including the health impacts of poverty, disease, and malnourishment. Although historians and demographers argue that urban life was especially detrimental to health, the results of this research suggest greater complexity in African American well-being. Whereas urban adults had higher midlife mortality and reduced longevity compared to their rural counterparts, both rural and urban children experienced poor health. Rural child mortality and morbidity varied significantly, suggesting differences in diet and disease exposure across rural communities. With regard to gender, rural and urban women died at younger ages than men. This disparity in mortality is partly attributed to black women's working and reproductive lives within the context of racism and gender inequality.

This article examines the extent to which the adoption of the horse created a transition in modes of production from hunting and gathering to nomadic pastoralism by tracing the horse's impact on Blackfoot settlement patterns and landscape use during the Precontact and Postcontact periods on the Northwestern Plains. While changes in hunting techniques, raiding frequencies, and certain social implications such as status and wealth differentiation have been studied from an ethnohistoric perspective, less work has been done to trace the subtle changes to patterns of landscape use that may have directly resulted from the adoption of horse husbandry by the Blackfoot people. This study applies Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology to broadly distributed Precontact- and Contact-period archaeological sites of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana to reveal the role of horse husbandry on landscape use in the Northwestern Plains. This research expands on previous ethnohistorical work, while also contributing a new, material dimension to the dynamics of this transition at various spatial scales.

Two coastal sites on Long Island, the Stony Brook site and the Baxter site, are examined in the light of Fairbridge's data on sea level fluctuations during the last 7000 years. In each case, the coastline at the time of occupation is reconstructed, and inferences are made about the ecological setting. Archaeological data pertaining to subsistence pattern are then reviewed in the light of the probable local environment at the time of occupation. Orient culture occupations at both sites date from about 2900 B.P., when sea level is believed to have been about 10 feet below the present level. The Orient component midden at Stony Brook contains more oyster shell than any other species of mollusk, while that at the Baxter site contains a large percentage of clam shell and almost no oyster. This difference cannot be explained on cultural grounds, but can be shown to reflect local environmental factors existing under conditions of lowered sea level. The midden contents at other times of occupation are found to be consistent with the corresponding sea levels.

An investigation of ceramic models of maize is reported. Nineteen races are identified on 35 Moche jars. A review of the literature is presented. Methodological considerations and problems in the classification of archaeological maize are discussed. The maize races depicted are described and discussed in terms of their archaeological significance. The findings indicate that by A.D. 800, the north coast of Peru was a center of cultural exchange among diverse groups from a wide geographical area.

During the summer of 1935, the University of Pennsylvania Museum sponsored an archaeological and geological survey of the middle and lower Yukon valley, Alaska. The work was financed through the generosity of the National Research Council and the American Philosophical Society. The party consisted of: Dr. A. J. Eardley, Department of Geology, University of Michigan; Mr. Kenneth Gorton, a student of geology at the same institution; Mr. Norman Reynolds, a student of anthropology at the University of Washington; and the writer.

The principal object of the expedition was to investigate the possibilities of finding ancient human remains in the Yukon valley. The discoveries of ancient artifacts (belonging to the so-called Folsom culture) in association with bones of extinct animals, show that human beings lived on the southern High Plains east of the Rockies at the end of the Pleistocene or during the early post-Pleistocene.

TL/ESR measurements were made to test whether a semicircular arrangement of cobbles at the Calico site was a man-made hearth. Results of an earlier magnetic study of one of the cobbles suggested the inner portion had been heated to 360ºC. Such a temperature would destroy radiation-induced defects on the inner portions of the cobbles, which can then be measured by TL/ESR. TL/ESR signals of the inner and outer portions of four cobbles were measured and showed no significant differences. Moreover, all samples appeared to be at full TL and ESR saturation. Progressive heating of a control cobble taken from outside the hearth feature indicated that destruction of the TL/ESR signal occurs at 200ºC. Estimates of the dose rate at the site indicates that at least 400,000 years are required for an annealed rock to attain full TL/ESR saturation, a much longer time than the estimated 200,000-year age of the deposit.

A carved segment of mammoth ivory recently recognized in a faunal collection from the Clovis type site at Blackwater Draw, New Mexico, reveals for the first time techniques employed by Clovis Paleoindians for working ivory and adds a new trait element shared between the archaeological cultures of the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic and the late Pleistocene Clovis complex of North America.

Surface collections from three sites at Red Butte, near Grand Canyon in northern Arizona, produced small, concave-based Pinto points, as well as fragmentary Ventana-Amargosa forms. In addition, a wide range of lithic tools was found. Lateral and basal grinding on several points suggest that at least one preceramic component is represented. No points characteristic of the ceramic period were obtained, but a few potsherds dating A.D. 1000-1200 were found on two of the sites. The pottery, unexpectedly, is attributable to Kayenta Anasazi rather than Cohonina. Presumably, but not demonstrably, this pottery is not associated with the points mentioned above. Neither the projectile forms nor the pottery complex from these sites has been reported previously from this immediate region.

A ground truth check confirmed the utility of color aerial photography for predicting and mapping archaeological sites in an estuarine mangrove swamp zone and for serving as a basis for settlement pattern studies. Accuracy of prediction was extremely high due to the sharp response of vegetation to slight differences in elevation.