Polished “stone gorgets” may have had the same function as contemporary ceramic tools.

Civic-ceremonial plaza planning is analyzed at Tenam Rosario, the capital center of a small Late/Terminal Classic period (A.D. 700-950) Maya polity, to shed light on political organization. When the capital's civic-ceremonial layout is compared with settlement patterns in its hinterland, the polity's hierarchical and territorial political arrangements appear to be reproduced in microcosm within the capital"s civic-ceremonial zone. Possible political microcosms of this kind at other mesoamerican capital sites are discussed, along with correlates of this variant of political organization.

Were Early Agricultural period (2100 B.C.–A.D. 50) maize cultivators in Southern Arizona sedentary farmers or seasonally mobile forager-farmers? Ethnographic analogs and ethnographically derived middle range theory support both claims. One argument for sedentism has been the abundance of large subterranean storage pits. These are often presumed to have been used for long-term food storage. This study of wetlands-indicator spores recovered from those pits indicates that the pits were often saturated and could not have been used for long-term food storage; these findings support the general contention that Early Agricultural period maize cultivators were seasonally mobile and tried to fit early agriculture into a subsistence regime focused on wild foods.

A second amber source has been discovered in Chiapas, which is important for considerations of prehistoric exchange. Source analysis is discussed as a possible means of distinguishing prehistoric amber from the two known sources.

Until recently, pre-Columbian mushroom-shaped pottery objects were known only from El Salvador. New evidence indicates that they were also used in Chiapas, Tabasco, and Veracruz, in Mexico, in the Lowland Maya Rain Forest area, and possibly on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. They seem to be diagnostics of the latter part of the Late Pre-Classic and Proto-Classic periods. Due to their resemblance, when turned upside down, to round-bottomed, tall-necked jars, an undetermined number of specimens may have been classified by archaeologists and illustrated in the literature as jars. Their function is still unknown, but it is believed that, like the mushroom stones, they were used in connection with the ceremonial consumption and adoration of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

The rapidly growing archaeological literature on Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) reconstructions (e.g., Benson et al. 2007; Cooper 2008; Stahle et al. 2007) demonstrates the significant gains that can be made in explaining cultural developments in prehistory when appropriate climate data are available. Benson et al. (2009) added to this literature with an analysis of the climatic conditions associated with peak social complexity in the American Bottom. They focus on abundance of precipitation. We applaud their effort and offer an additional perspective on the development of social complexity using the same data, by highlighting the importance of variability in conditioning complexity.

Archaeological investigations were carried on by the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, from June 19 to August 20, 1948, in the Kanopolis Reservoir area on the Smoky Hill River in Ellsworth County and also along the Little Arkansas River in Rice County, Kansas. The River Basin Surveys of the Smithsonian Institution had undertaken the preliminary reconnaissance and had found more than twenty sites in the area of the Reservoir. William O. Leuty of Ellsworth was helpful in guiding the field parties of both institutions to most of the sites; also he gathered surface collections which were turned over to us.

The Kanopolis Reservoir is situated in the highly dissected terrain which marks the Plains border along the 98th meridian of longitude in central Kansas. The Smoky Hill River meanders eastward, fed by many tributary streams and canyons. Outcrops of Dakota sandstone are common on the bluffs bordering the valley and trees are limited to the edges of the streams.

During the early spring of 1938, a collector from Van Horn, Gilbert Monk, carried on superficial excavations at the Baylor Rock Shelter twelve miles north of Van Horn in Culberson County, Texas. His digging yielded crude yucca sandals, fiber cordage, undecorated pottery sherds, fragments of compound darts, a tumpline forehead band, a cache of chipped flints including a drill, a projectile point, and three knives, and a complete atlatl.

It is the resemblance of this last specimen to the Cimarron atlatl, and the general emphasis on the atlatj-bow chronology that suggested to the writers the desirability of describing this implement in some detail, although a complete excavation of the Baylor Shelter and a description of the other artifacts is planned for the near future.

The atlatl is complete except for the finger loops (see Figure 9). I t is made of a hard, straight-grained wood, possibly mesquite, and is highly polished.

The remarkable finds from the trans-Holocene archaeological record excavated at Hogup Cave, Utah, helped define our understanding of Great Basin prehistory. However, many scholars doubt the integrity of the site's depositional sequence and resulting chronological interpretations. To resolve these concerns, we produce several Bayesian chronological models combining 14 new radiocarbon dates with the results of past dating efforts. We first present an examination of the excavation and previously derived dates, finding that several of the most anomalous dates can be accounted for by details in the excavation's field notes. We then report our new dates and construct an initial Bayesian chronological model to serve as a framework for three increasingly complex models synthesizing old and new dates from the site. The best-supported model divides the site's stratigraphy into four occupational phases: Strata 1 through 7 (9790 to 6490 cal B.P.), Stratum 8 (5840 to 3330 cal B.P.), Strata 9 and 10 (2870 to 2760 cal B.P.), and Strata 11 through 16 (2610 to 360 cal B.P.). This result raises several questions to direct future research and dating efforts at Hogup Cave and serves as a model for reevaluating complex stratigraphic sequences in western North America and beyond.

Oregon's Fort Rock Cave is iconic in respect to both the archaeology of the northern Great Basin and the history of debate about when the Great Basin was colonized. In 1938, Luther Cressman recovered dozens of sagebrush bark sandals from beneath Mt. Mazama ash that were later radiocarbon dated to between 10,500 and 9350 cal B.P. In 1970, Stephen Bedwell reported finding lithic tools associated with a date of more than 15,000 cal B.P., a date dismissed as unreasonably old by most researchers. Now, with evidence of a nearly 15,000-year-old occupation at the nearby Paisley Five Mile Point Caves, we returned to Fort Rock Cave to evaluate the validity of Bedwell's claim, assess the stratigraphic integrity of remaining deposits, and determine the potential for future work at the site. Here, we report the results of additional fieldwork at Fort Rock Cave undertaken in 2015 and 2016, which supports the early Holocene occupation, but does not confirm a pre–10,500 cal B.P. human presence.

The places in which people live and spend time are steeped in history, memory, and meaning from the intersection of daily life, environmental interactions, cultural practices, and ritual. Geologic features, plants, animals, and ecosystems merge with these cultural histories, forming critical parts of the landscape and areas of “high cultural salience,” or “cultural keystone places” (CKPs). We identify Kumqaq’ (Point Conception) and the surrounding area in California as a Chumash CKP. Ethnohistoric accounts and contemporary Chumash community members have long demonstrated the importance of Point Conception in Chumash worldview and identity, whereas biologists, ecologists, and conservationists reference the area's rich biodiversity and significance as a biogeographical boundary. Recent archaeological survey of the coastline surrounding Kumqaq’ highlights these connections, identifying over 50 archaeological sites—including shell middens, villages, lithic scatters, and rock art—with at least 9,000 years of occupation. Ongoing collaborations among archaeologists, the Nature Conservancy, and Chumash community members help document and understand the long-term linkages between cultural and biological diversity and how integrating these perspectives can help ensure the resilience of this nexus of human and natural history in the Anthropocene future.

Culturally modified trees (CMTs) provide tangible evidence of long-term forest use by Indigenous peoples. In Northwest Coast cedar forests, this record rarely spans beyond the last three centuries because older bark-harvest scars have been obscured through taphonomic processes such as natural healing and decay. Thus, archaeological visibility and identification are hindered. Here, I recover chronologies of ancient forest harvesting using a post-impact assessment methodology of targeting old-growth clear-cuts in southern Nuu-chah-nulth territories on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Bark-peeling scars are identified and dated in cross section by growth-ring patterns of recently logged trees. Approximately half of all bark-peeling scars are “embedded” inside healing lobes, suggesting at least half of all such CMTs are effectively invisible in standing forests. Features in these post-impact surveys predated those discovered in conventional archaeological impact assessments by a mean of almost a century. Additionally, one of the oldest continually used cultural forests ever recorded, dating to AD 908, is found in the Toquaht Nation traditional territory. These findings uncover measurable frequencies of cedar-bark harvesting generations prior to the contact period and reveal the inadequacy of heritage protections for old-growth cedar stands.

Neutron activation was used by Johnson and Stross to determine the manganese content of the clay used in 11 sherds from Cuicuilco and Teotihuacán in the Valley of Mexico. The results indicate that three distinctive sherds of negative ware from Cuicuilco differ from local Late Preclassic wares but are similar to pottery of the Tzacualli phase made locally at Teotihuacán. Trade between the Chimalhuacan settlement at Cuicuilco and the Tzacualli town at Teotihuacán is thus indicated.

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.

The tests made at the Emerald mound site (MAd-5; also known as the Selzertown site) located on the proposed right-of-way of Natchez Trace Parkway twelve miles north of Natchez, Mississippi, were performed in order to salvage archaeological information and cultural materials along the route of roadway construction. The work was confined to two stratigraphic tests and one area test, the former on the primary mound and the latter in the area to the south of the primary mound assumed to have been a village site. By the area test it was hoped to demonstrate or disprove the existence of a village site associated with the great mound and to salvage data in the path of Parkway construction which was projected immediately south of the base of the primary mound. By the stratigraphic tests it was hoped that the cultural identity of the builders of the primary mound and the adjoining village site could be established.

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).

The partial dog skeleton comes from site SJo-68 (formerly C68) near Thornton, California. The remains consist of the cranium and mandible, the atlas and several cervicals, pelves, tail vertebrae, and two femora. These parts lay in anatomical articulation so that we may assume that the partly dismembered skeleton, still bound by integument, was buried. The archaeology of the site as known in 1948 has been published. (Heizer, 1949, p. 7.) The dog remains lay at a depth of thirtyfour inches from the surface, solidly imbedded in calcareous hardpan, and in proximity to human burials. Indeed, the whole deposit was heavily charged with human skeletons, and it is reasonable to assume that the dog had been intentionally buried. Animal burials are not uncommon in later culture horizons in the same area (Heizer and Hewes, 1940).

A recent article in American Antiquity discusses evidence for occupational specialization among the Classic Maya at Tikal, Guatemala. The purpose of this paper is to amplify that discussion through review of the artifactual evidence for stoneworking and monument carving as a specialized occupation at Tikal. It is suggested that this occupation was confined to a specific family line within a lineage, the members of which were artisans engaged in a variety of occupational specialties.