Interest in the evidence of early scalping in aboriginal America was stimulated by Georg K. Neumann in an article which appeared in American Antiquity. Since then, another specimen coming from prehistoric Middle Mississippi horizons a t Mound State Monument, has been described.

It came to my attention, quite accidentally, that a specimen from the Earth Mound Ruins, Nebraska, described by HrdliCka, presents such a markedly similar appearance to that found at Moundville, that a comparison of the two is in order.

Following the entry of Zea mays to northeast North America, Northern Iroquoian populations expanded their numbers and range. Isotopic values from bone collagen have shown fluctuations in reliance on this dietary staple. With permission of the Huron-Wendat Nation of Wendake, Quebec, we measured δ13Cenamel, δ13Cdentine and δ15Ndentine from 167 permanent teeth, retained before reburial of their ancestral skeletons, and δ13Ccollagene and δ15Ncollagene from adhering bone (n = 53). Enamel values encapsulate diet from ca. 1.5 to 4 years of age; dentine values reflect later childhood. Teeth are from 16 ancestral Huron-Wendat sites in southern Ontario. Isotopic values show consistent reliance on maize from early fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, with higher reliance in the seventeenth century—the time of contact with Europeans and disruptive changes. We show a difference between the diets of children and adults; children consumed more maize and less animal protein. Whitetailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) did not exploit maize fields, reflecting hunters’ exploitation of distant regions. New values from fish species (n = 21) are pooled with prior data, demonstrating diverse C and N stable isotope patterns. American eel (Anguilla rostrata) is particularly variable. Dietary protein sources were variable compared to the stability of maize: a reliable source of carbohydrate food energy across four centuries.

It has become increasingly apparent that mathematical models may play a significant role in anthropological methodology. Less apparent is the fact that such models have an important place in formulation of theory as well. At the same time, many errors appear in attempts to use mathematical models. This paper attempts to indicate the nature of such errors and a methodology by which they can be avoided. A case study is presented showing the relationship of mathematical models to anthropological theory.

This is a brief, preliminary account of some of the discoveries made during the summer of 1944 when the author, in collaboration with botanists and a geologist conducted an archaeological survey of the region traversed by the Alaska Highway. The investigations were carried on in but a small section of an area, many thousands of square miles in extent, about which practically nothing was known. A similar survey had been made, in 1942, by Froelich Rainey, but unfortunately this was unsuccessful. However his previous excavations in the Yukon and Tanana River valleys in Alaska did give some indication of what might be discovered. Oscar Lewis had had better luck for he had found a few very interesting artifacts at a site on the Highway near Trutch.

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).

Comments are offered on the inappropriate use of Texas-derived projectile point typology at certain Mesoamerican sites. Moholy-Nagy et al. (1984) recently applied labels to point groups from the Maya site of Tikal that are misleading in terms of the original type descriptions. Similar misuse of the Texas typology in central Mexico and in the Tehuacan Valley is noted.

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.

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.

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 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 Codex Vergara and the Codice de Santa Maria Asuncion are the most comprehensive census-cadastral native pictorial manuscripts that have survived from Central Mexico. Research reported here establishes that the documents record the household composition and landholdings of 17 localities in an area presently corresponding to identifiable barrios in and around the village of Tepetlaoztoc, located northeast of Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico. Drawn within a generation of the Conquest, probably A.D. 1539-1543, these codices present a virtually unique quantitative record for the period and provide a firm basis for interpretation of Late Horizon archaeological remains in the zone. Decipherment has revealed the first examples from Central Mexico of the use of positional notation in numerical expression, the use of the "zero" concept, and derivation and recording of field areas as well as perimeter measurements. The archaeological and ethnohistorical importance of the codices is enhanced greatly now that their spatial context is known.

This article systematically and quantitatively characterizes interaction dynamics and community formation based on changes in spatial patterns of contemporaneous households. We develop and apply a geospatial routine to measure changing extents of household interaction and community formation from AD 600 to 1280 on the Mesa Verde cuesta in southwestern Colorado. Results suggest that household spatial organization was shaped simultaneously by the maintenance of regular social interaction that sustained communities and the need for physical space among households. Between AD 600 and 1200, households balanced these factors by forming an increased number of dispersed communities in response to population growth and variable environmental stressors. However, as population rebounded after the megadrought of the mid-1100s, communities became increasingly compact, disrupting a long-standing equilibrium between household interaction and subsistence space within each community. The vulnerabilities created by this change in community spatial organization were compounded by a cooler climate, drought, violence, and changes in political and ritual organization in the mid-1200s, which ultimately culminated in the complete depopulation of the Mesa Verde cuesta by the end of the thirteenth century.

Of the four late Pleistocene and early post-Pleistocene lithic complexes defined by Edward P. Lanning, only one, the Las Vegas complex, is supported by existing evidence from the Santa Elena Peninsula of southwest Ecuador. The Achallan culture, previously defined by Stothert and assigned to the post-Las Vegas period, is now unsupported by satisfactory evidence.

Maya history can be divided into four great periods; the formative, the initial series, the Mexican, and the Mexican absorption. The formative period (prior to A.D. 300) comprises the Mamom and Chicanel phases at Uaxactun and coeval phases found elsewhere in the central area (Petén, British Honduras, Chiapas, Tabasco, lower Motagua, drainage), the northern area (Yucatan, northern Campeche, Quintana Roo) and, as we shall see, the southern area.

The inability to identify faunal remains is one reason why archaeologists continue to devote minimal attention to their study. Archaeologists can become familiar with the skeletal characteristics of animals by establishing a faunal collection. Processing of specimens involves removing tissue from the skeleton, removing grease from the bones, bleaching the bones, and cataloging the specimen.

Copper artifacts from Manitoba are compared with types established in Wisconsin. Wittry's typology is confirmed and further clues to chronology are derived from distributional studies of the types. The data on Minnesota copper artifacts are re-examined.

Classic Clovis, classic Folsom, and atypical fluted points from southern Saskatchewan are described. The variations in the atypical fluted points, which include three fluted Piano points, suggest that the parallel-flaked tradition was developed out of the fluted tradition in the centuries of rapid climatic shift following the retreat of the Valders ice. This development may have taken place in the region that included southern Saskatchewan.

The occurrence of the jaguar in the arts and myths of North American cultures has been attributed to influence from Mesoamerica. A brief review of available zoogeographic and cultural data suggests greater integration between the physical and mythological presence of the jaguar in North America than previously thought.

Current emphasis on the definition of areal variation within the Fremont culture requires a re-examination of existing hypotheses of Fremont origins. The evidently very early appearance of regional variation suggests that Fremont crystallized out of a partial unification of several already differentiated Archaic (Desert culture) variants. This crystallization occurred at least partially as a result of adoption by Archaic groups of a horticultural complex of ultimately Mexican origin. Many of the characteristics which bind the Fremont regional patterns into a broader Fremont culture are elements of this horticultural complex, although the earlier Archaic variants presumably also shared basic similarities which contributed to the general unity of the later Fremont culture. Earlier hypotheses of Fremont origins are evaluated from this viewpoint. This is a revised version of a paper delivered in the Fremont Culture Symposium, 35th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, April 30-May 2, 1970, Mexico City, D. F., Mexico.