The Calaveras skull, first reported in 1866, represents the earliest purported fossil human discovery in California and one of the earliest in the New World. The specimen is in the possession of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University. The validity of the original "Tertiary" age assignment was rejected by the first generation of professional American archaeologists early in the twentieth century. Radiocarbon analyses using both conventional decay counting and accelerator mass spectrometry indicate a late Holocene age for the Calaveras skull.

In 1966 and 1967, amateurs unearthed a number of split-twig figurines in Stanton Cave in the Grand Canyon’s Marble Gorge. A number of these figurines are described, including one which is perhaps the finest ever discovered. It is documented that these finds by amateurs were stimulated by publication about this site in popular periodicals. It is also argued, using the Grand Canyon as an example, that survey and salvage in connection with large dam construction is never a substitute for long-range study of the archaeology and its environmental context, and that salvage cannot be considered as a benefit justifying dam construction but only as an alleviation of some of the dam damage.

Sampling design in excavation calls for previous estimates of site dimensions, artifact variability, and density. Sites covered by forest cannot be surface-collected to gain such data. Transect interval sampling provides the data at an early stage of research, at low cost with the collection and processing of soil samples of standard volume taken along a series of transects at regular intervals when the transects extend outward from the known area of the site. The screening of standard-volume soil samples provides a measure of artifact density across space, and empirically discoverable density values can be plotted to create an artifact density contour interval display. An adopted value of artifact density can be used to define site limits for sampling purposes (for example, 0.04 artifacts/liter). Use of such a measure would add to the precision and validity of sampling designs that frequently use more casual ways of estimating site dimensions.

Today most archaeologists are unaware of the enormous debt we owe to a small group who instigated a massive federal archaeological program to recover the archaeological evidence that was to be destroyed by a public works program involving hundreds of dams on most of the major rivers in the United States and set to begin immediately after World War II. This small group of archaeologists, organized by Frederick Johnson in May 1945, known as the Committee for the Recovery of Archaeological Remains (CRAR), consisted of Johnson (secretary), John O. Brew, Alfred V Kidder, and William S. Webb (chair). The CRAR acted independently of the federal government, yet it was the driving force behind the organization of the River Basin Surveys. It stimulated adoption of high professional standards and was largely responsible for public and professional support for protecting archaeological resources that is the basis for our modern cultural preservation efforts.

A recent effort in archaeological critique by Cordell et al. (1987) is undermined by confusion, misunderstanding, and misrepresentation. This comment on their paper illustrates how confusion may arise when the literature of the American Southwest is not read carefully and the causes of variability in the archaeological record are understood incompletely.

We welcome Valdez"s recent contributions to the developing corpus of ethnographic observations concerning the production and use of Ch’arki in the Andes and to our understanding of the interpretative value of differential camelid bone concentrations in Andean archaeological sites. The numerous issues raised by Valdez would require more space than is available in this forum to adequately address them. What we will present here can only hope to outline the most salient points of contention and encourage further investigations into these problems.

Archaeologists are constantly faced with the problem of estimating population numbers of the social units they study. After a brief survey of some of the methods used in population estimations, particularly in California, attention is focused, in this paper, on a population model proposed by Robert Ascher. Nine variables which comprise the basis of his model are considered individually, and as a result of this analysis the precision with which these variables can be controlled is seen as insufficient for purposes of population estimation. Alternatively, broader, more comprehensive, ecological studies are suggested for acquiring the necessary data for population estimation.

Production organization of Tusayan White and Gray wares (A.D. 850–1150) in northeastern Arizona was inferred from four independent lines of evidence: (1) association between temper class and geological zone, (2) distribution of intermediate pottery having characteristics of coterminous wares, (3) portable vessel frequencies in the core and peripheral areas, and (4) distribution of items and features related to pottery making. In spite of the propositions made by some scholars that specialized ceramic production and a large-scale ceramic exchange were the case, the present analysis strongly indicates the prevalence of household production with a minimal occurrence of exchange in the core area of these wares during the period. In the right circumstances, a low-technology approach is more useful than high-technology and high-cost approaches, e.g., neutron activation, X-ray emission, thin-section analysis, in the study of production and exchange of prehistoric ceramics.

Paleolithic remains, mostly surface finds from blowouts, are known from 63 sites in the Trans-Baikal, one of the five large regional subdivisions of the Siberian Paleolithic. Most important recent discoveries are the stratified sites of Oshurkovo and Sannyi Mys and the Pleistocene faunal sequence on Tologoi Mountain. Characteristic stone tools are made from whole or split pebbles and from blades removed from prismatic cores. Bone artifacts, known only from Oshurkovo, include slotted points and knives and flat antler harpoons. The Trans-Baikal finds, all Upper Paleolithic in time, are tentatively arranged in five chronological stages. The earliest period is based on the lower levels at Sannyi Mys in which microblades, but no pebble tools, are found with woolly rhinoceros and mammoth. The next period is represented by large pebble tools and cores from Ust"-Kiakhta Locality 3. Typical Siberian pebble tools found with horse in the upper levels at Sannyi Mys are assigned to the third stage. The fourth is best known from Oshurkovo where all the common Siberian Paleolithic stone tools are found along with bone artifacts in deposits which contain abundant fish bones. A number of sites are assigned to the fifth stage, but it is best represented by the uppermost level at Oshurkovo where flakes, flaked pebbles, and small blade tools of regular outline replace the large blades and pebble cores of the earlier periods. This tentative sequence is strengthened by correlations with the Angara and Yenisei areas to the west and with Mongolia and North China to the east. The Trans-Baikal is seen as an area in which the prismatic core and blade tradition of Eurafrican origin and the split pebble-tool tradition of eastern Asia were in contact from the earliest known period.

Accurate interpretation of archaeological remains requires the explication of cultural formation processes, the activities responsible for forming the archaeological record. Loss is one of several processes by which materials may be transformed from systemic context to archeological context. Conditional probability theory provides a basis for conceptualizing how loss operates as an S-A process. Laws of loss, expressed as c-transforms, can be formulated to relate the systemic context event, loss, to variability in the archaeological record.

The area around the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers has become a sharp focus of discussion about late Mississippian developments. The debate largely is based on the presence or absence of artifacts thought to be protohistoric or contact period horizon markers. Late deposits at Wickliffe Mounds (15BA4) have produced two such artifacts: astragalus dice and a head-effigy pot. Close study of the ceramic sequence and associated radiocarbon dates indicates that both “horizon markers” belong to the late prehistoric period of western Kentucky, and that neither can settle the debate about protohistoric occupation.

The Ixil differ from other Mesoamerican societies in their extensive ancestor worship and their absence of a belief in animal companion spirits. The historical and archaeological evidence shows Ixil continuity with the lowland Classic Maya with comparatively little change during the Postclassic. The conclusion is tentatively drawn that the lowland Classic Maya were ancestor worshipers, and that the predominant characteristic of those Postclassic changes outside IxU country which led to the demise of Classic ceremonial centers in some areas and the later fragmentation of political units in others, derived from a basic religious change which was reflected in a change in the use of the 260-day ritual calendar. The new religion opposed ancestor worship and introduced a depersonalized soul belief system.

The Tepalcatepec Basin lies in west central Michoacán, about 250 miles west and south of Mexico City. It can be reached in the dry season by a road that leads south from Uruapan. The area covered is in a large valley (50 by 35 miles) limited on the south and west by the Rio Grande de Tepalcatepec and on the east by the Rio Marqués (Rio Cupatitzio). The northern limit is approximately the 700-meter contour where the foothills rise abruptly to the Sierras surrounding Mt. Tancítaro. This valley extends northwest some distance up the east side of the Rio Tepalcatepec.

The well-known archaeological site at Ancon, Peru, represents the timespan from preceramic through the end of the Formative period. Recent investigations have permitted definition of five ceramic phases, of which Ancon C is of particular interest here because it marks the appearance of zoned and unzoned painted decoration. These techniques were added to the preexisting ceramic complex, characterized by limited frequency of decoration by incision. A burial equating with Ancon C contained a variety of grave goods, including a complete olla with zoned red decoration, covered with a basket and containing among other objects a wooden figurine with articulated arms. The estimated date is around 1200 B.C. These associations expand the definition of the cultural complex on the central Peruvian coast in the pre-Chavin period and raise questions about the origin and diffusion of the traits, which have also been reported from Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Mesoamerica.

In his report on excavations in Costa Rica, M. J. Snarskis interpreted a carbonized fragment of a maize cob, identified as the South American race Pollo, as evidence for contact with South America. It is suggested that this interpretation is invalid because of insufficient material and because the origins and relationships of the race Pollo are unclear.

Work at this Classic-Postclassic site, begun by George W. Brainerd and interrupted by his untimely death, is being completed by Nicholson and Hicks. While analysis of much of the archaeological material is well underway, work on the ceramic typology has not yet proceeded to the point where “functional” interpretations can be made. Certain misunderstandings in the use of Cerro Portezuelo material by Mayer-Oakes are noted.

In the winter of 1934–35, a ball-court, analogous in many details with those of Central America, was discovered at Snaketown on the Gila River Indian Reservation in south-central Arizona, during excavations conducted by Gila Pueblo. The announcement of a ball-court 1500 miles from its supposed origin, and in a region where it was entirely unexpected, met with skepticism until the discovery was verified by men qualified to judge from first hand knowledge acquired in the Middle American field. A new angle to the problem of relationships of Southwestern, Mexican, and Central American cultures was thus brought to the fore. Now, to add to this discovery, comes another find in the form of a rubber ball. It, too, was found in south-central Arizona and may, indeed, have been used in the game for which the courts were built.