Archaeologists and resource managers have recognized many different forms of site significance. While much recent discussion has focused upon research of scientific significance, other concepts, such as ethnic significance, have received little attention or have been avoided altogether. Here, the concept of ethnic significance is discussed, an example from the Navajo is presented, and some of the broader implications of the concept are considered.

Economic reforms introduced by the Bourbon Monarchy after A.D. 1750 ushered in an Hispanic social formation in the northern Rio Grande identified as Vecino. Aspects of Vecino gendered economy are examined through a detailed analysis of five ceramic assemblages from the Chama and Taos Valleys of New Mexico. Geochemical (NAA) and stylistic clues identify the ethnic identities of producers and their relationships to Vecino consumers. Evidence for ceramic production by Vecino women during the nineteenth century is evaluated on the basis of detailed paste analysis of plain and micaceous ceramics as well as the occurrence of pottery-producing tools and clay-cleaning debris. Analytical results reveal that Jicarilla women dominated the production of micaceous cook ware to supply Vecino kitchens. Implications for understanding Vecino economics and the constitution of female-based systems of economic value are considered.

The region under consideration comprises the coastal portion of New York State east of the Hudson River, including Manhattan Island, Long Island, and southern Westchester County (Map, Fig. 4). The archaeological sites consist of shell middens along the tidal waferways. Although construction work coincident with the expansion of New York City has destroyed many of them and the rest are at least partially disturbed, sufficient material has been obtained for the purpose of this analysis. An attempt is made to establish a chronology of ceramic traits based upon sherds excavated by the writer and his associates as members of the Committee on American Anthropology of the Flushing (New York) Historical Society. Additional data were obtained from a study of collections made by Harrington for the American Museum of Natural History. Consideration of the non-ceramic material is beyond the scope of this paper and must await further study.

The authors of this response believe that problem-oriented significance for archaeological sites can be accommodated within the existing National Register criterion. In addition, the authors feel that closer relationships between the archaeological community, federal agencies, and the State Historic Preservation Officers will result in the preservation of archaeological sites.

Reinvestigation of terraces first reported by Haury and Cubillos indicates that they were made by man, although some natural formations exist that resemble terraces. The terraces near Tocancipá and Facatativá are probably prehistoric, but those at the Chocontá, Tunja, and Soacha localities are of a different type, consisting of ridges designed to carry drainage ditches. Such ditchridges have been built in recent years and thus far have no prehistoric associations.

This paper deals with the confusion of a certain anomalous condition of the human skull with one type of trepanation. Evidence is presented to show that many specimens exhibited as examples of a certain type of trepanning are clear-cut cases of this congenital bilateral fenestra in the parietal bones. As is generally known, trephining was performed by ancient man to relieve certain maladies such as headaches caused by “demons kicking up a fuss” inside the skull. The excruciatingly painful operation was performed with a crude knife, piece of glass, or sharp-edged stone. Trephining probably flourished in Neolithic times, especially in Bohemia and western Europe. Trephined skulls have been, reported from Bolivia,, Central America, Mexico, Peru, and various other localities.

Cannon and Yang (2006) argue that a sedentary winter village based on stored pink and chum salmon began at Namu approximately 7000 B. P. In contrast, we argue that (a) available data support neither a sedentary winter village by that date nor a subsistence focus on stored pink and chum salmon; (b) the timing and ubiquity of salmon exploitation and storage was not as the authors assert; instead, stable, long-term adaptations focused on taxa other than salmon are found elsewhere on the Northwest Coast; and (c) seasonality estimation based on growth increments is a valid methodology.

In their review of the Flote-Tech machine-assisted flotation system, Hunter and Gassner (1998) depict the machine as nearly perfect and present it as a technical marvel. I attempt to present a more balanced view of the Flote-Tech machine, based on four years of direct experience. Rather than being a perfected machine for flotation recovery of archaeological plant remains, the Flote-Tech is a prototype with important design and use problems. It can only be recommended with major caveats and system modifications.

In this report I present evidence of a prehistoric trade network that operated between the inland desert and coastal regions of southern California. Jasper, a nonlocal commodity from sources in the inland deserts, was found in large quantities at the Tomato Springs site, a prehistoric coastal village. This lithic material appears to have been of some value to the inhabitants of the coastal region, as evidence indicates that it was procured in quantity for a period of approximately 4,500 years over distances in excess of 175 km. The available data indicate that jasper trade between the inland deserts and the coast does not fit any distance-decay models proposed for trade in spite of the distances under consideration.

The archaeological site commonly referred to as Spiro is becoming more and more a topic for discussion among Mississippi Valley archaeologists. This developing interest and enthusiasm in the Spiro site has been stimulated in various ways; by examination of artifacts in private collections or in museums, by an increasing reference to Spiro materials in the literature, and through recognition of Spiro as a grandiose example of the so-called “Southern Cult” complex. Although there has been considerable interest in the site, little synthesized information has been published. Only recently, Orr has presented the most definitive facts available.

This prehistoric Pueblo III community consists of 14 sites with evidence of efforts to control water and soil on or near the delta formed by Beaver Creek, an intermittent tributary of the San Juan which flows through Cha Canyon draining a watershed of about 16 square miles on the northern slopes of Navajo Mountain. The small house units, kivas, terraces, linear and grid borders, ditches, windscreens, and possible cisterns or walled-in springs were built by Anasazi people of Kayenta affiliation from the adjacent Rainbow Plateau who occupied the canyon lands probably seasonally during the 12th century. The terraces and linear and grid borders are comparable to those found at Point of Pines in east-central Arizona. The stone-lined ditches span sandy surfaces between the steep gravel slopes and the arable alluvial sediments transporting water to areas which could not be farmed without irrigation. Notched stones set at right angles to the ditches served to keep the water in the ditches at grade so that it could be diverted through tapered-stone turn-out gates to terraced and stone-bordered fields. Rows of rock built on high ground and counter to prevailing winds deflected the wind, stopped blowing sand, protected soil moisture, and reduced sand-blasting of plants. This apparently successful use of the canyon lands which was based on careful exploitation of local ecological conditions lasted about 100 years. It was terminated by increasingly dry conditions which lowered the level of the San Juan and caused tributaries such as Beaver Creek to cut the alluvial sediments used for farming. About 1900 Paiute and Navajo groups moved into the area, using it for some farming during the 1930's, but currently only for forage and water.

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.

Analysis of archaeological sites on a stream terrace system in Kansas supports the idea that spurred end scrapers are valid diagnostic Paleoindian artifacts. No sites with spurred end scrapers were discovered on the Holocene terraces, while the Wisconsin terraces did yield such sites. The differential distribution of spurred end scraper sites on terraces appears to be statistically significant. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that spurred end scrapers were not found on the Holocene terraces because they were not being used when the Holocene terraces formed.

During the past five years rock painting researchers concluded that a means of cataloging and classifying rock paintings was necessary. Research at the University of Winnipeg has led to the development of a punch card code and card design for Canadian Shield rock paintings that may also be applicable to other forms of pictography within the region. This design went through many stages of development and many problems were encountered by the developers. Despite the problems a set of basic computer-oriented categories for the comparison and correlation of rock paintings has been developed.

Clean, odor free vertebrate skeletons can easily be prepared in from two days to a week by using bacterial or enzyme maceration in conjunction with other techniques.

The Early Formative site of Real Alto on the southern coast of Ecuador yielded a minimum of 72 human burials attributable to the Valdivia III phase. The construction of an abridged life table represents the first demographic analysis of a prehistoric South American population. Expectation of life at birth was 21 years and at age 15 was 18 years. Comparison with model life tables suggests a crude birthrate of 0.048, a generation length of about 26 years, and completed family size of 6.4 children. The fact that the sample represents a natural population argues against the suggestion that the skeletons largely represent victims of ritual sacrifice.

No satisfactory explanation, to the best of my knowledge, has been offered of the scenes on pages 16-20 of the Maya Dresden codex and the parallel passages on pages 93-95 of Codex Madrid which depict a goddess or woman in association with various birds, animals, and gods. She carries them on her head or shoulders or on a pack on her back supported by a strap across her chest.

Within the past 10 to 15 years human remains of great antiquity have been found in archaeological sites located in the highlands and coastal area of central Peru. The remains in this study have assigned radiocarbon dates of 6000-10,000 B.P. and consist of four naturally mummified (desiccated) human bodies and four virtually complete skeletons. They represent some of the oldest skeletal remains and certainly the oldest preserved bodies hitherto found in South America. While the paleopathological and tomographic analyses of the bodies is presently in progress, this report describes the archaeological context of the entire sample and presents a descriptive analysis of the skeletal material. Age, sex, stature, and general pathology are discussed.

Recent excavation and analysis of the remaining section of the endangered Rapidan Mound site (44OR1) in the central Virginia Piedmont provide new insights into a unique complex of burial mounds in the Virginia interior. Known since Thomas Jefferson's eighteenth-century description, the mounds are both earth and stone and accretional earthen mounds. Thirteen are recorded, all dating to the late prehistoric and early contact era (ca. A.D. 900-1700). Typically containing few artifacts, the accretional mounds are unusual in North America in the numbers of individuals interred, more than one thousand in at least two cases, and in the nature of the secondary, collective burial ritual that built up the mounds over centuries. Following a review of the characteristics of the mound complex, we focus on the Rapidan Mound and the analysis of the collective, secondary burial features in the mound. Precise provenience information and bioarchaeological analyses of two large and intact collective burial features provide new information on health and diet, and several lines of evidence for demographic reconstruction. Finally, we discuss the mortuary ritual conducted at the mounds within the cultural and historical context of the region.

Stone circles known as tipi rings are a common feature of the Northern and Northwestern Plains of western North America. There are several types of stone circles: (1) a single course of stone in a simple circle; (2) more complex circles with several courses of stones; (3) circular walls made of piled-up stones; (4) corrals or forts of horizontal logs and stones; (5) stone circles of unusual size or with lines of rocks inside the circle. Studies of tipi-ring sites in Montana, Wyoming, and adjacent regions are summarized. The clusters of circles are usually found along main routes of travel and near water, fuel, and good hunting areas. Although many of these sites have been mapped, only a few of them have been excavated. Despite the paucity of cultural remains found in the excavations, the tipi-ring clusters are generally considered to be the archaeological remains of camps and villages of people who dwelt in conical, skin-covered lodges. The stones are believed to have been used to hold the skin lodge cover snug against the ground. Historical records, ethnographic observations, and the recollections of present-day Indian informants confirm these interpretations. Data from 136 recently studied tipi-ring sites along a 300-mile pipe-line from Greenriver, Wyoming, to Denver, Colorado, provide further archaeological demonstration of the domestic origin of the tipi rings. Only the very small or very large rings, or those with spokes or lines of rocks through them, such as the so-called medicine wheels, are considered to have served a ceremonial purpose.