When, in November 1793, Vancouver's Discovery, in company with the Chatham and Daedalus, lay off Santa Barbara for eight days, George Goodman Hewett, Surgeon's First Mate, had an opportunity to augment his private ethnographical collections formed during the voyage through the South Seas and along the American west coast. This collection was in private hands until 1891, when it became the property of the British Museum. At this time C. H. Read delivered to the Royal Anthropological Institute (1) a brief historical sketch of the collection and a short description of the more significant items. It is from this paper that we hear first of the Chumash spear-thrower, foreshafted dart with bone barb and flint point, sinew-backed bow, and doublebladed paddle.

A series of nonceramic sites is described for the purpose of indicating the nature of the resources to be found along the western margin of the Andean precordillera in northern Chile. Artifacts recovered from several sites are similar to those designated Ayampitin and Lauricocha from other regions in Andean South America. Strong ties are suggested between coastal and interior sites, due either to trade relationships between separate groups or to the same peoples occupying a series of site locations on a seasonal round. Detailed studies that hopefully will clarify these relationships are in process. Information on permanent agricultural settlements in this same region will be presented in a future summary.

There is reason to believe that the bow came into use in the New World in relatively recent times, and that prior to its introduction, or its much less probable local invention, the spear-thrower enjoyed continent-wide distribution in both Americas. These suppositions are based on the apparent total absence from all respectably ancient deposits of small, light points suitable for the tipping of arrows; and, conversely, by the presence in such deposits of larger points, of sizes and weights appropriate for service with the heavier, longer darts propelled by the spear-thrower. Furthermore, the spear-thrower is known to have been replaced by the bow in the Southwest during the Basket Maker II period, probably in the early centuries of the Christian era.

Since mid-1974 very significant advances have been made in interpreting the Mixtec codices of Mexico. Many older hypotheses have been disproved, including the long-accepted chronological scheme proposed by Caso (1949), and these will cause profound changes in archaeological correlations for the Oaxacan area. The most important codex research is now focused upon correcting the chronology, distinguishing between actual history and mythical events, and clarifying the natures and roles of supernatural beings. The use of Central Mexican concepts hindered earlier research, but these patterns are erroneous for the Mixtecs and have now been discarded; accurate interpretations occur only with the use of Mixtec cultural and linguistic data. Mixtec codex studies are now firmly established as a separate and independent area of specialization within Mesoamerican scholarship.

Application of ammonium chloride powder to artifacts of quartz, obsidian, and chert aids in the production of photographs that show excellent surface detail.

A reconsideration of material collected from Promontory Point, north central Utah (Steward 1937) suggests that Promontory-Plains relationships may be closer than hitherto realized. Moreover, while several traits of the Promontory culture occur in more than one Plains archaeological complex, some are limited to the Dismal River aspect, suggesting the possibility of close ties between the Dismal River and Promontory peoples. Steward noted that a few traits (hoop and dart game, hand game boneS, side notched projectile points, end scrapers) represented in the Promontory culture were also found in the Plains. Hill and Metcalf (1941: 188, 197) pointed out that tubular steatite pipes and blunt bone “punches” or “flakers” occurred in both Promontory and Dismal River. This paper enumerates still other resemblances.

Serrated edges, and wonderful chipping techniques, are commonly displayed on chipped stone objects of the Pacific Coast region from California to British Columbia, but the greatest ultimate perfection of serration obtains in the so-called Stockton type points, peculiar to the delta and flood plain region near the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The distribution of these specialized forms seems to approximately conform with this great flood plain, which is, generally speaking, not much above sea-level. This area was called by the early Spaniards the “Tulares,” because a great part of it was an impenetrable swamp, covered by a rank growth of tule reeds.

The Papago Indian Reservation, touching the Mexican border in south-central Arizona, has been the scene of anthropological work by the Department of Anthropology of the University of Arizona and the Arizona State Museum during the past four years. One branch of this general study has been archaeological, consisting of reconnaissance and of excavation in what were considered to be key sites. Beyond Gila Pueblo's limited survey in Papagueria, next to nothing was known about it. The environment is harsh and arid, and scanty surface water limits agricultural possibilities. Yet more than 5000 Papago Indians somehow manage, as they have for centuries, to make a comfortable if simple living in the area. Certainly the life there today is nothing new and it is a fair conclusion that, although inhospitable, the area should furnish a fairly rich archaeological picture. As our work proceeded it became evident that there were ruins in abundance. With few exceptions, these were small and the occupation thinly spread. Occasionally, a large site with sizable trash mounds gave promise of stratigraphy.

Supplementing Part I of this report, by Weyer, Part II is concerned with certain vital needs in American archaeology for a central facility in which high-speed methods of data analysis can be applied to the determination of types of stone artifacts on a broad scale, the distribution of these types can be mapped wherever they occur in the New World, manuals can be prepared for general research, and related functions can be performed. It is held that our individualistic approaches to these problems in various areas, rather than producing strictly comparable results, are causing greater confusion than ever; that distributional studies based on noncomparable “types” are superficial and misleading; and that there are already on hand such great amounts of material that their analysis can never be accomplished comprehensively by “hand” methods. The advantages and disadvantages of edge-punch and IBM cards are discussed in relation to several purposes, such as catalog records, sorting for attributes (singly and in combinations), and computer treatment. The project's steering committee has decided to proceed with IBM cards, but before disseminating its recommendations, will conduct pilot studies to achieve the most efficient codification of attributes as well as a standard form on which data must be recorded before an operator can proceed with the punching of cards.

Arithmetical procedures, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root extraction, are demonstrated using the Maya numerals. All procedures can be carried out efficiently. The Maya system is relatively unique in that it combines properties of both place-value and non-place-value numerical systems. The Babylonian system, discussed briefly, also utilizes a mixture of properties from the two systems. In order to take into account the unique hybrid characteristics of these two systems, as well as the subtractive principle of the Roman numerals, we here define a third category of numerical systems designated as mixed-place-value in type. The three types of numerical systems are compared and the advantages and disadvantages of each are mentioned. The evolutionary development of numerical systems in relation to the mathematical needs of societies is discussed.

The respondents raise interesting issues that deserve further discussion in this and other forums. I urge readers to examine my original paper published in this journal and compare it with the concerns raised here. I do note several points of agreement, including the recognition that repressive governments affect the work of archaeology both directly and indirectly; that Latin American countries differ remarkedly in their individual histories and approaches to government; and that, in general, archaeology in Latin America is dependent on the state.

Based on published lexicostatistical dates, two intervals in the prehistory of southern Mesoamerica stand out as fertile periods in terms of the generation of new languages: the Terminal Preclassic/early Early Classic Periods, and the Early Postclassic Period. After comparing archaeological evidence with language distributions within the subregions of southern Mesoamerica during the first of these periods, we conclude that the cultural processes during both periods had the same potential for producing rapid rates of linguistic divergences. Just as rapid proliferation of linguistic divisions was symptomatic of the well-known collapse of Late Classic Maya civilization, so it can be taken as a sign of a collapse of Terminal Preclassic civilization. Both collapses were characterized by severe population reductions, site abandonments, an increasing balkanization in material culture, and disruption of interregional communication networks, conditions that were contributory to the kind of linguistic isolation that allows language divergences. Unlike in the Terminal Classic collapse episode, small refuge zones persisted in the Early Classic Period that served as sources of an evolving classicism; these refuge zones were exceptions, however, not the rule. Although the collapse of each site had its own proximate cause, we suggest that the enormous geographical range covered by these Early Classic Period site failures points to a single ultimate cause affecting the area as a whole, such as the onset of a prolonged and devastating climatic change.

Southwestern Pueblo pottery of the prehistoric periods has been studied, named with dozens of geographic appellations, and traced back from period to period with genealogic thoroughness. “And La Plata Black-on-White begat Red Mesa Black-on-White, and Red Mesa Black-on-White begat Escavada Black-on-White, and Escavada Black-on-White begat Gallup Black-on-White.” But the family tree of prehistoric Southwestern walls has not been cultivated with the ardor of the potsherd horticulturist; the relation of roots to branches has been largely conjectural.

Since the emergence of the niche in Folsom, New Mexico, in the late 1920s, peopling archaeology has sought to understand the earliest human occupants of the Western Hemisphere. Three generations of practitioners have made great strides in the techno-environmental arena. However, we have largely failed to tap into PaleoIndigenous intellectual, emotional, and social lives—the very domains that made Ice Age people as fully human as we are. As a result, our interpretations of those pioneering populations could often apply as readily to a colony of ants or a herd of wildebeest as they do to living, breathing, thinking, dreaming, loving, striving human ancestors. This article first explores the reasons for our failure to fully actualize First Peoples, identifying and implicating a feedback loop that includes practitioner homogeneity (we have always been and continue to be disproportionately white men of European descent); our predominantly positivist worldview; our language, training, and practice; and even the limited nature of the material record we study. This article also, however, highlights the ways that an important minority of peopling scholars have sought to access the humanity of PaleoIndigenous people. By more consistently mobilizing our own human capacity to creatively interrogate the deep past, we will produce scholarship that more consistently recognizes the capacity of the people who lived it and, just as importantly, respects those living today.

Last Supper Cave, located in northwestern Nevada, was excavated in the 1960s and 1970s. It contained a rich record of human occupation spanning the Holocene, but many artifacts from the site, including a large basketry collection, remain unstudied. We report the results of our technological analysis and radiocarbon dating of 14 fiber sandals from Last Supper Cave, which include examples of Fort Rock, Multiple Warp, and Spiral Weft types found at other sites in the northwestern Great Basin. Radiocarbon dates on the sandals correspond well with previous dates from Last Supper Cave and suggest that it was visited episodically for over 10 millennia; however, when considered together with the growing list of dates from the site, the sandal dates suggest that Last Supper Cave saw a prolonged hiatus in occupation during the Middle Holocene—a pattern common at other sandal-bearing sites in the northwestern Great Basin.

The Yuha cairn burial from southeastern California is said to be more than 21,000 years old, based on radiocarbon dates and a Th-230 date obtained on soil carbonate. The burial itself is undated. Several other cairn burials are known from the California deserts, and these are dated from 5000 B.P. to historic times. Until the Yuha burial itself is dated, one must consider that it may belong to this more recent pattern of disposal of the dead.

This paper is frankly exploratory, designed to test the possibility of applying historical and archaeological evidence to the solution of certain problems in demography and human ecology for which it is impossible to secure data of more conventional character.

The Central Mexican region was selected because it contained for a very long time perhaps the densest population on the North American continent and because the annalistic as well as archaeological information concerning it is remarkably copious. Specifically the area is defined for present purposes as that included in the present states of Vera Cruz, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Puebla, Mexico, Federal District, Morelos, Oaxaca, Michoacan, and Guerrero. This territory is not an ethnic or economic entity since it includes both coastal and highland cultures together with numerous independent linguistic stocks. On the other hand it corresponds to the most intensive area of archaeological investigation outside of Yucatan and is more or less coterminous with the so-called “Aztec Empire” as the latter existed in 1520.

The Fremont culture of northeastern Utah is predominately Anasazi in character, but has a few distinctive traits. It exhibits great variability, especially in ceramics and architecture. The total time span of this complex may be the 250-year period from A.D. 950 to 1200. The Fremont culture, and probably the very similar Sevier culture of western Utah, represent a rather sudden northward movement of traits, and perhaps people, from the independently-developed, but Kayenta-influenced Virgin branch of the Anasazi.