The prayerstone hypothesis, grounded in Southern Paiute oral history, holds that selected incised stone artifacts were votive offerings deliberately emplaced where spiritual power (puha) was known to reside, accompanying prayers for personal power and expressing thanks for prayers answered. Proposing significant and long-term linkages between Great Basin incised stones and overarching Shoshonean cosmology, this article explores the prayerstone hypothesis in the context of the 3,500 incised stones documented from the Intermountain West, an assemblage spanning seven states and seven millennia. Employing object itinerary perspectives, it becomes possible to develop ritualized cartographies capable of matching oral Shoshonean traditions with specific geographic indicators. The results demonstrate that many (but not all) such incised stones are consistent with the votive emplacement of prayerstones. Multiple constellations of prayerstone practice operated across the Great Basin for more than 5,000 years and carried forward, without perceptible break, among several (but not all) Numic-speaking populations of the ethnohistoric interval. The diversity and antiquity implied by the prayerstone hypothesis suggest dramatically more complex cultural trajectories than those of Lamb's (1958) widely accepted model of a single, late, and simultaneous Numic spread across the Great Basin.

Some questions concerning the Postclassic Peten can be answered by systematic use of ethnohistoric sources with archaeological data. A review and re-analysis of these data for the Itza capital Tayasal are presented. A plausible argument is formulated for a relocation of the ethnohistoric Tayasal as the archaeologically recognized Postclassic site of Topoxte in Lake Yaxha, Guatemala. It is further argued that a closer correlation of the ethnohistoric data with the archaeological record and a complete re-analysis of other pertinent data may prove useful to the archaeologist when confronted with conflicting interpretations or concepts.

All reported findings of anthropomorphic clay figurines from the lower Pecos region of Texas are synthesized. Considerations are given to figurine chronology, technology, morphology, and function. The finds made with adequate chronological control occur in the Middle Archaic period, from about 2000 B.C. to 200 B.C. A brief description of the Lower Pecos Archaic cultural system is presented in order to place the figurines in a context for functional analysis.

The figurines are hand-shaped, usually unfired, and represent both males and females. Painted or incised decorations are restricted to female forms; socio-cultural explanations for this pattern are explored. The specific uses of the figurines remain indefinite.

We reiterate our previous suggestion that the Poverty Point earthwork possesses solar and possibly other stellar alignments.

Recently, Andeanist zooarchaeologists have introduced the so-called "ch'arki effect": a taphonomic factor to explain the disproportional occurrence of some camelid skeletal parts at archaeological sites. Briefly, it has been argued that the lower frequency of head and foot bones is the by-product of ch'arki (dried meat) exchange and therefore indicative of ch'arki consumption. This generalization, however, is problematic. When fresh meat is distributed (by trade) and consumed, exactly the same pattern as with ch'arki distribution is produced. To infer ch'arki consumption on the basis of the absence of head and lower limb bones is therefore misleading.

We reiterate the basis for our interpretation of the Namu site as a winter-village settlement from at least 7000 B.P., and note that Monks and Orchard do not provide an alternative interpretation of the available data. They also mistakenly suggest an assertion on our part that all Northwest Coast villages were dependent on a salmon-based storage economy by 1000 B.P. We never argued for this point. Finally, Monks and Orchard offer a lengthy defense of methods for seasonality estimation, which we support. We used those same methods, and continue to support their refinement and application toward understanding the nature of seasonal activity at Namu.

Ceramics typologies have long been used to build artifact, site, and regional chronologies. Direct accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating of shell-tempered ceramics offers a promising tool for updating and improving these chronologies. Few studies have 14C dated shell fragments from shell-tempered pottery, however, and questions remain about potential biases from “old shell,” the reservoir effect, and other variables. Forty-five direct AMS 14C assays on shell-tempered pottery and associated shell, charcoal, and bone from nine archaeological sites in Virginia and Maryland provide a framework to test this method. AMS 14C assays from one site may have problems with old shell, but most of the calibrated direct and associated age estimates overlap. One of our samples is the oldest securely dated shell-tempered pottery in North America at ~1000 cal B.C. Our study demonstrates the promise of AMS 14C dating shell-tempered pottery for refining ceramic and regional chronologies in coastal and other areas around the world.

In “The Scientific Nature of Postprocessualism”, VanPool and VanPool (1999) attempt to demonstrate that the sometimes hostile debate between processualist and postprocessualist archaeologies disguises substantive intellectual similarities. The most important similarity is their conformity to a refined definition of science. This definition is based on seven criteria that, as a group, demarcate science from nonscience. VanPool and VanPool pay inadequate attention to critiques of the notion that science can be clearly separated from other forms of inquiry. These critiques come from both within the literature VanPool and VanPool cite as well as from bodies of literature that they do not acknowledge, such as recent sociological, philosophical, and anthropological studies of science. Many of the demarcation criteria can be shown to suffer from overly simplistic accounts of the connections between evidence and hypothesis. Other demarcations do not recognize the social nature of scientific inquiry and the consequent incorporation of interests at various scales. Although VanPool and VanPool believe their criteria of science will promote synergy between processual and postprocessual, this paper questions the conceptualization of these schools and argues that synergy is better accomplished through the appreciation of difference among the various archaeologies and openness to alternative epistemologies.

In 1964 M. Coe and K. Flannery reported on the existence of a major obsidian chipping station, El Chayal, in highland Guatemala some 15 km northeast of the large administrative and ceremonial center known as Kaminaljuyu. In that report they introduce arguments supporting their belief that the chipping station exhibited a preceramic industry, belonging either to the Archaic period or to the Paleo-Indian period, or to both. New evidence, resulting from obsidian dating, unequivocally contradicts their conclusions and thus calls into question their basic line of reasoning. Obsidian dating results suggest that the El Chayal chipping station probably dates to the Early Post Classic period IA.D. 1000-1200) and certainly no earlier than A.D. 900.

Two geographic information system (GIS) techniques for displaying, analyzing, and interpreting geophysical data were recently applied at two archaeological sites in northern New Zealand; a pre-European Maori pa (fortification), and a late nineteenth-century European fortification. A GIS was used to stretch and filter the conductivity data from the pa to accentuate subtle contrasts and clearly delineate boundaries between areas with contrasting conductivity readings. Magnetic susceptibility data and two different bands of conductivity data from the historic fort were used as input for a GIS-based unsupervised classification. The classification delineated five spatial entities, several of which corresponded to known archaeological features. The interpretability of the geophysical data in relation to conventional visual analysis of conductivity contour maps was enhanced through the use of the GIS procedures outlined.

Conrad's discussion bears little relation to the generally accepted outline of Peruvian prehistory. He presents evidence that is not evidence in support of a weak and untestable hypothesis. Since he is apparently unacquainted with a substantial body of recent and current research, he has launched superficial and absurd criticisms at the proposition that changes in climate are reflected in changes in human society and culture. Not only is this theory substantiated by a growing number of independent studies, but ironically enough Conrad joins their ranks by supporting my hypothesis about climate and culture in late prehistoric Andean cultures. His shallow arguments opposing cultural materialism do not deal with issues and are far from convincing. Altogether his work appears to belong to a previously unidentified archaeological specialty, the Archaeology of the Absurd.

Owsley and Jantz (2001) allege that we (Swedlund and Anderson 1999) misunderstand and misrepresent the events surrounding the controversy over Kennewick Man, and that we misconstrue statements they have made regarding Spirit Cave Man. They then move to their own analysis of Gordon Creek Woman to demonstrate the value of their morphometric techniques in addressing questions of biological affinity. In this reply we clarify and amplify our position on the key issues on which they challenge us, and we evaluate their morphometric analysis of Gordon Creek Woman. To our previous call for bioarchaeologists to more explicitly acknowledge the political environment in which questions of biological affinity currently arise, we add our concern that the methodologies used have their own set of problems and limitations.

Contract emergency research is seen as sharing essentially the same limitations as other emergency work. These are: the pressure of time; an arbitrary restriction of geographic area of study; the obligation to sample adequately the full range of cultures represented; and the possible problem of dealing with a large volume of data. The contract also carries with it a stipulated deadline for the completion of an acceptable report. All of these limitations are seen as advantageous.

This was an intensive study of a single mountain range rich in petroglyph sites. One hundred nineteen sites with over 2,000 designs were recorded. Unsuccessful attempts were made to find significant positive correlations between such factors as design associations, site locations and concentrations, and environmental influences. The study produced some evidence that the probable originators of the petroglyphs were the Hohokam farmers who occupied the area for approximately the first 1500 years A.D.

A robust collection of mammal, bird, fish, and shellfish remains from an 8,000-year residential sequence at Morro Bay, a small, isolated estuary on the central California coast, shows a strong focus on marine species during the Middle-Late Transition cultural phase (950–700 cal B.P.), which largely coincides with the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA). Previous studies have provided modest evidence for increased fishing and rabbit hunting during the MCA in adjacent regions, but the Morro Bay findings suggest a distinctive marine-focused subsistence refugium during the period of drought. Specifically, the sequence shows striking all-time peaks in marine and estuarine birds, fish NISP/m3, and fish/deer + rabbits during the MCA. Heavy exploitation of fish, aquatic birds, rabbits, and shellfish suggests that the bow and arrow, which seems to have arrived in the area at this time, had little impact on local subsistence strategies.

This paper argues: (1) that there is no meaningful philosophical and practical distinction between history and prehistory until sometime in the Lower Paleolithic; and (2) because history as we practice it is a human invention (usually attributed to Herodotus), perhaps prehistory should be reserved as a term to describe how humans dealt with the past prior to the fifth century B.C. Philosophical underpinnings for the argument are taken from Collingwood; practical examples are drawn from personal experiences in the archaeology and history of Greater Mesopotamia.