Paul Sidney Martin identified two “watershed” moments in his career: (1) his adoption of the tenets of the New Archaeology and (2) the changes he made in his approach to pedagogy at the Vernon field school. We explore the relationship between these two watershed moments using Martin’s archival record. We find that, rather than being watershed moments, these changes have deeper roots in the trajectory of Martin’s work and career and moreover are clearly linked to broader historical occurrences, such as World War II, the G.I. Bill, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the establishment of the National Science Foundation. Furthermore, we find that the New Archaeology’s emphasis on egalitarian science—the metaphor of “archaeology as commune”—serves as a link among its theoretical innovations, methodology, and pedagogy.

Archaeological reconnaissance and excavations in the Río Balsas drainage basin of Guerrero and Michoacán were undertaken by parties from the University of New Mexico during the summers of 1939 and 1941. As a result of the first summer's work, three publications have appeared. This paper will cover the archaeological remains in the Middle Rio Balsas Basin of Guerrero and Michoacân. It will include the results of both summers' work and be based on surface observations and collections, and on excavations conducted at three sites.

For the most part the reconnaissance was undertaken on foot or horseback, inasmuch as the few roads that existed in the area were made impassable for vehicles by the summer rains.

One of the first aspects of Middle American culture which strikes an amateur as interesting and possibly significant is the ordered arrangement of the buildings in almost all sites. Like those of Egypt—and unlike those of Greece and Rome —the sites seem to have been planned on a large pattern. The individual buildings are arranged according to a scheme which gives them space and which orients them on a common axis. They are not dropped in helter-skelter, crowded cheek-by-jowl, and set at odd angles to one another. Further, the city plans of Middle America seemollow fhe another and larger pattern. This is the pattern of the north and south axis of each site and each building. This orientation almost invariably follows one of three schemes. I t is sometimes true north, sometimes about 7 degrees east of north, sometimes about 17 degrees east of north, but practically never west of north. There are some sites which have no general pattern, and therefore no orientation.

Two sites, Kogruk (at the summit of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska) and Engigstciak (at the head of the Firth River delta, Yukon Territory, Canada), have recently yielded flake-tool assemblages which show striking resemblances to a Eurasiatic flake-blade tradition based on a Levallois-Mousterian stone-chipping technique, and to the Clovis flake-blade tradition of America which appears to be based on a similar chipping technique. It is suggested that these traditions are historically related and that the Arctic sites provide a possible link between the two. The presence of incipient fluting in Siberia and at Engigstciak may prove significant. Dating is discussed in terms of the ecology and geology of the sites and is correlated with the probable periods of availability of the Bering land bridge. An upland-foothills zone is seen to be essentially continuous from central Asia to central North America. It is suggested that this zone provided the only environmentally compatible link between the two continents, and that it was therefore the most probable route of early hunting peoples into the New World.

The role of scavengers, especially dogs, with reference to archaeological faunal remains is not always clear. While distortion admittedly results from the activities of these animals, total destruction of all such evidence is questioned. Emphasis is placed upon fish remains in the examples and both ethnographic and archaeological data are used. It is argued that a more thorough knowledge of the nature of the food items themselves will greatly aid in assessing both their potential archaeological visibility and the information they may yield.

Pedoturbation by moles at archaeological sites in the Upper Galilee of Israel is offered to supplement data published by Bocek (1986).

This study presents the results of a single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (SG-OSL) analysis of brownware pottery from four Late Prehistoric-period sites in the Middle Rocky Mountains, Wyoming, USA. SG-OSL of quartz ceramic temper provides improved age control for sites where radiocarbon dating has proven problematic due to old wood, recent wildfires, and calibration uncertainties. SG-OSL results are compared to fine-grain infrared stimulated luminescence (FG-IRSL) results from the same sherds and associated radiocarbon ages. We find that the single-grain technique applied to quartz sand temper provides improved accuracy and precision over both FG-IRSL and radiocarbon. We compare our results to directly dated brownwares from the southern and eastern Great Basin based largely on thermoluminescence analysis. While brownware ceramics appear earliest in the southwestern Great Basin, our data show that the technology spread quickly to the northeastern margin of the Numic homelands. We suggest that knowledge of ceramic technology in Formative (i.e., Ancestral Pueblo and Fremont) societies was important in the adoption of pottery by Numic hunter-gatherers and that, like in the southwestern Great Basin, this technological adaptation in the Middle Rocky Mountains may have occurred within a context of resource intensification during the last 800 years.

The great houses of Chaco Canyon (ca. A.D. 850–1150) are widely assumed to represent cosmological meaning through the orientation of walls and other features to celestial events. Archaeological models of such relationships are considered cosmographic. A prominent feature of these models is a lone pine tree at Pueblo Bonito that has been interpreted as a “tree of life” symbolically connecting the physical and heavenly worlds. This study suggests that this interpretation is inconsistent with contextual data and should be dismissed. Future cosmographic research in Chaco should endeavor to develop methods of independent verification that will strengthen inferences about cosmological symbolism in architecture.

The iconic Plaza Tree of Pueblo Bonito is widely believed to have been a majestic pine standing in the west courtyard of the monumental great house during the peak of the Chaco Phenomenon (AD 850–1140). The ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) log was discovered in 1924, and since then, it has been included in “birth” and “life” narratives of Pueblo Bonito, although these ideas have not been rigorously tested. We evaluate three potential growth origins of the tree (JPB-99): Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, or a distant mountain range. Based on converging lines of evidence—documentary records, strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr), and tree-ring provenance testing—we present a new origin for the Plaza Tree. It did not grow in Pueblo Bonito or even nearby in Chaco Canyon. Rather, JPB-99 originated from the Chuska Mountains, over 50 km west of Chaco Canyon. The tree was likely carried to Pueblo Bonito sometime between AD 1100 and 1130, although why it was left in the west courtyard, what it meant, and how it might have been used remain mysteries. The origin of the Plaza Tree of Pueblo Bonito underscores deep cultural and material ties between the Chaco Canyon great houses and the Chuska landscape.

On June 7, 1952, the writers were shown the artifact, seen in Figure 70, by Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Johnson of La Conner, Washington. According to the informants, the artifact was dredged from the mouth of the Northwest distributary of the Skagit River near its confluence with the Straits of Georgia (about forty-five miles north of Seattle).

The artifact is about forty centimeters long and approximately eleven centimeters in maximal height. It is carved from wood of an unknown origin. The raised grain and deep checks suggest long continued immersion subsequent to the execution of the carving.

The construction of great houses during the Bonito Phase (ca. AD 850–1200) in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, required massive amounts of building material and efficient mobilization and coordination of large labor pools. We employ least cost path analysis (LCA) to explore the potential communication network among great house communities in the Chaco “core” area and its relevance in managing sustained labor for constructing great houses. The results suggest that that the primary sources of labor for communal building projects were agricultural communities located within one to three hours of the largest buildings in the canyon.

While we appreciate Atholl Anderson's willingness to consider transoceanic diffusion as a viable possibility, he misrepresents parts of our argument and ignores others, particularly the linguistics that suggest that the Chumash and Gabrieliño borrowed the technique of sewn-plank construction and words related to that technique—not the word for boat or the specific design of a boat. The composite bone fishhook that appears in the Santa Barbara Channel ca. A.D. 700–900 matches simpler Hawaiian variants yet shows a significant stylistic departure from earlier southern California types. A chronological window of A.D. 400–800 for Polynesian contact is still consistent with realistic estimates for both the timing of the appearance of the sewn-plank boat technology in southern California and the initial settlement of Hawaii.

Although recognized as one of the most significant cultural transformations in North America, the reintroduction of the horse to the continent after AD 1492 has been rarely addressed by archaeological science. A key contributing factor behind this limited study is the apparent absence of equine skeletal remains from early historic archaeological contexts. Here, we present a multidisciplinary analysis of a horse skeleton recovered in Lehi, Utah, originally attributed to the Pleistocene. Reanalysis of stratigraphic context and radiocarbon dating indicates a historic age for this horse (cal AD 1681–1939), linking it with Ute or other Indigenous groups, whereas osteological features demonstrate its use for mounted horseback riding—perhaps with a nonframe saddle. DNA analysis indicates that the animal was a female domestic horse, which was likely cared for as part of a breeding herd despite outliving its usefulness in transport. Finally, sequentially sampled stable carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope values from tooth enamel (δ13C, δ18O, and 87Sr/86Sr) suggest that the horse was raised locally. These results show the utility of archaeological science as applied to horse remains in understanding Indigenous horse pastoralism, whereas consideration of the broader archaeological record suggests a pattern of misidentification of horse bones from early historic contexts.

Approximately 2400 stone and 77 bone and antler artifacts were obtained by extensive trenching of the Kayuk site, a large area on the banks of Kayuk Creek in Anaktuvuk Pass, Brooks Range, northern Alaska, where several Nunamiut Eskimo families now camp. No stratigraphy was noted and no structural features were encountered, but four fire areas were excavated. The most diagnostic artifact is the Kayuk point, a lanceolate form with finely executed parallel oblique flaking, which resembles most closely the Angostura point of the Great Plains. Other stone artifacts, some of which also exhibit the parallel oblique flaking, include blades, scrapers, angle burins, microblades, drills, and adz blades. Implements of bone and antler, mostly caribou, include harpoons, leister and fish spear prongs and barbs, and other forms common in recent and prehistoric Arctic sites. The Kayuk site is believed to have been a hunting camp used during caribou migrations through Anaktuvuk Pass by a prehistoric Eskimo group which probably wintered on the northern coast as do the modern Nunamiut. The Kayuk complex probably belongs somewhere in time between the Denbigh Flint complex and Ipiutak.

Antillean petroglyphic art reached its highest development in the technical excellence and lively artistic expression of the many petroglyphs in Puerto Rico. This report is the beginning of a systematic study of Puerto Rican and Antillean petroglyphs which is intended to trace stylistic developments through the Antilles to South American points of origin. Sixty surface prints were made at 13 sites in three regions of Puerto Rico, but only those from Salto Arriba, Icacos, and Caonillas are discussed in detail. The simple and accurate, though time-consuming method of surface printing is fully explained. There are two distinct local types or styles of petroglyphs in addition to the simple curvilinear and abstract designs. The swaddled infant type appears at least as early as Rouse's Period III and represents the beginning of a local petroglyph style. The later Capá type reaches its final stage during Period IV. This study confirms Rouse's placement of the Puerto Rican petroglyphs in his Periods III and IV (A.D. 350-1584), and demonstrates the development of local petroglyph styles parallel to the development and spread of Taino culture.

The word “archaic” appears in the literature of New World archaeology with more than one usage. In 1910, the existence of three levels of human remains was demonstrated in the Valley of Mexico. The lowest level, in which well-developed ceramics were included, was characterized by hand-modeled human figurines in contrast to the mold made ones of Toltec and Aztec horizons. The civilization of the lowest level came to be called “the archaic type” (Boas 1915). Tozzer (1916: 466), in a paper presented at the Pan American Scientific Congress, Washington, 1915, noted that the terms “tipo de cerro” and “tipo de montaña” had also been used, and suggested that “Archaic” was a more fitting term.

The aboriginal agriculturists discussed here lived in a somewhat secluded environment, the Connecticut River Valley from Bellows Falls to the Connecticut line. In this long-occupied territory, surrounded by high ridges of volcanic origin, heavily wooded, and watered by innumerable spring-fed streams, the cultural development of the inhabitants was apparently of a homogeneous nature. As late as 1636, when the English began to establish plantations throughout the valley, the natives were found united in a well-defined River Confederacy, with frequent intercourse maintained through river travel. While trade routes probably connected this section with many other parts of the country, cultural contacts had apparently persisted among the river tribes in spite of occasional raids of warlike groups from other regions.