Weakly bound composite materials such as low-fired pottery, bricks, mortar, and indurated soils can be disaggregated by ultrasound with no significant chemical or physical alteration of individual component grains. The components may then be separated by size, shape, density, magnetic properties, etc. This allows mineralogical, bulk chemical, trace-element, thermoluminescence, or other analyses of individual separates as well as determination of their relative proportions in the composite.

Irwin and Wormington (1970) employ cumulative curves to assess overall similarity between artifact complexes of the Great Plains. Properly applied, ogives are relevant only to R-mode phenomena. Numerical taxonomic aids are advanced as procedures more ef ficacious for such Q-mode analyses. Numerical taxonomy and computer techniques in general are currently within the reach of every archaeologist.

Although noted authorities contend that percussion flakes made with a wooden billet are thinner and shapelier than those made with a hammerstone, this experimenter wishes to report that he can see no difference, even when he strikes off the flakes himself. He begins to doubt that anybody else can tell the difference.

Of the criticisms advanced by Bird on the article entitled “Early Man in the New World,” some are held to be pertinent to the purposes of this article, and suggestions are made for their clarification; others do not seem to be directly relevant and no modifications are attempted.

We compare domestic architectural features in New England and the Maritime Peninsula to investigate the relationship between the adoption of horticulture and its relationship to social and settlement change during the Woodland Period. Horticulture was not practiced on the Maritime Peninsula until after European contact, despite cultural and environmental similarity to New England. In New England, horticulture has been implicated in profound social and settlement changes. However, aggregated villages, a unit typically investigated for evidence of social change, have proven elusive in the archaeological record. We compiled and analyzed a dataset of dwelling features instead of relying on identifiable villages. This novel quantitative approach uses dwelling feature shape and size as a proxy for social and settlement change, considering these changes at the scale of the house. We find that, during the Woodland Period, dwelling size was overall slightly larger in New England than on the Maritime Peninsula, but ranges heavily overlapped. After the introduction of horticulture, however, dwellings in New England grew in size overall and assumed bimodally distinct larger and smaller forms, which likely necessitated a restructuring of social and economic behavior. This pattern correlates maize horticulture with changes in social and economic lifestyle in Late Woodland New England.

Taxonomic identification of archaeofauna relies on techniques and anatomical traits that should be valid, reliable, and usable, but which are rarely tested. Identification protocols (techniques and anatomical traits), particularly those used to distinguish taxa of similar size and morphology, should be rigorously tested to ensure a solid interpretive foundation. Blind testing of a protocol for identifying stylohyoid bones of North American artiodactyls was performed by three analysts who independently employed the protocol to identify 77 anatomically complete specimens of known taxonomic identity, representing 54 individuals and 11 species. Identifications were identical in 89% of cases and in conflict in 3% of cases. The remainder involved differences in resolution; two analysts identified specimens to species, whereas the third identified specimens to more general taxonomic groups. Inter-analyst variability in identification was a result of differences in protocol application. Identifications were consistent with known taxon in 92%–96% of cases. Results indicate that the protocol is valid, reliable, and usable, and it can be applied to archaeological specimens with confidence. Testing of other identification criteria employed by zooarchaeologists is encouraged.

This article investigates the rise of social complexity of Cahokia's multiethnic city through a robust stylistic grammar analysis of early Caddo fine ware vessels at Cahokia's East St. Louis Precinct. We explore ceramic production and distribution to shed light on whether Caddo-like fine wares were produced by Caddo potters who lived and crafted at Cahokia, were produced by local Cahokia potters who copied Caddo motifs, or were imported to Cahokia from the southern Caddo area. This investigation helps us better understand the nature of Caddo connections at the beginning of Cahokia's development and provides a means of identifying and interpreting new levels of social interactions between the Caddo world and Cahokia. The stylistic grammar results show that the majority of the Caddo-like vessels at Cahokia have identical stylistic grammar as vessels from the Caddo world. This strongly suggests that Caddo craft specialists migrated to, lived, and crafted their homeland vessels at Cahokia and thus were key social actors in its development.

In February 1866, workers found a human skull deep in a mine in Calaveras County, California, believed at first to be of Pliocene age. It was passed through several hands before reaching J. D. Whitney, State Geologist of California and Professor of Geology at Harvard University. While some scientists accepted it on face value, other scientists and the public press refused to believe it and even ridiculed the claim. Some believed it was a “plant,” while others had faith in the reports of the miners, which led to a long controversy. Apparently two skulls became confused in transmission from one person to another, but in the end they were identified as fossilized Indian skulls of modern type, and it was finally admitted that the one taken from the mine was “planted” as a joke.

A recently published statement by Baumhoff and Heizer that the "large herbivores disappeared in the Great Basin before man’s entry into the area" is contrary to the facts in the case. The correct data are supplied.

BAUMHOFF AND HEIZER (1965: 699) in their discussion of "Climate and Archaeology in the Desert West" state:

The University of Arizona Archaeological Field School under the joint auspices of the Arizona State Museum and the Department of Anthropology has been in operation for over 10 years. During the course of this longterm archaeological program several reports concerning Point of Pines archaeology have appeared. As a result of work since the publication of these reports, certain changes are justified in the phase sequence and in the terminology as it applies to textured pottery types. Making these changes known in abbreviated form reflects the current status of these 2 subjects. The changes and the resulting implications will be considered in detail in dissertations being prepared individually by the authors.

The Tlingit Indians occupy all of Southeastern Alaska from Dixon's Entrance to Cape St. Elias except the southern half of Prince of Wales Island, which is Haida, and Annette Island, which is a Tsimshian reservation. Formerly all of this region was Tlingit.

Throughout this entire district and extending into the southern half of the Northwest Coast culture area, petroglyphs abound. These inscriptions in their simpler forms have much in common with those of widely separated regions of the earth. There are simple cups, rings, spirals, concentric circles, etc. But the typical petroglyphs of this area are as original as the well-known decorative art of the Northwest Coast and apparently closely affiliated with it in both form and meaning.

It is the goal of this article to present tangible evidence that these petroglyphs originated from (a) natural effects and (b) depressions worn in rock in the process of tool-making.

In view of the vast number of spurious glass artifacts known, it is of interest to note a genuine example which came to light recently in excavations in Florida.

The scraper illustrated with this note (Fig. 27) is made of heavy green glass, and is a perfectly good aboriginal piece in form and workmanship. The length is 57 mm., the width 36 mm. The greatest thickness, 11 mm., lies near the steep nose at a point where original surfaces are present on both bottom and top. Undoubtedly, the material was derived from a heavy green glass bottle.

The artifact was found in test excavations at the site of San Luis de Talimali, several miles west of the city of Tallahassee, Florida. San Luis was the major Spanish settlement in the Apalachee area during the seventeenth century, and at the time of its abandonment and destruction in 1704 consisted of a fort and blockhouse, a mission, and a number of dwellings inhabited by both Spaniards and Indians.

A juniper fiber net discovered in a cave near Cody, Wyoming, had been radiocarbon dated at 8860 BP (6910 ± 170 BC; RL-396) in 1986. Reanalysis and four additional AMS radiocarbon dates indicate an age younger than 1300 cal BP. Net metrics are consistent with archaeological and ethnographic examples identified as rabbit nets.

Recently I published a brief notice on constructional methods in pottery making, which occasioned a number of interesting comments. The majority of the communications and verbal discourses centered upon the seeming error, on my part, “to exclude the paddle and anvil manipulation from the suggested classification.” It will be recalled that the notice in question stated: “On the basis of the work thus far accomplished, the following classification of strictly manual building methods of constructing pottery vessels may be suggested.” The emphasis on hand manipulation and the express limitation to building procedures appear to have made little if any impression on some readers. It seems in point, therefore, to outline briefly the function of the paddle and anvil in pottery making, as derived from my studies of literature and specimens, as well as from certain empirical knowledge. Admittedly, this note does not pretend to settle any problem nor to be conclusive; rather its aim is to call attention to the need of accurate technical detailing.

The Chibchas, whose habitat was in the high plains of the eastern Cordillera of the Andes in central Colombia, are usually classified with the Maya and Inca as representatives of the highest civilized peoples in native America. Unlike the Maya and Inca, who left abundant testimony of their greatness in the form of spectacular religious monuments, cities, public works, and an enormous array of material possessions, the reminders of the Chibcha are not only difficult to find, but once found, they are unimpressive. Chibcha greatness is attributed to their achievement of political states, each dominated by a ruler who controlled the destiny of those people within his domain.

Using cultures of high political and religious achievement as a basis for comparison, it may be inferred that the Chibcha should have had a respectable history as a requisite for advanced political organization and a complex material culture.

When in the past I have listened to writers of scientific reports bewailing the fact that their writings have been misunderstood or misinterpeted, I have been inclined to pass severe judgment: An author should be able to express what he thinks in a clear manner—no reader can be expected to read with the report in one hand and a crystal ball zeroed in on the author's mind in the other. Consequently when, on re-reading Wauchope's recent (1950) stimulating attempt at coordinating the welter of data on Mesoamerican ceramics, I find myself in the unhappy situation of having been misunderstood, I cannot but feel embarrassed. Wauchope obviously cannot be blamed for not being able to guess what I had been thinking while writing on the stratigraphy of Tres Zapotes pottery. It seems important to clarify the matter in order to avoid perpetuation of my error.