The results of an experiment applying orthophoto mapping techniques to the Loeve-Fox site in Central Texas are presented. This new mapping technique is described and suggestions for its application to archaeological situations are made.

One of the hallmarks of the new archaeology was a shift from “sites” to regions as the investigatory universe appropriate to most archaeological problems (e.g., Binford 1964). This new emphasis was accompanied by a call for multidisciplinary investigations. The precedents usually cited are studies such as MacNeish's Tehuacan Valley project (Byers 1967-1972) and Braidwood's Jarmo project (Braidwood and Howe 1960). Archaeological Survey in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, 1940-1947 (Phillips, Ford, and Griffin 1951), which shares many of these features, is not commonly cited and is one of the more undervalued classics of its time.

During the summer seasons of 1947, 1948, and 1949 the University of Chicago and the Illinois State Museum co-sponsored archaeological excavations in LaSalle county, northern Illinois. In 1947 the site on top of Starved Rock (known as LS 12) was sampled by means of several test pits. In 1948 intensive excavation was carried out at LS 12. In 1949 LS 12 was again intensively excavated by a small crew of students under the writer's direction. As of January, 1950 approximately one-quarter of the total surface of the Rock has been excavated, including excavation carried out in 1949 by Richard S. Hagen for the state of Illinois.

While much has been written concerning the aboriginal steatite (soapstone) bowl industry, it would seem that too little attention has been given to its cultural significance and the people who developed it. Whatever their traits, these stone bowl people, through initiative and persistent effort to raise their standard of living, became primitive industrialists of note. From soft steatite, which they quarried, they made stone bowls of various shapes and sizes, some of which were transported in trade to far-away regions devoid of steatite deposits.

That New England was the center from which quarry work methods spread to other localities, probably south, is the opinion held by some. However, it is not known whether the concept of utilizing the soft soapy stone for pots originated in New England. It may have started further north where steatite deposits occur with telltale pick scars of primitive workmen.

There are indications that future archaeological investigations of the Late Postclassic horizon of the central and eastern Gulf Coast will reveal the existence of several regional artistic subtraditions of the prevailing Mixteca-Puebla horizon style. This would discourage the current pan-"Mixtec" approach to the interpretation of Postclassic Mesoamerican culture. A consequence of this presently confusing practice is the provenience debate concerning the religious Borgia Group codices. An abstract method of costume analysis indicates that these pictorial manuscripts did not originate in the Mixteca because they do not display Mixtec ritual clothing patterns. Data from the costume analysis, together with internal clues from the codices and archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence, demonstrate that the Borgia Group codices had diverse origins. The general Puebla-Tlaxcala region is suggested as the probable homeland for codices Borgia, Cospi, and Vaticanus B. The stylistic twins, Fejervary-Mayer and Laud, are assigned to the eastern Gulf Coast.

"Stela Stealing" has reached such momentous proportions that if something is not done immediately it will be too late to save remaining monuments. Of the 50 archaeological sites in Guatemala and Mexico at which I have recorded monuments in the past 7 years, 18 have either had stelae removed by thieves just prior to my arrival, or "in-process sawing" was taking place at the time of my investigations. Monuments are being stolen in jungle areas. Two important effects will be felt. First, archaeological investigations will be hindered, and second, a source of tourist income for affected countries will be jeopardized. Lives of archaeologists are already in jeopardy, as indicated by incidents in the Peten during the past several years. Part of this paper was read at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Norman, Oklahoma, 6 May 1971.

“The Denbigh Flint Complex is Not Yet Dated,” (American Antiquity, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 375-6) by J. L. Giddings raises a number of general questions concerning the collection of samples and the listings and use of radiocarbon dates which are not confined to the Denbigh material. Giddings says he is a “little worried about our use of ‘lists’ of radiocarbon dates in view of the recent treatment of some dates from Cape Denbigh.” The publication of lists of dates has proved to be of considerable value to anyone who is interested in chronological problems. Primarily the lists facilitate reference. If the more than 2000 determinations were scattered in archaeological, geological, botanical, palaeobotanical and physical literature, it would be practically impossible to find them. For example, an archaeologist might never learn that a date on a level correlative with the Mesolithic but identified by pollen analysis had ever been determined.

Steps taken to clean copper objects from the Etowah site, and to eliminate malignant patina or “bronze disease,” are discussed. The objects are considered in terms of paraphernalia attributed to the Southern Cult. One bilobed hair emblem bears representations of figures in ceremonial dress. One of the figures may be an impersonator of the Long-Nosed God.

Some of the conclusions reached by Mueller (1974) in his study of sampling techniques for archaeological surveys must be disregarded because of the use of inappropriate formulas. In addition, his use of the concept of economy in comparing sampling techniques is questioned, as is his suggestion that the utility of probability sampling in archaeology must be tested.

The concern with the gender and role of Mimbres potters and painters is certainly an important one, and Hegmon and Trevathan (1996) do a good job of reviewing the various arguments about the identity of the bowl painters. Going beyond this review, they add another possible piece of evidence for the role of men in the production of Mimbres art. While I concur that the other arguments they present suggest some role for men in the painting activity, I do not believe that the particular new example they present adds any weight to this argument.

The Early Central California assemblage was described on the basis of four sites in the delta region of California's central valley. The original reports interpret the sites as residential villages with associated cemeteries. In this discussion I argue that the evidence for residential occupation is very weak and that the sites are specialized mortuary mounds. The implications for California archaeology are discussed.

The cotton sample used in the following fiber study was found in the summer of 1932, in the Canyon Creek ruin, Fort Apache Indian Reservation, in east-central Arizona. During the excavations remnants of cotton fabrics were frequently found in the rubbish, indicating that the occupants of the pueblo evidently made considerable use of the fiber. A small quantity of raw cotton, in the process of being spun into yarn, was found with an adult female buried below the floor of a room.

A recent discovery in west-central Illinois seems sufficiently interesting and important to warrant this initial descriptive report. Six small pottery figurines were found with a compound burial in Mound 8 of the Knight Mound Group. Five of these human effigies, apparently fashioned to represent the prehistoric people culturally responsible for these mounds, not only display the remarkably smooth, stylistic skill of the culture and artisan producing them, but are modeled and painted to show costumes and styles in personal ornamentation wjth sufficient detail to make an important contribution to our knowledge of the producers’ material culture. The sixth figurine is extremely simple and devoid of detail, and is not painted.

Studies in the sociopolitics of archaeology have shown patterns of inequality in publishing. Because this inequality affects the richness of perspectives on the past, the extent of unevenness requires continual documentation. This article explores gendered and institutionally based patterns of authorship in prominent archaeology journals, archaeology papers in general science journals, and Sapiens, a public-facing web magazine, from 2016 to 2021. We find that the representation of women is similar across these two types of journals, for authors both in the United States and abroad. Men still publish significantly more than women though the gap is narrowing due to the publication activity of recent PhDs. Using a large database of PhDs as a baseline for comparison, we find that women publish less in these venues than expected, resulting in an imbalance. Some archaeology programs have a larger presence in journal publishing than others, but this imbalance is not as pervasive as what has been observed in hiring practices. Archaeology journals exhibit healthier measures of diversity, compared to Science, in terms of the institutional affiliation of authors.

Mortuary rituals are compared and contrasted in order to better understand social interaction between the Tucson Basin Hohokam of southern Arizona and the Trincheras tradition populations of northern Sonora. This interaction is explored through the examination of ideas about personhood and embodiment, and their relationship to the biological profiles and posthumous treatments of individuals during the Hohokam Classic period (AD 1150–1450) and the occupation of Cerro de Trincheras (AD 1300–1450). In both areas, cremation was the main burial custom, and both groups had complex, multistage cremation rituals, in which burning of the body played only a small part. Examination of rich archaeological data and well-excavated contexts at these sites revealed remarkable similarities and differences in body treatment during the mortuary ritual. Tucson Basin Hohokam mortuary practices suggest a stronger connection to, and remembrance of, the deceased within smaller social groups. In contrast, mortuary practices at Cerro de Trincheras emphasize similarities among the various cremated individuals, with rituals directed more toward the broader social group. Results suggest that the two groups were fundamentally similar in how they treated the bodies of the dead during the cremation process, but different in how the dead were remembered and commemorated.