In 1873 the party of Capt. William A. Jones reported that “throughout the Wind River country of Wyoming many pictographs have been found, and others reported by the Shoshoni Indians.” Thus the Dinwoody petroglyphs and those in the surrounding area have been known for three-quarters of a century, and yet were not even surveyed for archaeological purposes until 1938 and 1939. This, of course, is typical of the fate of petroglyphs over most of North America. Only during the last twenty years has any attention been given by competent archaeologists to the subject of “Indian Writing.” There is no need to draw attention to the “interpretation” of these rock drawings by amateur speculators, for Steward's chastisement of them would be difficult to equal.

In a recent article Johnson makes use of the term “Desert Hohokam.” This term has been questioned several times, and nothing has been offered since in support of its use. The facts do not suggest what the concept of “Desert Hohokam” is supposed to imply.

In gathering data for this paper it was discovered that publications containing information on the subject have described inadequately specimens found, especially in regard to the materials of which they are composed and their sources. For example, in describing arrowheads made of obsidian the sizes and shapes have been dealt with at great length, but the writers have neglected to state the qualities of the obsidian itself, viz., whether it was mottled, opaque, black, etc. Metates likewise have been described as being made of granite, limestone, sandstone, and lava, most writers deeming that information sufficient. Such a description is not enough, and ultimately it may lead to a false interpretation of the data gathered. A single example may suffice to show what may occur. In a very well known publication dealing with archaeology in the Northern Periphery, metates of granite have been reported from near Willard, Utah.

Dr. Antonio J. Waring, Jr., of Savannah, Georgia, dug a test trench at Johns Island in August, 1948. He discovered an upper zone of oyster shells containing sherds of the Weeden Island period and a lower zone of cemented fresh-water snail shells in which were large percussion-flaked tools but apparently no pottery. At the conference on The Florida Indian and His Neighbors held at Rollins College, Winter, Park Florida, in April he called this site to the attention of the Florida Park Service and suggested that additional work would be worthwhile. We conducted excavations at the island in May, 1949, with two primary objectives: first, to determine the associations of the large stone tools; second, to secure data relative to a rise in sea level during or since occupancy.

The purpose of a review of a scientific monograph is twofold: 1) to give a brief summary of the contents, organization, methodology, and main conclusions of the work; and 2) to comment critically on its contribution in the light of the author's aims and techniques. Unfortunately, the recent review by Stig Rydén (1958, American Antiquity, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 88-9) of Heyerdahl and Skjölsvold, Archaeological Evidence of Pre-Spanish Visits to the Galápagos Islands does not serve either of these purposes.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of excavations conducted in 1933, as yet unreported, and to correlate the findings with present knowledge of Jamaican and other West Indian prehistory. Descriptions of the sites and specimens may be of value to archaeologists in this area.

Since 1933 great strides have been made in archaeological knowledge of the West Indies. Irving Rouse has correlated known cultures in most of the Greater Antilles and in some of the Lesser Antilles. He has established seven arbitrary time periods, I, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb, IVa, and IVb, for the area (Rouse, 1939, 1941, 1948, 1951, 1952) on the basis of stratigraphy, sedation of modes, establishment of style sequences, and cross-dating of trade objects. During these periods four cultures existed. The period I culture is preceramic and is associated with the Ciboney Indians who may have come from North America. The first ceramic culture, Igneri, is associated with the Arawak Indians, who pushed north and east from the Orinoco Valley in period II. It lacks the ceremonial complex which distinguishes the two later ceramic cultures, sub-Taino and Taino, which developed in the Greater Antilles during periods III and IV, the former as a simpler variant of the latter.

Paul Kirchhoff defined the whole region
(Its trait was a bloody religion)
Then came Caso, Bernal
MacNeish, Willey et al.
And of E. Willys Andrews, a legion.
The Chilam Balam of Chapultepec

By the early thirties Mesoamerican archaeology was already indelibly marked. Ricketson, at Uaxactun from the late twenties, and Caso, at Monte Alban, had the general sequences for the culture area as early as that.

A metallographic study was made of certain large native copper implements to determine the methods of manufacture. Metallurgical knowledge of the diffusion of oxygen into copper, the recrystallization of copper, and the working characteristics of copper are used in this analysis. The artifacts analyzed are listed below. The Wisconsin Historical Museum catalog numbers of each specimen is also given.

During the summer of 1948, from June 14th to September 25th, the authors made a second archaeological expedition into the area including Lakes Mistassini and Albanel in south-central Province of Quebec. The work was directed by Frederick Johnson and done under the auspices of the Peabody Foundation, which provided half of the funds necessary. The Viking Fund of New York City generously granted the remainder of the money necessary and for this both we and the Foundation wish to express our gratitude.

Traveling in the trackless interior of Quebec presents many difficulties at best, and without the generous cooperation of the Hudson's Bay Company and its personnel, travel would be virtually impossible. We are sincerely grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Fred McLeod, Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Parsons, and Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Jeffreys, whose hospitality and genuine good will are in keeping with the best traditions of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Neurolepis is an easily recognizable bamboo-grass found as the dominant vegetation in many of the wettest and most remote Andean montane grassland areas. The plant has little economic value and is usually burned to produce pasture or facilitate hunting. After burning, regrowth is extremely slow, so that areas previously occupied by Neurolepis are apparently permanently colonized by tussock pasture grasses. It seems likely, therefore, that the existing remnant areas of Neurolepis represent the areas which have not been substantially affected by man in historic, and perhaps prehistoric, times.

We are in full agreement with Leonard, and many others, that the sample size-richness relation is an important concern for archaeologists, and we appreciate his evenhanded discussion of our paper. However, we disagree with Leonard regarding the point in the research process when variable prehistoric behavior can be used to explain differences in richness. Leonard and others argue that we must always begin studies of richness by controlling any observed relation to sample size; we can only consider prehistoric behavior as an explanation of richness after we account for sample size effects. In contrast, we suggest that following his recommendations will obscure aspects of behavioral variation that are important to understanding prehistoric societies. Considerations of prehistoric behavior must therefore be central in studies of richness.

The recently published reconstruction of Hernando de Soto's route through the southeastern United States, and of the chiefdom of Coosa (Hudson et al. 1985), is critiqued. The researchers' estimates of time traveled by the expedition, their use of certain vague or unreliable sources, and their interpretation of archaeological data are questioned. These problems weaken their claims that their reconstruction is better than the Soto route originally proposed by Swanton. Of particular concern is their seeming naivete regarding the correlation of archaeological and ethnographic cultures.

As a linguistic medium, oral tradition conveys rich and specific detail about past events but is also subject to alteration in the course of transmission between generations. As a source for indigenous history, spoken heritage is characteristically specific in geographic attribution and thus definitive of cultural landscapes, but it is temporally under-defined because it is unconstrained by calendrical dates. We consider these qualities in relation to Tlingit oral accounts that refer to Xak-wnoowú, an 850-year-old fort in the Glacier Bay region of southeastern Alaska. The site is narratively linked to the origins of Tlingit warfare and of the Kaagwaantaan clan, and remains a landmark of historical consciousness for contemporary descendants. We apply archaeological and geological evidence to date and verify key oral narratives, finding substantial convergence with scientific data and a complementarity of perspective that potentiates fuller understandings of both Tlingit history and environmental change during the Little Ice Age. We conclude that the historicity of oral tradition—a topic of wide current debate—is clearly demonstrated at Xakwnoowú, although instances of chronological compression are revealed by the analysis.

An Olmec figurine said to have been found at La Venta falls stylistically within the range of variation of other figurines known to be from that site. Four designs engraved on the upper parts of the limbs represent abstract were-jaguar heads identical with those of the serpentine mosaic pavements at La Venta. Thus, the pavements should be considered as examples of the Olmec style and not, as has been claimed, pre-Olmec.

A desire to increase efficiency in the description and typological study of stone artifacts led to a conference of ten archaeologists in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This conference concentrated on the delineation of attributes of specimens rather than on the creation of a typological system. It attempted to meet the requirements of this phase of archaeology on a continental rather than a regional scale. Considerable attention was given to the various sorts of punched cards and to data-processing equipment. A glossary of definitions and an attribute form sheet for recording specimens were compiled and issued to the attending members for use in pilot studies of regional collections. The form sheets were laid out with a view to transferring the data to standard IBM cards and determining significant clusters of attributes. The testing of the definitions of attributes and the form sheet through actual use is intended to reveal possible improvements and to evaluate the practicality of rapid-processing methods in typological studies of this nature.