In the second annual review of Old World archaeology, the authors have restructured their attention to three topics: (1) some issues of a theoretical and philosophical nature, involving differing stances on contemporary theoretical trends and the nature of the differences between the social scientist and humanist approaches to archaeology; (2) the wealth of recent work that has altered the conceptual framework of Paleolithic and Mesolithic archaeology in Africa and western Europe; and (3) recent developments in late Mediterranean antiquity, predominantly humanist in focus, involving detailed empirical studies, trends in fieldwork design, and analytical studies of organic and inorganic materials.

Historic period Plains biographic art provides narratives of the deeds and actions of Indigenous peoples of the region. The Crow (Apsáalooke) are one such people with a rich record of biographic drawings in rock art and portable works. However, chronological and stylistic links between these two media have long been thought out of reach, even though such links are essential if the abundant Historic period rock art is to be fully incorporated into discussions of Apsáalooke history and their connection better ascertained to documented historical and ethnohistorical events and trends. Indeed, the lack of such a framework locks away a vast wealth of history in these hundreds of rock art pictures. In this article we present a statistical framework for comparing better-dated Crow portable artworks with their rock art equivalents. We are able to place rock art imagery from five sites into a relatively fine-grained chronological order, which permits a better understanding of changing patterns in Crow stylistic imagery. This permits a direct association with changing historical circumstances and facilitates a better understanding of the link between social history and the changing patterns seen in these artworks. Moreover, in one case, our analysis provides archaeological confirmation of Crow ethnohistory.

Archaeological site surveying and locational analysis of anthropological data depend in part on discrete subdivisions of geographic space. This fact is amplified in a recent proposal by Plog and Hill (1971) that outlines a numerical system for ordering stream channels and drainage basins as part of the statistical basis for correlation of site data. As proposed, however, their system is unworkable when used in conjunction with available geomorphic and hydrologic data. It is more convenient to use an established and standardized method of ranking drainage networks that allows correlation of comparable geomorphic data between and within basins of all sizes.

In their 1996 article, Hegmon and Trevathan argue that the nature of birth scenes depicted on Mimbres pottery bowls provides insight into the gender of the pottery painters. Specifically, they argue that the birth position illustrated is extremely uncommon, suggesting that the potter(s) had not had exposure to birth episodes. Hegmon and Trevathan conclude that the potters were male. Their arguments are flawed by faulty premises and a severe misunderstanding of the nature of Mimbres art. A review of the evidence regarding birth-depiction bowls indicates that the images do not imply either male or female potters.

Hawver cave, located about two miles from Cool, El Dorado County, California, is well known to paleontologists for its abundant and diversified Pleistocene fauna. The fossil animal remains have been described in several monographs (Furlong, 1907; Stock, 1918; Miller, 1912; Kellogg, 1912). The occurrence of human skeletal material has also been noted (Merriam, 1909; Stock, 1918, pp. 466-8), but an interesting series of artifacts recovered from the cave has received only brief mention in a newspaper article (Hamilton, 1910). These man-made objects are, on the whole, distinct from those manufactured by the historic Indians of the region and seem worthy of detailed analysis. Before describing the artifacts, however, it is necessary to review some of the facts pertaining to the cave and its contents.

In this paper we wish to point out (1) certain occurrences of cord-marked and stamped pottery in Mexico which possibly bear relationship to similar decorative techniques in the eastern United States, and (2) a few instances of trade pottery in central Mexico which point to an origin in more northerly cultures. Neither author pretends to be intimately acquainted with ceramic problems in Middle America, and this account is incompletely documented. We are, however, quite sure that the material to be presented will prove important in any consideration of pre-Columbian contacts between the eastern United States and Middle America.

For the past nine years the Museum of Archaeology of the Western State College of Colorado, at Gunnison, has been engaged in archaeological excavations in central and western Montrose County. This county adjoins the Utah line and lies in the northwest part of the southwest quarter of the state of Colorado.

Six sites have been excavated during the course of this work. The following is a brief summary of the excavations, presented as a background for discussion of a corn cache found in one of the sites during the summer of 1947.

In the last decade the middle Rio Grande area of New Mexico has produced considerable cultural evidence which indicates the presence here of the paleo-Indian and related cultures. Finds of the classic hunting varieties are rare in the Rio Grande valley itself, although a scattering of Sandia, Clovis Fluted, and Folsom points has appeared. Far more common are sites of Cochiselike character, usually evidenced by deeply buried fire hearths, milling stones, manos, and occasional projectile points. Several groups of these sites have been studied in recent years and some of the fire hearths have been dated by the radiocarbon method. A burial possibly connected with these early sites has also appeared.

For many years the people of Maine, parts of New England, and the Maritime Provinces have been told that an ancient group of Indians lived in the northeastern part of the United States and later moved into New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. These ancient people have been called the Pre-Algonquian Group, The Red Paint People of Maine, and the Beothuk of Newfoundland, by various archaeologists who have excavated their graves.

These archaeologists have come to the conclusion that the graves represent a very old group of Indians, but they have not agreed on who they were, where they came from, or where they went. Mr. Charles C. Willoughby shows the distribution of the pre-Algonquian culture as covering all that portion of North America east of the Great Lakes, along the Saint Lawrence River and as far south as the tip of New Jersey.

Monographs and other recent works are reviewed to highlight several trends in Old World archaeology that seem to be of more than passing interest to archaeologists whose primary research interests are in the Americas. Included in this review are works involving natural historical studies applied to archaeology; current works involving lithic and ceramic technology, spatial analysis, and intrasite and intersite community studies; and recent works on questions of early food production and selected other topics. This paper, the first of an anticipated annual exchange between the Archaeological Institute of America and the Society for American Archaeology, emphasizes prehistoric studies; subsequent contributions will treat a fuller range of Old World archaeological interests.

While Kintigh's (1994) proposed modifications of the methods I described in 1991 for estimating the mean number of simultaneous occupations and mean use span of occupations have certain strengths and weaknesses, they do offer a viable alternative approach. However, I show here that the original and revised methods derive from a different conception of settlement-pattern processes.

Archaeological and historical research in 1999–2001 on the loss of the 3-masted, iron barque “North Carolina” produced a series of anomalies and coincidences suggesting that the ship was sunk intentionally. The wreck lies along the southwest edge of Bermuda’s reef system. At first it appeared to be that of a fairly typical sail-propelled, iron-hulled cargo ship of a general type built in the United Kingdom during the late nineteenth century. The original research design for the “North Carolina” project sought to test how representative this shipwreck was as an example of that shipbuilding tradition. Archaeological surveys as well as published and archival accounts of the ship's loss, however, revealed discrepancies that were explored further. The project evolved into the investigation of a possible 120-year-old crime scene. The “North Carolina” offers a case study of how scientifically grounded archaeology applied with due regard for critical issues of cultural context can reveal systemic as well as proximate factors that affect past human behavior—including possible criminal behavior.

From November 15, 1950, to April 7, 1951, an archaeological survey was conducted by the Smithsonian River Basin Surveys, in cooperation with the National Park Service and the Corps of Army Engineers, of the area to be flooded by the dam at Buford, Georgia. On the upper Chattahoochee River we came across an aboriginal cooking pit containing quantities of pottery which could be unhesitatingly identified as historic Cherokee. While a certain amount of confusion as to just what might constitute Cherokee ceramics was dispelled some years ago by the publication of Hiwassee Island, it does seem advisable to present the Buford material as an areal and temporal variant. It differs in some particulars from the Overhill pottery described by Lewis and Kneberg from the Little Tennessee; there are other differences from recently identified Cherokee pottery from the middle Etowah River in northwest Georgia; and again, it is unlike some ceramic assemblages from Lower Cherokee towns in northeast Georgia and western South Carolina.

A unique, miniature, anthropomorphic stone hacha from the Gulf Coast of Mexico is described and illustrated. The author also discusses other miniature stone objects from Mesoamerica, such as mushroom stones, yokes, “toad altars,” “doughnut-stones,” metates, spherical stone balls, and star-shaped maceheads, and suggests that some of these Mesoamerican miniature stone objects may have been used in connection with the various forms of the pre-Columbian ball game.

This research involves analysis of two works related to the same archaeological site. The archaeologists’ unconscious exclusion of information found in their scholarly report resulted in a public booklet that tells only part of the history of this site. A third historic document supplements this comparison and provides detailed information relevant to this analysis. Professional archaeologists interact with the public on multiple levels and their connections with education and curricula are established through their writings as well as more deliberate and obvious choices. Increasing levels of consciousness and recognition of responsibility to public education could result in more careful analysis of material culture, interpretation, and choices for all works involving archaeological sites. Foucault (in Gordon 1980) discussed the inclusion of hidden ruses and discourses about decisions, regulations, and strategies pertaining to particular institutions. Using the work of critical theorists, these issues are interwoven to examine this archaeological investigation with connections to the past through patterns that still pervade today.

Skeletal remains recovered and analyzed from Archaic and Paleoindian periods demonstrate less pronounced Asiatic/Sinodont features that distinguish them from present day Amerindians. This paper describes the metric and nonmetric traits that link a Middle Plains Archaic male (radiocarbon dated to 2220-2500 B. C.), found near Sidney, Nebraska, to Sinodonts, Sundadonts, and Paleoindians. Metrically, the Sidney male differs from Late Prehistoric and Historic Mandan and Arikara males (1500 to 1830 A.D.) from the same region in cranial vault height (auricular height p ≤ .02 basion-porion height p ≤ .07). His cranium is longer and higher (acrocranic Cranial Breadth-Height Index) than that of the more highly derived Mandan and Arikara males. Several of the Sidney male’s cranial and femoral traits show a blend of Amerindian and earlier protomongoloid traits, distinguishable from recent Amerindian populations. These traits suggest affiliation to a common Eurasian progenitor for Sinodonts, Sundadonts, and Paleoindians, and support the hypothesis that Plains Amerindians descended from the earliest wave of Paleoindians who crossed the Bering Straits. Tracing microevolutionary changes across time is a challenging, incremental process, not yet resolved by the limited Paleoindian and Archaic skeletal remains discovered to date. However, the intermediate skeletal characteristics of the Sidney male indicate gradual adaptation and suggest that natural selection most strongly influenced the adaptation of Plains peoples. Information presented here increases the database needed for future investigations of microevolution, gene flow patterns and the cultural history that may someday link early Archaic populations and Paleoindians to specific tribes among the modern Plains Amerindians.

The Bintz site is a small village site located on the left bank of the Ohio River at the mouth of Twelve-Mile Creek, Campbell County, Kentucky, on property belonging to Mrs. William C. Bintz. The village consists of two parts – the “lower village,” at the immediate edge of the river, just downstream from the mouth of the creek, and the “upper village” about two hundred meters from the river and the creek on a terrace about four meters higher than the flood-plain where the “lower village” is located (Fig. 87). The cultural material found at both areas is identical, and it appears that both areas were occupied by the same people and at the same time. With the exception of a small amount of Woodland material found on the surface and in the excavations at the “upper village,” all the material is definitely of the Fort Ancient type. Since the pottery types link the site specifically with the Madisonville and Fox Farm sites, we classify the Bintz site as a component of the Madisonville focus (Griffin, 1943).