The custom of burying the dead in earthenware vessels, or more briefly, urn-burial, was widely distributed throughout the world. Before the coming of the Europeans the Indians living in what is now the state of Alabama practiced this custom extensively, for records of urn-burial exist from a number of archaeological sites in central Alabama along the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers and their tributaries. For many years there have been reports of the finding of human bones in pots by farmers during plowing or while examining recently eroded banks of streams. In 1884 Dr. Edward Palmer made a report upon such finds to the Smithsonian Institution.

This paper acknowledges the validity of Closs's phonetic reading of north as xaman in the Classic Mayan inscriptions, while not accepting his separation of north from up and the zenith direction.

With the publication, in this issue of American Antiquity, of a review of the Hibben-Bryan report on evidence of early occupation in Sandia cave and its correlation with the glacial chronology, there will doubtless come to the minds of many readers the interchanges which have occurred in these pages from time to time since the publication of “A Chronological Problem Presented by Sandia Cave” by Wesley L. Bliss, V. 5, p. 200, this series. The reviewer is not acquainted with the facts and circumstances that gave rise to this controversy, and he and the Editor have deemed it wise that he judge only the published report without knowledge of events which might lead to a biased review. Accordingly, these paragraphs will attempt to explain occurrences that might lead some persons to consider the site as so tainted that its evidence must be taken with a grain of salt.

Calumet ceremonialism was widely practiced by Native American and European colonial groups in the Great Plains and Southeast during the late seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century. Cultural practices associated with smoking calumet pipes have roots in the prehistoric past, but the spread of calumet ceremonialism across the Southeast was associated with the spread of European colonists and colonialism. Calumet ceremonialism served the needs for groups to have a means of creating balance, and of setting the stage for peaceful interaction and exchange, during a period marked by considerable instability and dramatic cultural change. The presence of a redstone elbow pipe bowl fragment from the Coweeta Creek site in southwestern North Carolina demonstrates the participation of Cherokee towns in calumet ceremonialism, despite the remote location of this site in the southern Appalachians, far from major European colonial settlements, and far from areas such as the Mississippi River Valley and the upper Midwest where such pipes are much more common.

The Shirt which is the subject of this article is of importance for several reasons: it exemplifies a revolutionary construction principle in old Peruvian dress, indicates that the new style was one still based on the weaver's art, and gives significance to textile fragments which heretofore have been anomalous.

The specimen (Fig. 76) is the property of Edwin Ferdon of the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, who has kindly given permission for a descriptive and analytical article concerning it. In the spring of 1953 the writer examined the specimen, then on loan to the Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico. I wish to thank Frank Hibben, Curator of the Department's collections, for making this textile available for study, and Joseph Allen for photographing it. The shirt bears the loan number UNM F 15-93. My colleague, John Rowe, has kindly assisted with advice on the dating given herein.

This report deals with the results of excavating the last intact portions of a shell heap long known to collectors as one of the richest sources of artifacts on Cape Cod. Although the primary aim is to give a factual picture of the site, some idea may also be conveyed of the general archaeology of this isolated area, which exhibits cultural shadings differing somewhat from those of the rest of eastern Massachusetts.

The cambered rim jar is stylistically unique and should be especially useful as a time indicator if its place in Cahokia's ceramic history can be ascertained. On the basis of the broken-down interlocking scroll motif, a parallel line motif, and the scalloped rim found on some of these vessels, it is suggested that this vessel form occurs in periods III and IV of the basic ceramic sequence established for the Powell Tract section of the Cahokia site. It is further suggested that at Powell, late in period III and early in period IV, we have approximately the same time range as at the Mitchell site, whose radiocarbon dates cluster about A.D. 1000-1200.

Finally, the similarities between the cambered rim jar at Cahokia and the S-shaped rim types in the Cambria and Mill Creek manifestations to the northwest of Cahokia suggest not only a sharing of ceramic ideas, but also contemporaneity between these three cultural groups during late period III and early period IV times as reflected in the Powell Tract sequence. These relationships would date in calendric years ca. A.D. 1000-1200. Furthermore, this vessel form probably represents a borrowing of ceramic notions on the part of the potters of Cahokia because the form (the S-shaped rim) is both old and widespread in the Central Plains and Middle Missouri regions, while it is rare or missing in the widespread Middle Mississippian manifestations in the Southeast.

Twin Angels Pueblo In Northern New Mexico Is An Example Of A Small Pueblo Hi Structure With Chacoan Architectural Affinities. It Was Built Close To A.D. 1100 And Was Abandoned Before A.D. 1300.

At the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology I presented a paper entitled “Excavations on Hiva Oa, 1963.” In the abstract distributed at the meetings I stated (p. 41) that a decorated potsherd which appeared to be a fragment of a ceramic disk had been found at the Pekia site on Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands. I also stated, “Thus far no parallels are known in Polynesia. A comparative study is in progress.” I can now report that the specimen is of modern manufacture. This came to light upon the return of Dr. Yoshiko Sinoto to Hiva Oa on May 21, 1964.

The archaeological knowledge of practically every large area suffers from unevenness. The lure of the spectacular and the overemphasis on the higher aspects result in concentration of interests on a few regions, while other parts remain practically unknown scientifically. In few regions is this more true than in Middle America. To the average person without special interests all Mexican archaeological phenomena are Aztec, just as all South American ones are Inca. Even many sites in the United States have been popularly ascribed to the Aztecs, as for instance the site of Aztec in New Mexico and Aztalan in Wisconsin. Contritely we must confess that similarly some professional archaeologists seem to see little in Middle America but the Maya and their influences.

From mantles cave, in Dinosaur National Monument, in the northwestern corner of Colorado, Burgh and Scoggin (1948) report a buckskin pouch which contained a remarkably well preserved flicker-quill headband turned up with miniver. The similarity of this ancient ceremonial headdress, apart from its fur trimming, to the ethnographic flicker-quill headbands of California, raises a challenging culture-historical problem. The evidence suggests that the similarity may rest on cultural connections and that the flicker-quill headband may be an important key for the understanding of Californian-Great Basin relationships during the first millennium of this era.