Webster's criticism of my linear programming simulation of the agricultural carrying capacity of the Tikal sustaining area is answered.

In their report in American Antiquity on the “Application of orthophoto mapping to archaeological problems,” Prewitt and Holz (1976) discuss the use of orthophotos and orthophotomaps in archaeological field inspection but also introduce a number of incorrect definitions and misconceptions concerning the technique. The following comments are an attempt to clarify these points and, in addition, to discuss some other advantages and applications of-and caveats concerning-this useful remote-sensing technique. A select bibliography for further reading in remote sensing and orthophotography is also presented.

The use of dry metallic powder is suggested as a means of enhancing photography of obsidian or glassy stone tools.

Radiocarbon determinations on marine shell have previously been used to provide evidence assigning a fourth to sixth millennium B.C. age to ceramic objects excavated at the Irvine site, an early Archaic period shell midden located in coastal southern California. Objections have been raised concerning the reliability of the stratigraphic association of ceramics and the radiocarbon-dated marine shell materials. An examination of the thermoluminescence responses of two ceramic samples resulted in minimum TL ages of ca. 1500 B.C. Evidence for a presumably indigenous California ceramic tradition may also be present at two additional sites. This suggests that the arrival of ceramic forms into southern and central California by way of the southern Great Basin and Colorado River may be seen as a separate, comparatively recent [ca. A.D. 1000] phenomenon.

The corps of engineers is currently building a power and flood control dam near the little town of Buford on the upper Chattahoochee River in northern Georgia. This is one of several such dams under way in the State, and in accordance with the usual procedure the Smithsonian River Basin Surveys made a routine archaeological reconnaissance of the impoundment area from November 15, 1950 to April 7, 1951. During the survey the writers came upon a large prehistoric mound (9HL64) not previously reported.

We spent three weeks investigating the structure to determine if its eventual flooding in the Buford impoundment would constitute an important loss of archaeological data. The conclusion reached was that a full scale excavation should be made before the site is inundated sometime in 1954 or 1955.

Recent archaeological efforts to explain the emergence and persistence of social inequality have been hampered by little information about how wealth was transmitted across generations, and how it may have accumulated or diminished over time. Building on studies that have shown domestic architecture to be an excellent material expression of household wealth, we provide a method for reconstructing the amount of labor invested in house construction among the Hohokam of southern Arizona. We also account for different architectural styles from different time periods. To illustrate the utility of the method for addressing broader social issues, we investigate the relationship among population increases, resource shortages, and wealth differentials at Pueblo Grande—one of the preeminent settlements in the Hohokam region. Inequality at Pueblo Grande was tracked over time and compared to similar results at the Grewe site. High-status households at both sites were distinguished architecturally by larger and, in some instances, more elaborate houses. The proximity of these households to public areas for ceremonial expression further suggests that access to ritual played a key role in creating and maintaining inequality in Hohokam society.

In my Studies on the Inscriptions of Chichen Itza I gave tentative datings of a number of buildings and monuments on the basis of Tun-Ahau combinations contained in their inscriptions. The list is repeated here as Table I.

This paper analyzes archaeological remains from Verkholenskaia Gora in Cis-Baikal and discusses the placement of this culture in the archaeological sequence of the Baikal region. The tools are classified on the basis of manufacturing technique and technological function. The discovery of a bone arrowpoint at this site may increase the antiquity of the bow by several millennia. A comparison of the materials from Verkholenskaia Gora with materials from other regional archaeological assemblages suggests that the site was occupied at the end of the transitional period that extends from the Palaeolithic of the Mal'ta stage to the Neolithic. Verkholenskaia Gora is therefore assigned to the Siberian Mesolithic.

The validity of the reasons adduced by a group of excavators for the willful destruction of a temple pyramid at Tikal is questioned and a greater sense of responsibility among archaeologists is urged.

The identification of human friction prints by Chrisman et al. (1996) from Pendejo Cave, New Mexico, some dating more than 36,000 years B.P., is tenuous given the incongruence between data presented in the text and data illustrated in the figures. The identification of these structures as human friction prints hinged largely on the frequency of epidermal ridges per linear centimeter. As such, the validity of this evidence to justify the presence of humans at Pendejo Cave at this early date is questioned.

As far as can be learned from a study of the scientific contributions of Yoder (1950), Foshag (1945), and others who have dealt with the jade-jadeite problem, it appears that, although the presence of one or the other mineral has been reported from a considerable list of widely separated localities in both the Old and the New World, the exact conditions leading to their development have been subject to controversy, partly because occurrence in situ is extremely rare. The passing references to places from which the Mayans secured their supplies of raw material are in general vague, based on hearsay or traditional accounts, combined with inferences relating to the abundant artifacts unearthed at classical sites.

As stated in our original paper (Jones et al. 2002), the Cross Creek site is not of sufficient antiquity to challenge Clovis for temporal priority in western North America, but it pushes the age of the California Milling Stone culture back 2,000 years earlier than previous estimates. The Milling Stone culture and coastal adaptations on the southern California islands are so profoundly different from Clovis that they beg consideration of alternative colonization scenarios. Relying on old arguments and ignoring recently published findings, Turner (this issue) argues that there is insufficient evidence for a maritime culture on the central coast of California at the end of the Pleistocene. In our response, we further discuss implications of the findings from Cross Creek and other studies that support a coastal migration model.