Olsen and Olsen's concern for terminology may be excessive; research proceeds without hindrance under many labels.

Corruccini questions our identification of kin group-based cemeteries and our inference of an ascriptive component of leadership at Hawikku based on the presumed use of flawed sex determinations, statistical problems, and inattention to potential gender-based differences in morphological similarity. We address each of these topics and present new evidence to support our contention that cemeteries at Hawikku were kin based.

It was shown by Bowie and Davidson (1955) that measurement of the beta radioactivity of fossil bones in a mixed assemblage is a useful means of determining their relative ages. Buried bones and teeth adsorb uranium from percolating ground water, so that with the passage of time there is an increase in their radioactivity. There can be no confusion with the decreasing radioactivity of the carbon-14 of residual collagen in fossil bones, for this is far too feeble to be measured by the technique employed here. When fresh bone is tested by the present method no radioactivity can be detected. The uranium content of a fossil bone depends not only on the length of time that it has been buried, but also on the permeability of the matrix, on the hydrological conditions at the site, and on the uranium content of the water coming into contact with the specimen.

Zoomorphic beads of carved and polished hard stone, most often red jasper, have been found in Late Archaic, Poverty Point or unknown context across the southern states from western Louisiana and Arkansas to western Alabama. These beads have features that resemble locusts, specifically the grasshopper and the cyclical cicada. The most regularly accentuated feature is a midbody disc or projecting plate that is thought to represent the auditory organs or vibrating membranes of these insects and which participate in production of a relatively tremendous volume of sound. It is proposed that the locust bead concept, involving an element of magic, spread across the southern states in multicultural context at a time level near 1000 B.C.

In times long before history was recorded in America, a people or peoples mined native copper on the shores of Lake Superior. Every copper-bearing vein mined here by modern man has shown indications of mining by prehistoric man. The copper which the primitives mined, and the artifacts made of the copper, were found by early settlers and explorers of this continent to be distributed throughout the Mississippi Valley and the Northeast.

An illustration of the Huarmey Valley in Joris van Speilbergen's journal from the year 1615 shows a “ruined castle, occupied by our men.” In an archaeological survey conducted by the author, a site was located which is very likely to be the one occupied by van Speilbergen. The site appears to be Chimu or Inca in date on the basis of the plan, the construction of tapia adobe, and the high percentage of reduced-fired ceramics. Despite the small size and relative unimportance of the Huarmey Valley, the site, to judge by the illustration and the existing ruins, was a large and impressive structure of some importance to the Chimu and/or the Inca Empire.

Excavations made in 1928 at the north wall of the large pueblo of Chetro Ketl in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, indicated that there had been fourteen feet of sandy fill in the canyon at that point since the foundations of the pueblo were laid. Sherds in the walls of the Chaco arroyo likewise pointed to considerable fill since the occupation of the large Chaco pueblos in the late 9th to early 12th centuries. This has raised the question of rate of deposition on the valley floor and of land surface levels during and since the time of prehistoric occupation. Linked with the problem of old land surfaces was that of burials, which have been notable for their scarcity in this canyon, and it seemed that an investigation of these old surfaces might yield some information on the possibility of burial grounds deep below the present surface.

Ford"s conclusions that a substantial reevaluation of New World prehistory is required are not fully justified. In the first place, the Valdivia complex has not clearly been shown to be the source for all New World ceramics. Second, the comparisons of Valdivia and Jomon potsherds are not so tightly controlled as Ford indicates. Given the great variety of ceramic decoration in Japan, it is not surprising that many similarities should exist. In addition, the question of ceramic origins is confused with the origins of Neolithic and the question of long-range culture contact.

Discovery of a second small prehistoric site in the interior of the Chukchi Peninsula during the summer of 1952 is of interest despite the paucity of the material recovered. The finds, including the first pottery from the region, are sufficient to shed some light on a littleknown area whose past is of great concern to Americanists. Okladnikov's report (1953) forms the basis for this account.

The first interior site, consisting of surface finds on the Yakitikiveem River judged on typological grounds to be of “Neolithic” age in the East Siberian sense of the term, was summarized by Krader (1952). Previously, archaeological knowledge of the extreme northeast tip of Siberia had been limited to coastal sites left by a sedentary sea hunting population — ancestors of the Eskimo. The oldest of these are not thought by Russian investigators to go beyond 500 B.C. The Yakitikiveem finds undoubtedly represent the wandering reindeer hunters of the tundra who must have preceded the historic reindeer-breeding population in the interior of the Chukchi Peninsula.