Sheffer's contention that I have skewed data to suit my purposes is denied. I suggest that it is, rather, he who misuses my data.

Two functions of contemporary bird-form pottery from Oaxaca, Mexico are described. It is suggested that comparable functions may have existed elsewhere for similar vessels, whose effigy forms are simply elaborations of utilitarian shapes.

Within the past twenty-five years excavations and comparative research projects have revealed much concerning Central Andean prehistory. The result of this period of intensive research has been to bring about a systematic treatment of the geographical and chronological phases of the area. With such a large amount of data available it now becomes possible to follow certain detailed aspects of Central Andean prehistory in their development from one time period to another, and to designate their spatial position. The tripod pottery form offers such an opportunity, not only for the Central Andean area itself but also for immediately adjacent areas.

The tripod is a rare form in Peru and Bolivia and for this reason adapts itself to comparative study. It has been of great interest to archaeologists since Kroeber pointed it out as a distinct form and suggested North Andean, and possibly Central Amercan, relationships for the cursive tripod style (Kroeber, 1925, p. 212).

In the Missouri River Basin, as elsewhere, the need for an accurate chronological framework for the understanding of archaeological relationships and cultural development is of primary importance. Because of the vastness of the area, the great diversity of materials from its various regions, and the relatively limited systematic work so far performed, no general Basin-wide chronological scheme of any preciseness is yet feasible. About the best we can do is to try to correlate a few locally developed sequences, and then if possible fit into this general picture some of the “floating” sequences and horizons. Complete coverage of the known archaeological remains of the Basin is manifestly impossible within the limits of a summary paper. It is hoped, however, that the remarks which follow may help to suggest trends developing as the evidence accumulates.

Harold S. Gladwin in a recent publication voiced a question of vital importance to Southwestern archaeology. Can dendrochronology tell us anything concerning the effects of climate on aboriginal agriculture?

Both Douglass and Schulman have claimed that correlations can be established between tree-growth and winter precipitation, but each of them has been explicit in saying that summer rainfall has little, if any effect upon the growth of trees. Since it would seem that summer rainfall, during the crop-growing months, is the only season of moisture which could effect the agricultural well being of Pueblo peoples, I do not see how narrow tree-rings can be regarded as providing any indications of economic disaster in ancient times.

Cremation pits were discovered in the Yakima and Snake River valleys and on the Columbia at Wahluke and at The Dalles before 1927. Recently one has been described from the John Day region in Oregon by Cressman (1950). The cremation complex which the pits represent appears in the late prehistoric period and was undoubtedly widespread and important in the cultural development of the region. In the Dalles-Arlington area, at least, it lasted into historic times. Recent evidence associates the cremation complex with Sahaptin groups inhabiting the region above The Dalles until late historic times. This new evidence controverts an earlier theory, largely based on ethnological traditions, that the Salish were the early inhabitants of the area. The finding of burials below the cremation level at Sheep Island (i.e., a stratified burial site) has particular bearing on the problem.

The transition to maize agriculture frames important cultural shifts in the Eastern Woodlands. However, the tempo and mode of this transition are unclear, particularly when analytical techniques are not standard across the region. In this article, we present evidence of directly dated maize macrobotanical fragments from the Turpin site in southwest Ohio that date between cal AD 552–649 and 684–994. These dates add to current dialogues on the spread of maize in the American Midcontinent and help further situate the Middle Ohio Valley as a cultural crossroads through which people and ideas flowed. We echo suggestions that, to refine our understanding of the introduction of maize into the region, we must develop pan-regional analytical standards and create multiple working hypotheses at a variety of scales.

Edward and Murray Rogers have generously presented to the Peabody Foundation, Andover, the collection of stone tools obtained during the trips described in the preceding paper. It is my privilege to offer a description of these fascinating specimens together with some comments. In doing this I do not wish to divert attention from the task the Rogers' accomplished. The material and the accompanying information which they brought back is, and will remain, of considerable importance to the archaeology of the “Far Northeast.”

Few of us have the slightest conception of what the two men went through in order to make these data available to us. The region is difficult to travel in; even the Indians do not move around during the summer any more than they have to.

GIS modeling and analysis of multispectral satellite imagery are applied to a former plantation in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), which, in 1831, became a settlement of free Africans who lived within slavery-based British colonialism. A map of the settlement represents the paternalist British government ideal for this community—an “experiment” for controlling a postemancipation peasantry—and the techniques discussed here allow clearer understanding of the way these ideals would have interacted with the physical and social landscape of the BVI had they been implemented. The residents were certainly aware of their situation, and this study does not mean to imply that they simply adopted the plan they were handed. Instead, our goal is to interrogate the implications of the plan itself. We combine least cost path (LCP), Normalized Difference Vegetation Indexes (NDVI), and other technical analyses to show the interaction of the British plan and the BVI landscape in order to describe the context in which the Kingstown community was built and maintained. Although schematic, this study quantifies at least some of the barriers the community overcame and contributes in a limited way to broader considerations of the place of land and landscape in structures of colonialism.

Contra Costa County lies east of San Francisco Bay, between the southern shores of San Pablo Bay, Carquinez Straits, Suisun Bay and the San Joaquin River, on the north, and Mount Diablo on the south. This peak, the highest of the many ranges of hills, reaches an altitude of 3800 feet. The terrain is very diversified. As to prehistoric inhabitants, Kroeber places the entire area in Costanoan territory, while Schenck mentions the Yachicomnes, etc., names, perhaps of Spanish invention, which mean nothing.

Charles P. Bowditch reproduces about seven different signs as hieroglyphs for Kin, “day,” in his fundamental work on the Maya calendar. They are: (1) the sun-disk, (2) the head of the sun-god, (3) the head of a sun-bird, (4) the dog's head, (5) the conch, (6) the inverted Ahau and (7) the composite glyph day-sky, sun-disc and Caban. There can be identified still a few more hieroglyphs as representing the same idea.

In this paper we shall treat of a new sign, generally composed of a quincunx (a variant of the character for “greenstone”) and a skull (Figure 1, a, b and f), for which the value “day” can be proved.

Graphemes T-757 and T-788 (Thompson 1962) are identified as a single sign representing a rodent. Intermediate forms are cited, the use of the sign in glyph T-1.60:757 is discussed, and its substitution for T-501 is noted. It is suggested that before Thompson’s catalog can be successfully used for statistical comparisons it needs to be converted to a catalog of signs by investigations of the use of the individual graphemes in context.

Every radiocarbon sample that an archaeologist turns in to a physicist for dating has its particular story to tell. The story is likely to be much longer and more devious than is easily expressed in a simple number. I am a little worried about our use of “lists” of radiocarbon dates in view of the recent treatment of some dates from Cape Denbigh.

During the field seasons of 1948, 1949, and 1950 we secured from the Denbigh Flint layer no more than a small pillbox full of charcoal. When this was submitted to Libby, at the University of Chicago laboratory, he regretfully notified us that the sample was not enough to coat a cylinder. Our 4th field trip to Cape Denbigh, in 1952, was made for the express purpose of scraping together enough organic matter for analysis of the oldest cultural layer.

Cultural change from the prehistoric to the protohistoric period is seen as a subject of anthropological study in which archaeological and ethnohistorical data are complementary sources. It is suggested that an interpretation of the effect of the postconquest economic and political innovations in Tepexi, a Mixteca-Puebla community in Mexico, can be made only after an examination of the condition of the preconquest economic and political systems. Tepexi was economically overburdened in preconquest times as a result of Aztec tribute demands, and the introduction of the silk industry by the Spaniards may have been responsible for sustaining the failing community.