Research conducted since the 1976 publication of Society for American Archaeology Memoir 31, Paleoeskimo Problems (Maxwell 1976a) indicates that variability in the early Arctic Small-Tool tradition (ASTt) is greater than described previously. Three questions dominate the interpretation of early ASTt remains in the central Canadian Arctic: Are the remains affiliated with the Independence I or the Pre-Dorset variants? What are the affects of seasonal mobility on the Paleoeskimo archaeological record? Does the core-area model have any remaining utility? Evidence from six Arctic Island locations indicates that Pre-Dorset and Independence I are not clearly separated temporally and stylistically. Functional analyses that consider the meaning of relevant attributes are required. Sources of variability include seasonality, local physiography and climate, and postabandonment processes. The complexity of the early ASTt record is not explained through pure historical particularism.

Sunken gardens are a response to a situation in which ground water is near the surface of a desert but does not reach it. Since the 19th century this situation has generally been met in Peru by raising water from wells for canal irrigation. No mechanical means of raising water was known in ancient Peru, however, and sunken gardens provided the most economical solution to the problem. Ground water occurs near the surface on the Peruvian coast in some valleys where there is not enough water to maintain a river on the surface, and at the lower ends of better watered valleys where surplus irrigation water accumulates but does not reach the surface. The problem of salinization appears to have been more serious in sunken gardens than in irrigated fields. Since sunken gardens are effective only under rather rare combinations of circumstances, it seems unlikely that they played a major role in the development of Peruvian agriculture.

In a recent issue of this Journal a trio of Southwestern archaeologists proposed a new scheme of ceramic taxonomy that might, if widely followed, restore the possibility of intercommunication between specialists in North American archaeology (Wheat, Gifford, and Wasley 1958). I became interested in this scheme some time before its publication as a possible solution to certain typological difficulties in the Lower Mississippi Valley. One of the authors, James Gifford, encouraged my efforts to apply it to pottery so different from that for which it was devised, and, as an unforeseen result of numerous consultations with him, and with Stephen Williams, Gordon R. Willey, and Watson Smith, the present paper emerged.

The late Pliocene basal clay of the region and remnants of later deposits are cut by a perennial stream of pluvial age. Bones and artifacts, including Clovis- fluted points, occur in gravel and other channel deposits in a meander bow of this stream. The bone bed is overlain by a black swamp deposit indicating a subhumid climate and by calichified silts indicating arid conditions, both cut by an Altithermal channel. The hunt, stratigraphically pre- Altithermal, is dated by the equation of the relatively warm and dry 14-to-12 foot level in the San Augustin Plains profile with the Allerod of northern Europe (12,500-10,800 B.P.). This semi-arid period, called the Datil Interval or Datil Drought, is believed to have caused the extinction of the mammoth in both the Southwest and the High Plains by 11,500 B.P. The Sulphur Spring stage Cochise deposit at Double Adobe, which is overlain by a bed containing a mammoth skull, is dated at more than 12,500 B.P. The mammoth hunts of the Lehner and Naco sites are assigned an age of 13,000 or more years.

Results of protein residue and lithic microwear analyses are reported for Paleoindian and Early Archaic stone tools from a Carolina bay sand rim on the Aiken Plateau of South Carolina, USA. Protein residue analysis is performed using crossover Immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP), and indicates positive results for Bovidae, Cervidae, Galliformes, and Meleagris gallopavo. These results are complemented by a larger immunological study of 135 diagnostic hafted bifaces from South Carolina and Georgia. Among other species identified, bovid residue was found on multiple Paleoindian hafted bifaces, an Early Archaic hafted biface, and a Middle Archaic hafted biface. Results suggest continuity of species selection and availability across the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary and provide no support for the exploitation of extinct fauna. The data do provide compelling evidence for a demographic shift and/or regional extirpation of Bovidae possibly as late as the early mid-Holocene in the Southeast. In addition, microwear analysis of artifacts from Flamingo Bay indicate intensive hide scraping, antler boring, bone graving/planing/pointing, wood whittling, and hafting traces. Microwear data suggest intentional snap-fracture or bipolarization of exhausted or broken Clovis points for reuse as hide scrapers, and use of large bifacial knives and unifacial scrapers in intensive defleshing activities consistent with large animal butchery.

It is proposed that individual motor-performance variability in the manufacture of artifacts may permit archaeologists to discover which artifacts were made by which specific prehistoric individuals; this, in turn, may provide a new approach to the description of various aspects of social organization, as well as increased understanding of one aspect of the nature of formal variability in artifacts. Experimental results employing ceramic and hand-writing data demonstrate the potential feasibility of the approach, although more research is needed before it can be used confidently with prehistoric data.

Recent discussions of the relation between sample size and assemblage richness suggest that researchers should control for that relation before behavioral interpretations of richness levels can proceed. We suggest that such automatic decisions should be avoided because a strong correlation between sample size and richness alone is not sufficient evidence for dismissing behavioral factors as the primary causes of the variation in richness. Instead, we must first explore the causes of the observed variation in sample size and the relation of those causes to our research questions.

A review of the obsidian hydration rates proposed for California obsidian sources raises questions of both practical and theoretical nature about the use of obsidian dating. Obsidian hydration rates so far proposed (primarily but not exclusively by Jonathon Ericson) require careful evaluation and checking against empirical data; routine use of the preliminary rates ignores cautions raised by the investigators and can lead to inaccurate chronological determinations. Used with discrimination, however, obsidian dating does yield chronological ages in which there can be a reasonable degree of confidence.

A survey of a cenote in Sacalum and the Chilam Balam of Chumayel suggests strongly that Sacalum, Ticul, and probably Tixtohilcheen have been a source of the mineral attapulgite used variously in the manufacture of Maya Blue, for medicinal purposes, and as a pottery temper.

Corroboration of linguistic evidence for the northward expansion of Numic speakers from the southwestern Great Basin around A.D. 1000 is provided by the dating of Paiute-Shoshoni pottery. At eight stratified eastern Great Basin sites, this distinctive pottery is associated with Anasazi and/or Fremont ceramics, supporting the hypothesis that competition with Numic speaking groups was partially responsible for the disappearance of the Fremont culture.

This report, a preliminary delineation of a new lithic complex from the Central Plains, is presented for the immediate purpose of aiding other archaeologists working in the area. Once one has left such easily recognizable markers as the Folsom complex, the details of the archaic horizons of the Great Plains are confused until we reach such lithic complexes as those found at Signal Butte (Strong, 1935), Ash Hollow Cave (Champe, 1946), and more recently, Nebo Hill (Shippee, 1948). The primary value of defining the Frontier Culture complex at this time is that it affords a “pure” and relatively complete lithic complex by means of which comparative typological work in the Plains Archaic can be furthered.

Twenty years ago excavation began on Marmes Rockshelter at the mouth of the Palouse River in southeastern Washington. Radiocarbon determinations from cave and adjacent floodplain sediments indicated an established pattern of human use by 10,800 B.P. However, a scarcity of dates between 6000 and 1300 B.P. suggested that either these strata were undated or the cave was unused. Examination of all Marmes radiocarbon ages showed agreement between shell and charcoal dates, but also some sediment mixing. Recent radiocarbon dating of charcoal, shell, and bone verifies previous determinations and supplies data between 6000 and 1300 B.P.

Drinking vessels provide information on changes in drinking practices, crafting, exchange patterns, rituals, and the creation of status differences in Chacoan society. They reveal a gradual sequence of change in vessel forms, followed by dramatic intensification of drinking activity in the AD 1000s that provided opportunities for differentiation among Chaco residents, particularly at Pueblo Bonito. Termination of the most iconic drinking vessel form, the cylinder vessel, and the rituals surrounding it around AD 1100 was followed by the introduction of a northern drinking vessel form. Careful reconstruction of the production, consumption, and discard practices associated with drinking vessels provides the means for understanding broader processes in the Chaco world.

Settlement pattern research was introduced to Peruvian archaeology by Gordon R. Willey 2 decades ago. A critical review of this pioneering work points up a basic problem in the structure of analysis. The problem is generated by the use of a simple site taxonomy that is insensitive to the range of human activities that went on at different settlements. Examination of the subsequent course of settlement pattern research shows that this fundamental problem has not been recognized or dealt with in a constructive manner. The small site methodology is introduced as one possible means of treating sites in terms of the different activity patterns they housed.

The carrying-capacity model applied to the Basin of Mexico by Sanders et al. is tested by Contact period hieroglyphic data on population and landholding from the rural tlaxilacalli (ward) of Santa María Asunción. Two calculations are made of the theoretically maximum tlaxilacalli population, one using the Sanders et al. parameters, and the second based on Asunción data. The analysis confirms the accuracy of Sanders et al.'s maize yields and average per-capita maize-consumption rate (if a variable of seed set aside is included), but suggests revision downward of household size. Although for the wrong reasons, the Sanders model correctly predicts the range of population for Asuncion. The balance between simulated household maize consumption and production shows that carrying capacity under viable, long-term strategies had been exceeded for poor and average agricultural years in the Contact period. At the tlaxilacalli level, grain deficits of greater than — 50 percent are projected for poor years, a — 28 percent deficit to + 11 percent surplus in average years, and surpluses of 10 to 74 percent in good years. In average years, to meet the maize requirements of the recorded population, continuous cultivation rather than 1:1 fallowing must have occurred on marginal land. Rural overpopulation apparent in Asunción may have been typical of many piedmont communities. The impetus for Late Horizon expansion of agricultural settlement might have come as much from rural overpopulation as from state-directed settlement to provide subsistence for Tenochtitlan.

Using x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis from nearly 2,300 sourced obsidian artifacts in western Wyoming, southwestern Montana, and eastern Idaho, we demonstrate regional diachronic changes in access to and preference for particular obsidian sources throughout the West. We focus on both (I) long-term patterns of obsidian use that may inform us about the timing of precontact migrations of Numic (Shoshone) speakers into the Rocky Mountains and (2) the extent to which later contact among Native inhabitants and European immigrants was a mechanism for reducing elements of precontact mobility and exchange in the postcontact era. We view indigenous responses to contact in the study area as an active, strategic process with measurable material consequences. Despite a well-documented increase in mobility among local Native groups as a result of the introduction of the horse, our study demonstrates a restriction and reduction in Historic period source use in western Wyoming. We propose that changes in obsidian source use are a reflection of ethnogenesis and development of ethnographic bands as a response to culture contact among indigenous inhabitants and with Europeans.

Typological cross-dating is the primary means by which archaeological sites are placed into chronological frameworks. This approach relies on the assumption that artifacts at undated sites—usually projectile points—are coeval with similar artifacts found at Other, dated sites. While typological cross-dating is necessary in regions dominated by open-air lithic scatters, the approach can be problematic when undated and dated sites are separated by significant distances. Here, we present radiocarbon dates on projectile points with organic hafting material still attached or found within organic storage bags. Our results provide unequivocal ages for various morphological projectile point types at several Great Basin locales and should be useful to researchers seeking local age estimates for those point types, which often involves relying on chronological data from more distant sites. The results also highlight potential issues with uncritically applying typological cross-dating using typologies based on metric attributes, and in two cases, suggest the need to revise the age ranges for certain point styles in the western Great Basin.

Data reporting the relative amounts of PO4 in different forms will have limited value for archaeology if data for the undisturbed soil are not available.

Sullivan and Rozen (1985) suggest that inadequate typologies limit the interpretation of chipped-stone debitage. We contend that the methodology of inference rather than typological structure is limiting debitage analyses. Inferences about the meaning of archaeological data must be derived from sources that are independent of the archaeological record.

After a heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, probability sampling became much less visible in archaeological literature as it came under assault from the post-processual critique and the widespread adoption of “full-coverage survey.” After 1990, published discussion of probability sampling rarely strayed from sample-size issues in analyses of artifacts along with plant and animal remains, and most textbooks and archaeological training limited sampling to regional survey and did little to equip new generations of archaeologists with this critical aspect of research design. A review of the last 20 years of archaeological literature indicates a need for deeper and broader archaeological training in sampling; more precise usage of terms such as “sample”; use of randomization as a control in experimental design; and more attention to cluster sampling, stratified sampling, and nonspatial sampling in both training and research.