A bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) recovered from a burial context at the Windover site (8 BR246) in east-central Florida has been dated directly to 7,290 ± 120 radiocarbon years B.P. This provides the earliest documentation of bottle gourds north of Mexico and demonstrates approximate contemporaneity with other eastern United States Cucurbitacae. Investigations of wet sites such as Windover, while requiring substantially greater consideration of conservation than in typical dry sites, greatly expands the recovery of organic materials enabling broader insights to prehistoric processes.

This report is based on two months reconnaissance in the summer of 1941 in the Eden Valley, Wyoming. The work is as yet far from complete and the conclusions presented here must be regarded as tentative. It is hoped that in the future more extensive geological work may be undertaken.

The Finley site provides a promising opportunity for a determination of the age of the Yuma culture. The points and bones described by Dr. Howard occur in a culture layer which has been found in a large dune area, here called the Killpecker dunes. The deposition of the culture layer is one of a series of events in the dune area which can be correlated with the cutting and filling of gravel terraces in the Eden Valley to the west, and these in turn may be related to the glacial chronology in the Wind River Mountains which lie to the north.

Carved and engraved bone pins collected from eight sites along the Middle Mississippi and Lower Ohio Rivers and their tributaries are used to investigate the development of regional-scale social interaction among increasingly more sedentary late Middle Archaic (6000–5000 B.P.) hunter-gatherer groups. The similarity in pin morphology and decoration suggests an increasing level of social integration among groups that were shifting from a residential mobility strategy to a logistically organized one. The development or amplification of intergroup social networks provided access to information and resources that were formerly obtained through more direct forms of intergroup contact. The spatial distribution of selected bone pin styles suggests that these social networks extended over a considerable portion of the southern Midwest. Collectively, these data suggest that regional social networks existed in this part of the Midwest much earlier than previously believed.

In 1938 Steward and Setzler published a brief plea for a more enlightened interpretation of archaeological materials, calling attention to the necessity for ecological and configurational considerations of material culture complexes. Since that time a number of studies touching upon these features have appeared–enough to constitute a trend. It is the purpose of this paper to analyze these contributions and suggest further possibilities along functional lines.

The science of archaeology is based on a multi-leveled interdisciplinary system of descriptions, laws, and explanations. Archaeologists try to provide systemic descriptions and to confirm hypotheses about past social structures on the assumption that they are represented by selected parts of extant material remains. Inferences are about and based on processes and relations among social structure, material culture, and its unaltered, altered, and selected remains. Archaeological inference depends on principles of cultural behavior, the accumulation and alteration of material, and archaeologists' methods. These physico-chemical, geological, biological, psychological, sociological, anthropological, and methodological principles derive from the present behavior of men and material.

Chavín de Huántar is a small village located in the Department of Ancash in the high mountains of central Peru. Near the modern town is a vast, partly subterranean temple, dating from prehistoric times, within and near which have been found numerous stone carvings of distinctive styles. The name Chavín has thus been applied to a very ancient culture which apparently once dominated the northern interior of Peru and, in places, emerged in the coastal valleys.

The existence, if not the status, of Chavín culture was brought to the attention of the outside world many years ago by Antonio Raimondi, whose name clings to the celebrated stone carvings seen in Fig. 27, b. Charles Wiener has left a description of the great temple at Chavín and the huge dagger-like stone carving that was its chief idol. Plans and photographs have been recently published by Cornelius Roosevelt. In 1919, Dr. Julio C.

In western North America, the Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) is contemporaneous with, but technologically different from, the Clovis Paleoindian Tradition as initially defined from the Great Plains and American Southwest. The foundational principles of WST lithic technology have not been as clearly delineated as those of their fluted and unfluted Paleoindian Tradition technological counterparts, largely due to the paucity of extensive WST lithic assemblages recovered from intact buried contexts. Recent excavations at the Cooper's Ferry site, located in western Idaho, revealed a stratified series of WST components spanning the late Pleistocene to early Holocene periods. The study of these components offers a unique opportunity to evaluate current expectations about WST lithic technology. Here, we describe the discovery, context, and contents of a new cache of 14 WST projectile points from the Cooper's Ferry site that provide clues about WST lithic reduction patterns and the design of early stemmed projectile points. We employ several novel methods of lithic analysis based on three-dimensional digital scanning technology and geometric morphometry and, in doing so, seek to demonstrate new ways of studying stone tools through the use of next-generation methods of lithic analysis applied to exploring the poorly known technological details of the WST.

Robert McGhee's recent lead-in American Antiquity article entitled Aboriginalism and Problems of Indigenous archaeology seems to emphasize the pitfalls that can occur in “indigenous archaeology.” Though the effort is never easy, I would emphasize an approach based on a 50/50 partnership between the archaeological scientist and the native people whose past we are attempting to study through our field and research techniques. In northwestern North America, we have found this approach important in sharing ownership of the scientist/tribal effort, and, equally important, in adding highly significant (scientifically) cultural knowledge of Tribal members through their ongoing cultural transmission—a concept basic to our explanation in the field of archaeology and anthropology. Our work with ancient basketry and other wood and fiber artifacts from waterlogged Northwest Coast sites demonstrates millennia of cultural continuity, often including regionally distinctive, highly guarded cultural styles or techniques that tribal members continue to use. A 50/50 partnership means, and allows, joint ownership that can only expand the scientific description and the cultural explanation through an Indigenous archaeology approach.

The microscopic and sequential analysis of an early nineteenth-century American Indian calendar stick documents the notation of a precise, non-arithmetic, observational lunar year of twelve months with the evidence for added, subsidiary months suggesting the use of a thirteenth intercalary month every three years to bring the calendar into phase with the solar tropical year. The calendar stick is the most complex astronomical-calendric, problem-solving device known from the Americas outside of the high Mesoamerican and Andean Civilizations, but it is not derived from these late traditions. The analysis suggests the presence of an underlying observational conceptual base that may have come into the Americas from Asia.

In this paper I explore the potential of cultural inheritance theory to address the specific social contexts of craft production in prehistoric societies. Proponents of agency theory have criticized the “techno-science” approach of scholars working with other theoretical paradigms and their unwillingness or inability to focus on human behavior instead of material remains. By emphasizing the social and contextual nature of technological practices, the critique has successfully high-lighted the need to engender prehistoric technological practices. Cultural inheritance theory, one of several complementary currents in evolutionary archaeology, is particularly well suited to identify specific social contexts of craft production and provides a well-grounded framework for engendering prehistoric technological practices. Neolithic ceramic technology from Valencia, Spain provides a case study.

Survey and excavations carried out at the Inca administrative center of Huánuco Viejo revealed a large city with a ceremonial and palatial section, large residential zones, and huge storage facilities. Well-cut Cuzco style masonry was limited to the ceremonial areas, which included platforms, gateways, a bath and an elaborate apartment, probably intended to house royalty or important officials. The residential districts were Inca derived in architecture and planning, and the pottery was virtually limited to Inca inspired wares, thus demonstrating a lack of influence in either architecture or ceramics of the local peasants who served at the site. The huge storage areas housed mostly local highland produce which was used to sustain the city, mita laborers, and transients, and was probably not used for extensive redistribution to the local villages in the surrounding area. The city, then, must be described as an artificial device imposed by the Inca for administrative and political purposes, rather than as a city which arose because of local conditions or needs.

For some time it has been almost tacitly accepted that most or all of the pre-Columbian copper artifacts found in the eastern United States were manufactured of native copper recovered from the glacial drifts of the western Great Lakes region (Martin, Quimby, and Collier 1947: 40–2). This assumption can be attributed to a number of factors: (1) the abundance of copper artifacts in the Old Copper and Middle Woodland cultures which center in or are immediately adjacent to this region; (2) the quantity and availability of the copper; (3) the notion that other deposits were not accessible to pre-Columbian users, or were at least not numerous; and finally, (4) all the copper artifacts so far analysed show compositional similarities to the Great Lakes copper.

A number of researchers have shown that the abundance, diversity, and size of prey consumed or displayed at a feast can be used by elites to solidify and/or aggrandize their social position. Expectations for archaeological signatures of elite feasting—derived from ethnographic studies, archaeological research, and ecological theory—are used to assess the archaeofaunal record from selected contexts of the Marana platform mound site, located in southern Arizona. The magnitude of work conducted in the region provides a unique opportunity to address the importance of feasting as a mechanism of power consolidation among Hohokam elites. Here, we examine a hypothesized locus of elite feasting among the Classic period Hohokam (ca. A.D. 1250). A relatively high concentration of animal bone derived from a burned room adjacent to the Marana platform mound was first thought to represent debris from elite feasting. Analysis reveals a proportionate taxonomic profile that is similar to the remainder of the community and an overwhelming abundance of small game relative to large prey. Neither situation is consistent with elite feasting expectations. These results argue for a form of feasting among non-elites that likely served to promote intragroup solidarity or political support within the community.

Paint types on black-on-white pottery in the prehistoric American Southwest have had significance for both chronological and sociocultural interpretations. Visual attributes have formed the basis for distinguishing carbon- and mineral-based paints on ancient black-on-white pottery in the American Southwest for over 60 years. In this study, an SEM-EDS (scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer) system was first used to make an independent objective determination of the mineral or non-mineral paint present on 15 Mesa Verde White Ware sherds. Then, a group of 19 people (including experienced archaeologists and newly trained individuals) examined and classified the paint on these sherds, achieving an overall accuracy of 84.2 percent. This group also ranked in priority order the visual attributes they felt were most useful in determining pottery paint type: nature of edges (fuzzy, sharp), absorption (soaks in, sits on top), luster (shiny, dull), color range (black-gray-blue; black-brown-reddish), flakiness (doesn't flake off, flakes off), thickness (thin, thick), and surface polish (polish striations visible through paint, striations not visible through paint). In each case, the attribute applicable to carbon-based paint is listed first. The most difficult sherds for the group to identify displayed attributes of both carbon and mineral paints. A category for "mixed" paint type, already in use by archaeologists, is a reasonable third category for labeling sherd paint, as long as it does not become a "catch-all" category. For problematic sherds, the SEM-EDS can be used to characterize paint type, then the visual attributes adjusted to improve investigator accuracy in paint type determination.

Pollen recovered from the sediments of Guila Naquitz Cave, Oaxaca, is compared with pollen representing modern ecological patterns in the Valley of Oaxaca. This allows the reconstruction of both vegetational and climatic patterns for the period of preceramic occupancy of the cave: roughly, 6000-8000 B.C. A generally cooler yet more xeric climate apparently prevailed, as had been suggested by faunal analyses at Coxcatlan Cave near Tehuacan, Puebla. However, the floral and faunal resources available near the cave today were available there at the time of occupation. Pollen representing a plant that is closely related to modern maize is recognizable from the pollen record. The distribution of this pollen among the samples, as well as the macrofossil remains associated with the pollen and the reconstructed ecological pattern, indicate that the maize-like plant was being cultivated.

The archaeology of the Puebloan or Anasazi people of the Southwest has been the subject of many investigations, to the neglect of partly contemporaneous peoples of different cultural background. However, the existence of a non-agricultural people as predecessors and contemporaries of the Puebloans has been postulated on general, theoretical grounds. It comes, therefore, with something of an expected surprise to realize that in the heart of the Puebloan area of central New Mexico at least one non-ceramic cultural complex existed. The present investigation gives only faint clues to the antiquity of this complex and to possible relations of the people represented by these artifacts with the Puebloans. A later and derivative Lobo complex is associated with Pueblo I and Pueblo II pottery and represents a close association or perhaps a fusion of a hunting people with the Puebloans. The present paper deals with the location of the sites, the artifacts found in them, and the general archaeology. The following paper, by Bryan and McCann, describes the local geology and makes a geological and archaeological correlation with other areas in the Southwest. The two papers should be regarded as a mere introduction to a field of archaeological research that has heretofore been much neglected.

An Archaic Indian cemetery at Port au Choix, Newfoundland, dating from about 2000-1700 yrs B.C. is described. For the first time, excellent bone preservation allows a relatively complete reconstruction of the culture of the Archaic inhabitants of Newfoundland. Comparing the assemblage from Port au Choix with other Archaic assemblages from Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, especially the Moorehead or Maine Cemetery complex sites leads to the description of a "new" whole cultural tradition, the Maritime Archaic tradition, which existed throughout the Atlantic provinces and northern New England during the second millennium B.C. This tradition was based upon the distinctive resources found in that area- caribou, sea mammals, sea birds, and fish-and is very different from the Laurentian and Shield Archaic traditions as regards adaptation to a coastal environment and all the cultural variations concomitant with such an ecological adjustment.

The potential contributions which imitative experiments can make to archaeology are far greater in scope, complexity, and overall "value" than is commonly realized. A sketch of some of these potential contributions is given and, in support of the claims advanced, a method of measuring the efficiency of hand operated implements is described and then applied in a comparison of different agricultural practices. The results show that experiments can provide important data unobtainable by traditional research methods and aid in the analysis of past subsistence and technological systems.

The midden at Indian Creek, Antigua, is very probably a nearly complete record of the animal food consumed by the inhabitants over about 1,100 years of occupation. During that time the resource exploitation pattern changed in a number of major and minor ways. The most obvious change, when crab gave way to bivalve mollusks as an important dietary element, has been examined in some detail and the possible causes for the change discussed. Although the data presented here could be used for a variety of theoretical models it seems likely that no single model is sufficient to explain all the changes. The faunal remains obtained from the excavation have been used to calculate the amount of protein represented and this in turn used to calculate the approximate mean human population over the period of occupation. The figure obtained is between 21-53 depending upon the criteria adopted. The possible sources of error in the calculations are identified and discussed.

In this paper the results of several pollen analyses and related invertebrate studies are utilized in an attempt to reconstruct the nature of the Great Plains environment prior to and during the advent of man. A large sample of Early Man sites is then examined and conclusions are drawn concerning man's use of this environment. Specific problems considered include: the types of sites, where the sites are located, the types of animals hunted, hunting techniques, butchering techniques, and tool manufacture. It is concluded that the environment consisted of a savanna grassland with abundant ponds and streams bordered on the north and west by pine and occasional spruce trees. The stream valleys sheltered galleries of junipers and oaks. On this grassland lived large herds of Pleistocene animals now extinct. Climatic indicators suggest that the summers were cooler than today, with winters warmer than at present. A Paleo-Indian cultural tradition adapted to the utilization of this environment, primarily through big game hunting, was practiced on the Great Plains during the time interval represented by the Llano, Folsom, and Parallel Flaked horizons. During this entire interval, the type of sites, site situations utilized, hunting techniques, butchering techniques, and most of the tool inventory remained constant.