It seems appropriate, particularly in the light of the recent radiocarbon dates for an Old Copper site, that the accumulated information about the Old Copper complex be summarized for the use of those interested in the prehistory of the Northeast. While some of the data presented here have been previously published in greater descriptive detail, they are briefly reviewed because they represent the factual basis for the definition of the complex as a local cultural variant in the Archaic period. The radiocarbon dates and certain new data add materially to the basis for the interpretation of the remains of these early inhabitants of Wisconsin. We use the term “Archaic” to refer to a time period rather than a cultural assemblage, although we shall discuss the cultural traits that appear to fit into this time period in the locale under discussion.

In both diachronic and synchronic studies of archaeological examples of Ontario Iroquoian longhouses, the standard method of analysis is spatially static. In this paper, the spatially dynamic method is used to analyze longhouses representative of diachronic and synchronic episodes encompassing over 800 years of Ontario Iroquoian prehistory. The results of the analysis using this approach provide significant quantifiable data on the development of Iroquoian matrilocal residence systems and functional and tribal variation in longhouse settlement patterns.

Nearly all writers on the antiquity of man in America assume that the oldest archaeological sites contain chipped-stone projectile points and therefore cannot exceed an age of some 12,000 to 15,000 years, the estimates usually given to such projectile-point types as Sandia and Clovis. Suggestions of older sites, with radiocarbon dates ranging from some 21,000 years to as much as “greater than 37,000 years,” with simpler artifacts and an absence of stone projectile points, are generally viewed with suspicion if not abhorrence.

A recent paper by E. H. Sellards considers seven localities in the western United States and Baja California which, because of geological position and radiocarbon dates, are probably too old to contain stone projectile points. The writer agrees with Sellards that these localities are archaeological (except for that at Texas Street in San Diego, California), but disagrees that those in coastal locations are different from those in inland locations for “ecological” reasons such as food supply and availability of stone. The differences may be explained in that those sites on the shores of extinct lakes were never covered by overburden, whereas those which were covered by alluvium or sand are known to us now only by varying amounts of exposure by erosion or excavation (or both).

Sampling biases in archaeological research may inadvertently lead to unsubstantiated assumptions about the relationship between various site features. The majority of radiometric dates from the Poverty Point site have been recovered from excavations in the large, earthen ridges. While archaeological investigations have previously been undertaken in the Poverty Point mounds, few of these excavations have yielded radiometric dates. As a result of the almost complete absence of chronometric data from Poverty Point's mounds, the construction of these features is generally assumed to have occurred during the same time span as construction of the ridges. New radiometric dates from the Poverty Point mounds reveal information about the timing and pace of their construction. These new chronological data provide the basis for a more detailed developmental sequence, and may allow for the development of new hypotheses about population size, the organization of labor, architectural relationships, and the degree of social complexity at Poverty Point. Examining the development of cultural landscapes, such as the chronology of earthwork construction at Poverty Point, also provides a better understanding of the ways prehistoric societies interacted with and modified the environments in which they lived.

This paper examines some of the implications of Christenson and Read’s [1977] comments on the use of numerical taxonomic concepts in archaeological classification. While many of their comments are accurate, we feel that they have seriously misrepresented the nature of cluster analysis as a grouping technique by their association of cluster analysis with the theoretical and methodological goals of numerical taxonomy. The implications of their arguments are challenged.

A series of seven idealized levels of procedure in conducting archaeological research is proposed: preparation, acquisition, analysis, interpretation, integration, comparison, and abstraction. This scheme was employed to investigate archaeological phenomena from Lava Beds National Monument, northern California.

In this paper we summarize the results of six years of passive obsidian collecting in Iowa during which time 31 samples were obtained and subjected to trace element analysis. We find that: (1) 74% of the obsidian originated at the Obsidian Cliff Quarry in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; and (2) in contrast with earlier midwestern studies where obsidian was found in ritual contexts on Middle Woodland sites, the Iowa material is associated with a broader temporal range and on sites where ritual use is not evident. A discussion of the analytical methods used is provided as well as of previous research on midwestern obsidian finds.

While rock art is global in distribution, it remains a media fix in placed within particular physical environments. Because of this, it can be examined using various spatial approaches and technologies. By integrating a variety of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications to examine the location and position of rock art in relation to both natural features and other archaeological deposits, a detailed understanding of the positioning of rock art can be advanced. In this case, I employ this methodology to address the presence that rock art exerted within the Emgidiano/Hulkuhku Chumash landscape of South-Central California. In so doing, I demonstrate that specific research questions concerning rock art in public or private contexts can be addressed, and that in this example, the pictographs of the Hulkuhku were visibly integrated within the intimate confines of the most important economic places in the landscape, showing that subsistence and symbolic practices were conjoined through ideological media.

Small blades, blade tools, and cores recently found at the Cahokia site, Illinois, represent a microblade industry probably affiliated with the Old Village stage of Middle Mississippian. The artifacts are described, and attempts to assess their probable functions are discussed. The available comparative evidence is insufficient to demonstrate the degree of historical relationship, if any, between this newly defined industry and such other blade industries in the eastern United States as Poverty Point and Hopewell.

The field-processing model (FPM) relates degree of resource processing at procurement site to round-trip travel distance. Typically applied to food getting, its extension to stone tools is part of a larger trend to broaden the scope and strengthen the theoretical foundation of inference from lithic data. This trend guided the FPM's application at the Modena obsidian quarry in the Great Basin, which follows earlier analyses by comparing the proportion by reduction stage of biface preforms between quarry and outlying sites and the technological characteristics of debris assemblages. It also uses two ratio-scale methods, slope of the regression of preform weight upon the first principal-component of linear dimensions, which declines with reduction, and slope of cumulative-count of flakes upon flake size, which increases with reduction. Results support the FPM and previous studies that document early-stage reduction at quarries vs. later-stage reduction across the landscape. The essential next step in FPM testing requires data on pattern and extent of biface reduction as a continuous function of distance from source. As useful as are existing measures and approaches, newly defined ratio-scale measures can particularly expedite testing of the FPM in its continuous terms.

The semisubterranean whale-bone house is one of the most recognizable aspects of Thule Inuit culture. Following their arrival in the Canadian Arctic approximately 1,000 years ago, Thule peoples built these impressive and often enigmatic dwellings for occupation during the long winter months. Variability in the architectural properties of semisubterranean house forms has traditionally been used by archaeologists to infer cultural and historical relationships between regions, and establish seasonal and/or functional distinctions in usage. An analysis of 31 semisubterranean houses from two Thule winter village sites in the Canadian High Arctic using multivariate statistics and computer-aided drafting reveals a range of architectural variability that may represent attempts by Thule builders to accommodate 1) fluctuations in the availability of key building materials, 2) differences in household mobility, or 3) whaling-related social differentiation between households. These results have important implications for understanding the relationships among house form, environment, and culture in Thule Inuit society.

In modeling the colonization of the Americas, Anderson and Gillam (2000) employ size estimates for vanguard forager bands that are of dubious reproductive viability in light of human incest prohibitions and variable sex ratios at birth.

A simple, yet objective and replicable method for recording a number of variables of the two-dimensional morphology of artifacts is presented and described. This method permits precise quantification of variables such as artifact shape and area, retouch length along the perimeter of chipped stone tools, measures of convexity or concavity, area and location of cortex, etc. Moreover, it allows for direct comparisons among varied artifact assemblages.

This study examines and defines the potential information offered to archaeology by the study of gastropod remains. A historical review of past accomplishments in archaeomalacology provides the foundation from which zooarchaeologists can begin to recognize the primary concerns for future research in the discipline. The past, present and future approaches to archaeomalacology are discussed under a taphonomic framework. Under the guise of biostratonomy, gastropod presence in archaeological contexts is explained according to four major pathways of shell introduction. Allied to this aspect of taphonomy is diagenesis, an understanding of which assists archaeologists in recognizing the role of gastropods in cultural versus natural environmental settings. This study concludes with a critique of present trends in archaeomalacological method and theory.

The interiors of two large Kentucky caves — Mammoth Cave and nearby Salts Cave, both within Mammoth Cave National Park — were much visited and utilized by prehistoric Indians. Large quantities of artifacts and numerous other evidences of human activity are still present in both caves, especially in undisturbed portions of Salts Cave. Most of the remains comprise perishable materials of vegetable fiber and wood, and plants or plant parts carried into the caves by the aboriginal inhabitants of the region. Several collections of artifacts gathered 40 or 50 years ago from the surface in the Mammoth Cave area have recently been examined by D. W. Schwartz of the University of Kentucky. One such collection hints at a village site of the late Archaic-Early Woodland time range somewhere near the entrance to Salts Cave. In 1961, specimens of the black-brown ceiling and wall deposits which are quite extensive in parts of both Salts and Mammoth caves were collected and analyzed. The deposits were found to be soot, presumably from aboriginal torches and hearths whose remains occur plentifully in some areas of the caves. A sample of soot from Salts Cave was submitted for radiocarbon determination; the resulting date is 3075 ± 140 B.P. Two dates had been previously obtained by the National Park Service from artifacts in Mammoth Cave: 2230 ± 40 B.P. and 2370 ± 60 B.P. These three dates support the suggestion of a late Archaic-Early Woodland placement for the prehistoric activity in Salts and Mammoth caves.

Fauvelle (2013) used experimental approaches to evaluate whether acorns were an important commodity traded from mainland groups to the Island Chumash. Consistent with a dearth of acorn remains found in island sites, he concluded that acorns were not a major export. We agree with this conclusion, but Fauvelle never adequately explains why acorns were not a major trade item and proposes that trade for high-quality asphaltum, supposedly unavailable on the islands, drove an intensification of Chumash social complexity. We believe the Island Chumash had abundant local plant foods, asphaltum, and other resources.

In the lake region of the Valley of Mexico Nature and Man have combined to .produce radical changes in the character of the landscape. The giant elliptic bowl about forty-five miles wide by fifty-five miles long, which was formed during the elevation of the Mexican plateau, has been the stage of violent volcanic outbursts, followed by interludes of sedimentation. In geologically speaking recent times and, accordingly, since man made his appearance in the valley, sedimentation has been the dominating, if not sole factor. Owing to the fact that the Valley of Mexico has no natural outlet, the sediments brought down from the surrounding steep and high mountain ranges have accumulated in enormous quantities, forming a huge floor, over which the water from the mountain sides spreads in a shallow sheet. Since precipitation is often violent, and very irregularly distributed throughout the year, and since even evaporation under the strong tropical sun is too slow to prevent great quantities of water from remaining in the valley for a considerable time, the history of man in this region is a narrative of an endless struggle against the wet element. Even today the work is going on, although the tunnel outlet finished in 1900 has put a stop to inundations on a large scale. The colonial works have turned the lake bottom into an arid and salty desert, only partly covered by water.

Insufficient attention has been paid to differences among elite archaeological contexts in middle-range or chiefdom societies. At Moundville, a major Mississippian center in Alabama, midden and feature-fill deposits attributed to elite behavior have been excavated in several areas. Deposits on Mounds Q and G dating to the Moundville II and III phases (ca. A.D. 1260–1450) are similar in that they incorporate abundant domestic debris associated with structures on mound summits. On both mounds, food remains show evidence of provisioning and the consumption of small-scale meals rather than feasting. However, the two contexts differ in the occurrence of evidence for skilled crafting and the display of human skeletal remains. At Mound Q, skilled crafting is abundantly attested, employing local and nonlocal raw materials. Display goods were routinely handled, and pigment processing and use were important. Burials were rarely made, but fragmentary human bone is scattered throughout, emphasizing portions of the skeleton consistent with display. In contrast, elite contexts on Mound G show little or no evidence of crafting, pigment use, and bone handling.

Excavations in northeastern New Mexico have confirmed the presence of a variety of Jicarilla Apache house types mentioned in Spanish documents of ca. 1700. Associated with a 7-room adobe structure and a pit house was an artifact complex closely resembling that of the Plains Apaches represented by the Dismal River aspect. The predominant pottery, however, is a thin micaceous ware, herein described as Ocate Micaceous, accompanied by trade sherds of Tewa Polychrome, plain black Pueblo ware, and Puebla (Mexico) blue and white majolica. Mid-19th-century Apache sites in the area are “tipi-ring” sites yielding a thicker micaceous ware, herein described as Cimarron Micaceous, White man’s trade goods, and a few stone artifacts. The relationship between Apache micaceous pottery, made from ca. 1600 (or earlier) until the early 1900’s, and that made at Taos and Picuris is still not clear.