The Navaho Reservoir District is an arbitrarily defined unit of salvage archaeological research located in northwestern New Mexico and adjacent portions of Colorado. As such, it is used here as a data source for the study of ninth and tenth century population dislocations due to climatic change and river erosion. The affected Pueblo farming peoples migrated by means of slow, steady upstream drift. Violent land competition between the agrarian communities is offered as an explanation for the use of the leap-frog rather than wave strategy in population relocation.

In Illinois, the shells of fresh-water mussels are often found in large numbers in the middens of former Indian habitations which were located adjacent to rivers. Living representatives of the species present are usually common in the rivers of the state today. With knowledge gained through study of the habitat-demands of the different species as they now live, one is able to reconstruct the environment in which each species existed at the time when the mussels were taken for food. The picture formed by the combined habitat-demands of the different species is a portrayal of the river as it existed at that time. An analysis of the shells taken from a midden on Haw Creek, now often intermittent during summer months, suggests that it was a small river 2000 years ago. Other analyses of shells have shown that decided changes have taken place in other streams.

In an attempt to establish an archaeological chronology for northwestern Costa Rica, excavations were carried out in 1959-60 in the coastal region and Tempisque River drainage of Guanacaste Province. Four periods have been defined: Zoned Bichrome, Early Polychrome, Middle Polychrome, and Late Polychrome. These are roughly equated in the Maya sequence with Late Formative, Early Classic through the beginning of Late Classic, the latter part of the Late Classic through the early Postclassic, and late Postclassic, respectively. The Zoned Bichrome period has been established on the basis of three geographically separate but coeval phases: Chombo on the Santa Elena Peninsula, Monte Fresco in the Tamarindo Bay zone, and Catalina on the middle Tempisque. All three phases are linked to each other through trade pottery; a radiocarbon date on Monte Fresco is within the first century of the Christian era. Outstanding characteristics of the period are bichrome zoning, dentate rocker-stamping, wavy black lines produced by a multiple brush, engraving, and incising. Considerable fishing and hunting was carried out, and intensive maize agriculture is inferred. These village materials indicate that lower Central America was participating in at least some of the trait diffusion which linked remote areas of Nuclear America in Formative times.

History of development of the American Formative concept is briefly outlined. A chronology is presented that covers the three millennia before the Christian Era and which extends from Ecuador to the Ohio Valley. The Stalling’s Island complex of fiber-tempered pottery from the coast of Georgia is compared with the Valdivia Period ceramics of Ecuador, and the Orange fiber-tempered wares of Florida are compared with the Machalilla Period ceramics of Ecuador and related material in Mesoamerica. The conclusion is drawn that these early Southeastern Cultures ultimately derived from the Ecuadorian early Formative by way of colonies that probably existed in the southern part of Mesoamerica.

New World archaeologists have long agreed that there was prehistoric cultural interaction between the southeastern United States and Mesoamerica, but seldom are the details of such potential relationships discussed, especially recently. The farthest westward extent of Southeastern cultural influences, as shown through the distributions of fiber-tempered pottery, Archaic and Woodland mounds, later platform mounds, ceramic styles, and other material culture, seems to be east Texas. Only a few Mexican artifacts have been found at the edges of the Southeast-obsidian at Spiro and coastal Texas, asphalt-covered pottery extending northward from Mexico into southern Texas-though general ideological connections, not to mention the sharing of maize agriculture, seem obvious. In northeast Mexico, outside the Mesoamerican heartland, Huastecan people made artifacts similar to types in the Southeast. But long-distance interactions overland or via the Gulf of Mexico were apparently sporadic, despite some common cultural foundations. Strong Southeastern cultural identities plus the presence of the north Mexico/south Texas desert may have discouraged movement into the Southeast of many important Mesoamerican traditions, such as cotton growing and beer drinking.

Native American communities underwent significant upheaval, ethnic blending, and restructuring in the Spanish colonial period. One archaeological example is the appearance of a seven-room stone and adobe structure in western Kansas, known as the Scott County Pueblo (14SC1). Previous researchers used Spanish documents to attribute the site to Puebloan refugees from Taos or Picuris in the mid- to late 1600s. Here we examine the Smithsonian and Kansas Historical Society ceramic collections for evidence of Puebloan women at the site. We find a high proportion of bowls at 14SC1, suggesting the maintenance of Puebloan food-preparation and-serving patterns, as well as some vessels apparently made by Puebloan potters in western Kansas. We cannot falsify our null hypothesis that the Scott County Pueblo included people from one or more northern Rio Grande pueblos during the mid-1600s, or A.D. 1696–1706, or both.

Sequences of preceramic cultures or well-defined artifact assemblages are now known for the Ecuadorian highlands, the central and southern highlands of Peru, the entire coast of Peru, western and southwestern Bolivia, northern Chile, highland Argentina, Patagonia, and Tierra del Fuego. The known lithic industries of the area can be organized into a scheme of five periods, based on the long sequence at Lauricocha in the central Peruvian highlands and defined by the occurrence of widely diffused artifact types. Periods I and II, estimated at 10,000-8000 B.C. and 8000-6000 B.C., are known only from scattered finds of hunting camps. The earliest evidence of seed-grinding tools and field-stone house foundations is found in central Argentina and north Chile during Period III, 6000-3000 B.C. While nomadic hunters continued to occupy the southern part of the continent until historic times, agriculture was well established in Peru during Period IV (3000-1200 B.C.). Period V, from 1200 B.C. until the extinction of the stone-using Indians of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego in the 20th century, saw the introduction of ceramics to Peru and the southward spread of agriculture, pottery-making, and related activities to Chile and Argentina.

Structural changes in Archaic landscape use are examined using a large-scale survey data set from the dissected forested uplands of southwest Indiana. Spatial patterning of hafted bifaces, as indicated by proximity to streams of different order and distance from major rivers, was found to vary between the Early and Middle Archaic periods. Early Archaic settlement emphasized the upper reaches and divides of basins, but also included near-river locations, while Middle and later Archaic groups focused on locations near basin outlets and major rivers. These changes are argued to be a function of reduced residential mobility and a shift from a largely foraging to a collecting strategy. Increased travel and processing costs associated with a logistical strategy resulted in a deemphasis of more distant extravalley resource patches. Several explanations for this shift in strategies are explored, including possible increased spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the environment associated with postglacial climate and vegetation change.

Immunological and microwear analysis was performed on 100 chipped-stone artifacts from four prehistoric sites located in the Virginia Piedmont. A total of 20 artifacts returned positive results for immunological analysis and 16 artifacts returned microwear results. The findings indicate the negative effects of postdepositional processes and the potential utility of the techniques for deciphering prehistoric activities, otherwise unavailable by conventional studies in piedmont contexts. The study further illustrates the value and problems associated with immunological and microwear analyses on chipped-stone assemblages.

It is often unclear whether an archaeological animal bonebed was formed by a mass kill of individuals from a single prey population or through the accumulation of a number of separate kills which occurred over a long time period or at multiple locations. The isotope ratio variation within animals from an archaeological bonebed can be used to investigate this question by comparing the isotope ratio variation within an archaeological assemblage to the variation within modern populations. If the archaeological variation exceeds that expected within a single population, then an accumulation is indicated. Otherwise, a single mass kill or a series of kills from a single population over a fairly short time period is more likely. This technique is demonstrated using carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope ratios to characterize the amount of variation within pronghorn tooth enamel from six archaeological sites in southwestern Wyoming. The results indicate that the Austin Wash and Trappers Point sites are the result of an accumulation of pronghorn from multiple populations, while the Firehole Basin, Gailiun, and Boars Tusk sites do not show evidence of accumulation and therefore may be the result of mass kills. The Eden-Farson site formation characteristics are currently indeterminate.

Sullivan and Rozen (1985) attempt to provide an improved method of debitage analysis. We suggest that their article is misleading in a number of ways and fails to address the methodological and theoretical issues under discussion. It is doubtful if their four new debitage categories are "interpretation free," since it now is recognized widely that a theoretical basis necessarily underlies interpretation. Their debitage categories are best viewed as morphological or descriptive groups, with technological correlates which are the expected outcomes of generalized reduction practices. They should not be used in interpretation, since the technological inferences drawn from the four debitage categories are assumed without adequate supporting experimentation on the mechanics of flake fracture. We also reject Sullivan and Rozen"s notion that lithic analysis is best interpreted as a continuum and find the criticisms of so-called stage typologies to be unfounded. Lithic artifacts ultimately should be placed within a product group or step, whenever possible, to facilitate recognition of overall manufacturing practices. Finally, we suggest that the only way to improve the subjective nature of debitage analysis is by example, and we point out where this course is not followed in their study.

During May, June, July, and August of 1956 I was engaged in archaeological field work near the city of Pucallpa on the Ucayali River in eastern Peru. The project was sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History as a part of its long term program of anthropological work in the Peruvian Montana. The Museum grants permission to present this preliminary statement, and it will publish the final report on this work.

Fremont societies of the Uinta Basin incorporated domesticates into a foraging lifeway over a 1,000-year period from AD 300 to 1300. Fremont research provides a unique opportunity to critically examine the social and ecological processes behind the adoption and abandonment of domesticates by hunter-gatherers. We develop and integrate a 2,115-year precipitation reconstruction with a Bayesian chronological model for the growth of Fremont societies in the Cub Creek reach of Dinosaur National Monument. Comparison of the archaeological chronology with the precipitation record suggests that the florescence of Fremont societies was an adaptation to multidecadal precipitation variability with an approximately 30-plus-year periodicity over most, but not all, of the last 2,115 years. Fremont societies adopted domesticates to enhance their resilience to periodic droughts. We propose that reduced precipitation variability from AD 750 to AD 1050, superimposed over consistent mean precipitation availability, was the tipping point that increased maize production, initiated agricultural intensification, and resulted in increased population and development of pithouse communities. Our study develops a multidecadal/multigenerational model within which to evaluate the strategies underwriting the adoption of domesticates by foragers, the formation of Fremont communities, and the inherent vulnerabilities to resource intensification that implicate the eventual dissolution of those communities.

A series of radiocarbon dates from Younge Tradition sites in southwestern Michigan indicates that previous age estimates for the four suggested phases were too conservative. Corn agriculture was practiced throughout the Younge Tradition time range as indicated by an A.D. 700 date for the Sissung site (20 MR 5).

In 1903 C. V. Hartman excavated archaeological materials in Costa Rica for Carnegie Museum and also purchased several local collections. In June 1950 the unpacking of a portion of the collection not reported by Hartman (1907), disclosed a fluted projectile point of dull black flint (Figs. 88, 89) with these measurements: length, A to B, 58 mm.; width, C to D, 32 mm.; maximum thickness, 5 mm. The point was made from a curved flake so that one face exhibits the fluting while the other retains the smooth, unworked original surface. The sides of both faces exhibit carefully controlled secondary chipping. The basal edge and the edges from C and D toward the base have been smoothed, either by intentional grinding or by the wear of successive rehaftings. Basal thinning is pronounced on both faces.

The discovery of fluted points at one site in the Andean Highlands near Quito, Ecuador, suggests that the fluted-point tradition extended into South America. The association of scrapers, knives, and gravers with the fluted points indicates a hunting assemblage which may be related to paleo-Indian horizons of western United States.

This paper explores material patterns of structure and village closure among several villages in the Homol’ovi Settlement Cluster on the Little Colorado River in northeastern Arizona, with special emphasis on Chevelon Pueblo. Excavations in nearly 200 structures within the cluster reveal a variety of closure practices, including burial of floors and floor features, structural burning, and object placement. It is argued that these patterns are part of a long Pueblo tradition of closure practices used, not to sever connections with a space, community, or landscape, but to continue material connections to these places. Some indications of dedication practices for plazas and features were uncovered at Homol’ovi I and will be discussed as part of broader memory-making practices within the community. Finally, a case will be made that the burning of Chevelon Pueblo may have been a purposeful act of forgetting.

Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic subsistence behavior in the Western Great Lakes is an important research issue that has been hindered by a lack of zooarchaeological remains, as well as disagreements over the nature of the paleoenvironmental record and human foraging behavior. Prior reconstructions of early subsistence behavior have centered on a focused, big-game hunting strategy, despite very little solid evidence. Recently, two archaeological sites in northern Wisconsin containing Late Paleoindian faunal material have been excavated, the Deadman Slough site (47PR46) and the Sucices site (47DG11). The data from these sites, and similar recently discovered sites in northeastern North America, suggest that Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic peoples employed a generalized foraging strategy, utilizing a broad range of animal species from a wide array of environmental settings. This new archaeological evidence is utilized in conjunction with detailed paleoenvironmental data and information from cultural ecological studies to develop a model of Late Paleoindian-Early Archaic subsistence behavior for the Western Great Lakes.

Settlement patterns are described for each phase of the sedentary agricultural occupation of the area from Pine Lawn phase (200 B.C.-A.D. 500) through Tularosa phase (A.D. 1100-1250), when the area was abandoned. Through time domestic structures changed from rounded to rectangular, from semi-subterranean to surface, and decreased in size. Earlier villages tended to be on higher, more defensible locations while later ones were lower, closer to water and arable land. Villages were generally random in plan, and great kivas, the only ceremonial structures identified in the area, appear to have served more than one village. From the settlement pattern data it is possible to construct a population curve for the area which may be partially explained in terms of botanical and climatological as well as cultural factors. Pine Lawn Valley Mogollon may have had some multi-village social organization which in later times may have united the entire valley. In this respect the Mogollon may have been intermediate between the well-integrated, segmented Anasazi communities in the plateau and the more politically structured Hohokam communities in the desert.

Recently discovered paleo-Indian sites on the shores of Salar de San Martin in Chile and Laguna Colorada and Laguna Hedionda in Bolivia are described. A cave at Laguna Hedionda is stratified. Comparisons are made with Ayampitin in Argentina and Le Paige's sequence for sites around Salar de Atacama in Chile. Pottery from the Hedionda sites is compared with post-Tiahuanaco to Inca styles in nearby areas of Bolivia. Le Paige's sequence (Puripica, Tulan-Cebollar, Tambillo) is criticized and a revision (Puripica-Tulan, Tambillo-Cebollar) proposed.