Cores recovered from a soil auger were found to yield accurate information about the depth of midden deposit and to compare favorably with column samples as a means of recovering midden material for microanalysis.

A major theoretical issue in studies of prehistoric societies in the Basin of Mexico concerns the relationship between irrigation and the development of prehistoric settlement systems. Locating and dating the remains of prehistoric water control systems, however, presents a major methodological problem. The discovery of a series of stratified prehistoric canals in the exposed profiles of contemporary borrow pits near Santa Clara Coatitlan provided an excellent opportunity for dating a prehistoric irrigation system. Results of recent excavations, reported on in this paper, demonstrate that these canals are part of a middle Formative floodwater irrigation system, which is the earliest confirmed evidence, to date, for the use of irrigation in the Basin of Mexico.

The Lehner site fauna includes at least nine individuals of Mammuthus columbi and one each of Equus, Bison, and Tapirus. Mammoth material consists chiefly of jaws and teeth and shows a great range of individual variation. The tapir is represented by one of the largest fossil tapir jaws described from North America. The accumulation is considered to represent several kills over a period of several months. Climate at the time of the Lehner hunts was probably more humid than at present, but not tropical. The radiocarbon date of about 11,000 B.P. is considered reasonable. New genera reported from other early man faunas are Neotoma from the Ventana complex and Bison from the Naco site.

The area dealt with in this report is that portion of northwestern Sonora and southwestern Arizona bounded on the southwest by the Gulf of California, on the west by the Colorado River valley below the junction of the Gila River, on the north by the Gila River valley, and on the east by an imaginary line from the vicinity of Gila Bend south along the western edge of the Papago Reservation and thence southwest to the mouth of the Sonoyta River on the Gulf of California (Fig. 106). Within this area Sauer has suggested a boundary between the Piman-speaking people of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, and the Yuman-speaking tribes of the lower Colorado and Gila River valleys, based on linguistic affiliations described in early historical sources (Sauer 1934, map). On archaeological evidence Gifford has suggested that the locality between Punta La Cholla and the mouth of the Sonoyta River represented a point on an ethnic boundary (Gifford 1946: 221).

This shell study was designed to test and perfect methods of quantitative analysis in addition to providing the usual identification of species. Experiments were performed to determine the optimum size of sample, dimension of screen, number of samples, and the practicability of rapid analysis in the field to guide the progress of excavation. Analysis of variance was used to measure up to five variables at once; differences were shown graphically with direction of change indicated by a least-squares regression line. The analysis of 69 excavation units revealed an overwhelming preference for mud-dwelling species which showed no change in horizontal distribu-give guidance to the excavation team. Used with dry-weight analysis, field sorting would also indicate areas of richer occupation debris in time for this information to be useful. The use of applied mathematics in midden analysis adds a precise tool to the archaeological inventory. The data compiled on screen size, sample size, horizontal and vertical distributions, and such, were subjected to the analysis of variance, and where significant difference was indicated, the statistics were fitted to a regression line by the least-squares method. By using standardized systems and quantitative analysis, the archaeologist may obtain convincing evidence to support his conclusions. These procedures would be equally applicable to the study of skeletal, artifactual, or other ecological remains, and would add authority to the theories derived from such analysis.

A short-wave ultraviolet-light source applied to human phalanges which have been soaked in a commercial ultraviolet-fluorescing pigment allows for rapid and fairly accurate discrimination between individuals obtained from the same archaeological site. The technique is useful in discriminating between sites to a lesser extent.

Venado Beach comprises a shore line facing the Pacific Ocean in the southwestern corner of the Panama Canal zone. The burials here discussed were found 100 to 200 yards from the high water mark in a band of refuse which extended across the mouth of the Mangopobre Valley. A total of 369 bodies have been recorded. Of these, 202 were excavated by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University in 1951, and 167 were unearthed by Neville A. Harte, who most generously has placed at my disposal his carefully kept field notes.

The skeletal material from Venado Beach, owing to unusual soil conditions, is better preserved than any other collection yet found in the wet tropics of the New World. When studied, it should prove of general interest. We are now concerned, however, with burial techniques rather than with the bones themselves or the funeral paraphernalia which accompanied them.

The gamma-ray induced thermoluminescence of specimens of majolica pottery of known origin, and of specimens of majolica of unknown origin collected in the Caribbean area was analyzed to determine if thermoluminescence could be used as an indicator of the provenience of pottery found in an archaeological context. The results of the measurements show that the shape of the gamma-ray induced thermoluminescence glow-curve of the clay matrix of majolica is specific to the geographic locality where the pottery was made, and that the provenience of specimens found archaeologically can be determined on the basis of their thermoluminescence glow-curves, when the curves obtained from the samples with known origins are used as references.

This paper postulates that cultural entities with long term structural integrity are characterized by symmetrical relationships between and among the constituent sectors of society. We demonstrate how such social relationships are embedded in the symmetrical arrangements of motifs in geometric design. We test this premise with an analysis of 1000 years of ceramic design from the northern American Southwest, AD 600-1600, with a description of the continuities and changes in the plane pattern symmetries that structure design. Two major points of change in symmetry use at c. AD 900 and AD 1300 correlate with changes in settlement type from pithouses to unit pueblos and from unit pueblos to multi-storied plaza oriented pueblos that accompanied adjustments to changes in environmental conditions. We propose that in the American Southwest the predominant use of bifold symmetry is a structural metaphor for the reciprocal social relationships basic to the organization of small puebloan agricultural communities and that the changes in these symmetries reflect the changing integration of the household into an increasingly complex social system. This interpretation of the meaning of design structure is derived from cosmological principles embedded in 20th century ritual songs of the Hopi, descendents of the prehistoric puebloans, as well as depicted in images in their 15th century kiva wall murals. We present this interpretation of the sequence of pueblo development in the American Southwest in terms of the changing symmetrical nature of the social relationships that integrated the agricultural communities as an example of the insights possible with this new approach to design analysis.

A detailed discussion is presented of the archaeological value of the scale remains of fish. The various forms of scales are presented along with a discussion of the morphological characteristics of these elements. A brief summary of the past uses to which fish scales have been put within archaeology is presented and the use of fish scales to estimate the size of the fish and the minimum number of individuals represented, as well as their use as seasonal dating devices is also discussed in detail. In addition, the limitations of scale remains in each of the above areas of interpretation are also presented.

Until land claims made the usefulness of data on their history important, excavations at modern New Mexican pueblos were prohibited by their people, whose conservatism varies only in degree from tribe to tribe. In 1961, the Taos Council agreed to permit brief trenching of their oldest refuse mound and of their ancestral ruin 200 yards to the east of the present site. Comparisons of sherd complexes indicated that the lowest levels of the Taos refuse mound picked up the types of the upper levels of the older site, which dated between A.D. 1325 or 1350 and 1450. Surface survey in the valley, checked against Taos legend, provided a history that covers an earlier period.

Complex I (Taos Black-on-white and associated types: A.D. 900-1300) saw Taos ancestors, not all of the same language, moving into the valley from the north and west in small religious society or kiva groups. Some settled north of the present Taos pueblo and others concentrated in the Ranchos de Taos-Pot Creek area. Later, they all moved together to the present area of Taos, settling on the site just east of the modern pueblo. Here they were joined by a group which came up from the Santa Fe area, introducing a variant of the Mesa Verde-derived pottery being made there. This produced Complex II, which dates after A.D. 1300. By 1450 the amalgamated tribe abandoned the site after a legendary battle and fire, sometimes erroneously attributed to Spanish incursions. They moved a few hundred feet westward to the present location of Taos Pueblo. In the succession of pottery types here, heavy-designed Tewa Polychrome is found in varying amounts from bottom to top of the refuse mound. Black-on-white ware disappeared and Taos Micaceous ware, developed between A.D. 1550 and 1600 (earlier than hitherto thought), became the dominant type. Polished Black ware, closely resembling that from the Santa Fe-Tewa area, but probably made locally, appears in Taos about 1400 and was at least as common as Taos Micaceous there during the 17th century. Taos Micaceous is the only type made today.

Three passages in the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala indicate inaugurations to the throne of three rulers at A.D. 682, 734, and 768. The distribution of the rulers' name-glyphs in the inscriptions, as well as differences in the art and architecture of the time-periods thus marked, support the validity of the three inaugural dates. The parentage of the rulers and the likelihood that the three rulers were members of the same family is discussed. The author suggests that personality differences among the three rulers can be discerned.

Fluctuations in climatic regimes and biodiversity through time are linked in complex ways to human behavior and socioeconomic processes. We use macrobotanical evidence from Chumash village sites on California’s Channel Islands to investigate the relationship between late Holocene climatic perturbations and one region of the larger Chumash world. Carbonized plant remains provide evidence of the shifting availability of native plants during the Transitional period (A.D. 1150–1300), when droughts impacted island floral diversity and the Chumash had to cope with changes in vegetation regimes that likely curtailed food availability. We find that drought-resistant plant resources appear in higher relative frequencies in proveniences dating to the Transitional era, and at least one food resource was first imported from the mainland around that time. These findings support the proposition that the Chumash intensified cross-channel trade in part to respond to dietary needs during episodic resource stress. This is also the time when several economic specializations blossomed, including intensive shell bead making. These specializations persisted for six centuries and were central to the development of institutionalized leadership and political complexity in the region ca. A.D. 1200. Various strategies to preserve stability in the plant diet were important elements in the broader reorganization of labor in coastal southern California.

Linear nearest neighbor analysis is reconsidered and revised. This statistical method facilitates decisions about whether points along a line are clustered, random, or dispersed. One of its possible archaeological applications is illustrated using a set of probable housemounds along the Cabeza de la Vaca Arroyo in Veracruz, Mexico. The mounds are in a dispersed pattern. Ecological and subsistence factors offer one promising explanation for the pattern.

There has recently been increased attention paid to the nature of the settlement pattern of Classic Maya civilization. It now seems likely that Classic Maya “cities“ were not secular, urban communities in which large numbers of people were grouped together in close proximity. On the other hand, if these were merely ceremonial centers in which the populace gathered for certain rituals, then the political and religious organization of these centers, and the actual socio-political structure of the entire Maya area, are as yet undetermined.

Experimental work has demonstrated the practicality of extracting sufficient organic carbon for Carbon 14 dating from sherds tempered with crushed charcoal sponge spicules (cauixi), and siliceous bark (cariapé). The sherds were from ceramic complexes on the Napo, Orinoco, and Amazon Rivers that had been stratigraphically excavated and could be cross-checked.

While Hall's (1977) recent paper addressed the origins of calumet symbolism, it did little to explain (or even to acknowledge) the rapid expansion in the usage of the Hako-type calumet and its accompanying ceremony after the opening of the historic period. It is suggested here that this calumet emerged in the role of a stability-enhancing mechanism within precisely those societies that were experiencing rapid sociocultural change and fragmentation. Both the calumet and the tobacco pipe, singly and in combination, constituted cultural elements that had had long identification with the sacred sphere. Not only were calumets and pipes and native tobacco preserved in the new situation, but their conservative ritual significance was greatly emphasized and formalized until they increasingly came to symbolize and embody the old way of life. Archaeological and historical data are used to support this argument.

Two stone stelae at the Crystal River site, Florida, are in similar alignment with two temple mounds. One stela has an incised human head, ceremonial caches, and a radiocarbon date of about A.D. 440. The stelae, their spatial relationships, and the ceremonial deposits are evidence of influences from southeastern Mexico.

The area referred to in the following summary of investigations includes the valley of the Tanana River, sections of the Central Yukon Valley above the mouth of the Tanana, and the upper Copper River Valley. This sub-arctic region, inhabited by bands of semi-nomadic Athapascan Indians, by white traders, trappers, miners, and only recently by a few farmers, presents unusual difficulties to an attempt to discover archaeological sites. This is due not only to the sparse population and limited cultivation but to the characteristic mantle of moss, brush and forest that obscures all evidence of ancient dwelling sites. No habitable caves or rock shelters have been found. Under these circumstances, investigations must depend primarily upon information obtained from the present natives and upon accidental discoveries made by white settlers in very limited cultivation and in placer mining operations.

The following hypothesis is proposed: that the distribution in time and space of Desert culture(s) and Hokaltecan languages imply a connection, that at one time there was a continuous band of Hokaltecan people practicing Desert culture from the Great Basin to the Texas and Tamaulipecan coasts, that this continuity was disrupted by an incursion of Utaztecan highlanders moving along the cordillera into Mexico, that proto-Shoshoneans entered the Great Basin from the northeast, that the Yuman peoples are a remnant block and not a disrupting wedge of Mexican origin, and that some of the similarities between cultures in California, the American Southwest, and Mexico are survivals of the basic proto-Utaztecan or Macro-Penutian culture, while still others are the result of interchange through a relatively homogeneous cultural medium made up of Utaztecan highlanders living along the western cordillera from central Mexico to the American Southwest.