At the Mohr site, a Shenks Ferry Village on the lower Susquehanna River, 98 burials were excavated. These exhibited various features which are ascribed to cultural demands: location in the village, position of body, grave goods, etc. One of these features was the alignment of the body with the head to the east in such a manner as to suggest that the exact alignment was a function of season of interment. This paper completes the record of the mortuary patterns at this site based upon a description of the total population of the dead. Earlier descriptions, based upon incomplete materials, were presented at the VIIth International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences in Prague in 1966 (Gruber 1970) and at the American Anthropological Association Meeting in 1966. The position of these burials conforms to scant ethnographic data on the basis of which a putative cultural identification with the Shenks Ferry component and the southeastern Siouan groups is strengthened.

The occupation history of the Cahokia archaeological complex (ca. AD 1050–1400) has received significant academic attention for decades, but the subsequent repopulation of the region by indigenous peoples is poorly understood. This study presents demographic trends from a fecal stanol population reconstruction of Horseshoe Lake, Illinois, along with information from archaeological, historical, and environmental sources to provide an interpretation of post-Mississippian population change in the Cahokia region. Fecal stanol data indicate that the Cahokia region reached a population minimum by approximately AD 1400, regional population had rebounded by AD 1500, a population maximum was reached by AD 1650, and population declined again by AD 1700. The indigenous repopulation of the area coincides with environmental changes conducive to maize-based agriculture and bison-hunting subsistence practices of the Illinois Confederation. The subsequent regional depopulation corresponds to a complicated period of warfare, epidemic disease, Christianization, population movement, and environmental change in the eighteenth century. The recognition of a post-Mississippian indigenous population helps shape a narrative of Native American persistence over Native American disappearance.

Obsidian sources, and the proportions of those sources represented in site collections, are known poorly in the southeast mesoamerican periphery. The Honduran sources of La Esperanza and Güinope are described and “fingerprinted” chemically, and their utilization is explored in selected sites in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Although prehistoric Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans used obsidian from sources as far away as Honduras and Guatemala, most of their cutting tools were made from local materials, using informal manufacturing techniques. The analytical results indicate two sources of new types of obsidian have yet to be found; they may lie in western Nicaragua.

Despite the rich array of perishables Julian Steward (1937) recovered during his 1930s excavations, the Promontory Cave assemblages were dated in relative terms with just a handful of radiocarbon assays until recently. Yet Promontory Caves 1 and 2 are the type sites from which the Promontory Culture was defined, and these assemblages have a critical bearing on our conception of three significant issues in western North American prehistory: the terminal Fremont transition, Numic expansion, and the potential presence of migrating ancestral Apachean populations. To better fix the age of the Promontory Phase, we have undertaken an additional 45 AMS determinations for Promontory perishables. Because of a research focus concerning Promontory footwear, most age estimates come from moccasins, but we have also dated gaming pieces, a bow, an arrow, netting, basketry, matting, and cordage. With the exception of a winnowing basket fragment and some ceramic residue dates, all Promontory Phase assays are tightly focused in an interval running from 662 to 826 radiocarbon years before present (a calibrated 2s range spanning A.D. 1166–1391). Bayesian analyses of the Cave 1 and 2 Promontory Phase perishables suggest that this late period occupation comprised one or two human generations, centering on the interval running from ca. A.D. 1250–1290.

This study integrates disparate geographical areas of the American Southeast to show how studies of Early Mississippian (A.D. 900-1250) interactions can benefit from a multiscalar approach. Rather than focus on contact and exchanges between farming communities, as is the case with most Mississippian interaction studies, we turn our attention to social relations between village-dwelling St. Johns II fisher-hunter-gatherers of northeastern Florida and more mobile Ocmulgee foragers of southern-central Georgia; non-neighboring groups situated beyond and within the southeastern edge of the Mississippian world, respectively. We draw upon neutron activation analysis data to document the presence of both imported and locally produced Ocmulgee Cordmarked wares in St. Johns II domestic and ritual contexts. Establishing social relations with Ocmulgee households or kin groups through exchange and perhaps marriage would have facilitated St. Johns II access into the Early Mississippian world and enabled them to acquire the exotic copper, stone, and other minerals found in St. Johns mortuary mounds. This study underscores the multiscalarity of past societies and the importance of situating local histories in broader geographical contexts.

In the excavation of Pendejo Cave (FB 9366) near Orogrande, New Mexico, 16 friction skin imprints were found in five stratified zones on clay nodules, baked at over 120°C. After careful analysis, expert dermatoglyphologists determined that these imprints had positive primate characteristics. The imprints are probably of human origin, since no other primates are known to have existed in prehistoric New Mexico. Eight of the imprints occurred in three well-dated zones falling in the late Pleistocene. These zones have direct radiocarbon dates between 12,000 and 37,000 B.P. In addition to their association with radiocarbon determinations, the prints come from three of 24 stratified zones, intensively studied by geologists and pedologists, that are dated in sequence by 34 other radiocarbon determinations acquired from four different laboratories. The imprints are associated with a column of over 35,000 paleontological specimens and more than 15,000 botanical remains. These specimens indicate Pleistocene changes and supply evidence of human transportation and modification of various materials. The prints are also associated with artifacts, ecofacts, features of human construction, and human remains. The imprint specimens therefore provide evidence of Pleistocene human occupation in the New World.

Finds of Cody knives, Agate Basin, Allen, Clovis, Eden, and Meserve points indicate that the Colorado Front Range was occupied at least 7000 to 8000 years ago. Apparently Folsom hunters avoided the higher altitudes, but Clovis hunters may have crossed the Continental Divide.

Monks Mound is a premier example of monumental architecture occupying the center of Cahokia, the largest prehistoric Indian site north of Mexico. A massive slump on the so-called "second terrace" of the mound prompted geoarchaeological testing resulting in new data concerning the age and function of this enigmatic structure. These data support theory suggesting that construction of monumental architecture is most likely to occur early in the development of complex societies, in this case the Cahokia polity. It is concluded that Monks Mound was a purposeful political tool for the manipulation of mass psychology.

Collections of nearly 20,000 copper implements of twenty-one general types, heavily patinated, all surface or near surface finds without apparent pottery association, found in maximum concentration in Wisconsin, have raised questions of their relative age and probable cultural affiliations. In 1942, after Ritchie's discovery of copper implements in pre-pottery Laurentian levels, W. C. McKern (1942, p. 167) formulated a provisional hypothesis. He defined the tools as the production of a pre-Woodland, preceramic people, centered in Wisconsin and spreading into adjacent territory, and subsumed all copper implements, not attributable to known cultures, as cases of the Old Copper Industry.

Evidence is supplied that the weights often attached to atlatls do not add to the force of the dart. An experiment was made with a copy of the atlatl with stone weight from Baylor Rock Shelter and cast with and without the weight showed no significant difference. It is proposed that the purpose of the weights was to secure balance on the hand of the atlatl-dart combination. The superiority of the harpoon over the arrow in carrying a line is given as explanation of overlapping of relics of bow and atlatl along water courses.

In the lowlands of Central Veracruz, as in various locations across the base of the Yucatan peninsula, Prehispanic agriculturalists sought out wetlands with a limited fluctuation in water level for adaptation to intensive cultivation. Vestiges of canals and raised fields show through the dry season pastures of many ranches. The rectilinear remains of the earlier incursion show considerable accordance, from wetland to wetland, in their astronomical orientation: about 15 degrees clockwise of our own cardinal directions. It may be hypothesized that this orientation was imposed from Teotihuacan and that the majority of the raised field vestiges seen in the wetlands of Central Veracruz date back at least to a time between A.D. 100 and 600.

Picosa is defined as a continuum of similar closely related preceramic cultures existing in the southwestern United States during the last three millennia before Christ. It is seen as representing the elementary period of the development of the Southwest as a discrete culture area and is believed to be the result of a cultural synthesis of uniform developments originating as early as 8000 B.C. Although similar to the Desert culture in a culture-typical sense, the Picosa is distinct in terms of detailed inventory and historic derivation. Its role as the progenitor of most of the ceramic period cultures of the Southwest is examined.

Hernando de Soto's expedition through the southeastern United States between 1539 and 1543 is often regarded as a watershed moment for the collapse of Indigenous societies across the region. Historical narratives have proposed that extreme depopulation as a result of early contact destabilized Indigenous economies, politics, networks, and traditions. Although processes of depopulation and transformation were certainly set in motion by this and earlier colonial encounters, the timing, temporality, and heterogeneous rhythms of postcontact Indigenous histories remain unclear. Through the integration of radiocarbon and archaeological data from the Mississippian earthen platform mound at Dyar (9GE5) in central Georgia, we present a case of Indigenous endurance and resilience in the Oconee Valley that has long been obfuscated by materially based chronologies and typologies. Bayesian chronological modeling suggests that Indigenous Mississippian traditions persisted for up to 130 years beyond contact with European colonizers. We argue that advances in modeling radiocarbon dates, along with meaningful consultation/collaboration with descendant communities, can contribute to efforts that move us beyond a reliance on materially based chronologies that can distort and erase Indigenous histories.

This paper (1) presents four new AMS dates taken directly on prehistoric maize found in New England; (2) collects in one place and in a common format the 16 currently available dates directly on maize from the region; (3) shows, by comparing dates on charcoal or shell associated with 10 of these maize samples, that charcoal and shell are not reliable proxies for dating maize; and (4) draws several archaeological inferences from the dataset. First, a cluster of dates between about cal A.D. 1250 and 1450 that are temporally concentrated but spatially widespread suggests a relatively sudden increase in the archaeological visibility of maize in New England at this time. The increase in visibility roughly coincides with an increase in maize consumption in the midcontinent, although further studies are needed to clarify the timing of the latter. Second and even more striking is the simultaneous increase in the archaeological visibility of beans as well as maize in New England during the same period. Finally, preliminary evidence suggests that these increases may be related to the use of soils fertilized by alluvial limestone or old shell midden material.

Both Historical and archaeological sources on the West Indies provide evidence that these islands were once occupied by peoples with a culture markedly different from that of the agricultural, pottery-making Arawak. The archaeological remains of this Archaic mode of life are found on several of the islands in contexts which indicate their separateness from the pottery horizons and imply their greater antiquity. The ethnohistorical sources also attest to the survival of this Archaic tradition into early historic times (Martyr 1912 Vol. 1: 100, 380; Las Casas 1867: 35; 1951 Vol. 2: 240; Velásquez 1869: 424-5; Oviedo 1852 Vol. 1: 90).

The characteristics of this West Indian Archaic tradition, as revealed by archaeology and supplemented by the ethnohistoric accounts, are: absence of agriculture and pottery; seminomadic living in small bands; frequent use of caves for shelter and burial; crude artifacts made of conch shells, flint, and other classes of stone; use of hematite or red ocher; and the absence of cranial deformation as practiced by the agricultural peoples of the Antilles.

Hopewell bladelets may be the most common diagnostic artifact of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere. As such, they are often recognized as a Middle Woodland “index fossil” and a key materialized indication of Hopewell ceremonialism. However, few formal analyses of their occurrence across space and time exist. Drawing on published reports, as well as an extensive review of the unpublished gray literature, I present a Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon-dated, bladelet-bearing features from across Ohio. The Bayesian model provides insight into previously unrecognized temporal variation in this element of Hopewell material culture. Results indicate that bladelets are present from around the BC/AD switch to nearly AD 500 in certain portions of the state. Analysis by major drainages indicates that bladelets occur earliest in southern and central Ohio before subsequently spreading north to the Lake Erie region. Understanding the spatial and temporal variation in artifact classes such as Hopewell bladelets is essential to explaining prehistoric cultural processes.

Recently, the Flote-Tech machine-assisted flotation system was introduced as a new technique for processing soil samples in arid environments and areas with limited or no access to water resources. This system uses water recirculation in a closed loop between a water reservoir and a flotation tank, aided by diffused air, to extract archaeological botanical remains from soil samples. The paper presents two experiments conducted to assess macroremain recovery rate, flotation rate, and the potential for cross-contamination between soil samples. In addition, Flote-Tech recovery and flotation rates are compared with rates achieved using IDOT manual and SMAP machine-assisted systems. The first set of experiments using the original 1-mm screen in the flotation box received high ratings for large, medium, and small seeds, but rated poorly for very small seeds. After installing a .5-mm screen, a higher percentage of small and very small seeds was recovered. Flotation rates for the customized Flote-Tech system ranked high, matching flotation rates for SMAP systems and out-performing manual IDOT systems by a factor of four to eight. In addition, a distinct advantage of the Flote-Tech system over other machine-assisted and manual systems is the elimination of cross-contamination between samples.

Recently, there has been an intensification of interest in the history of American archaeology, and a number of general attempts at delineating the history of the entire field have been advanced since 1940. Most of these overall views have taken the form of explanatory-periodization schemes. Four of these schemes are reviewed in this article and then examined in the light of 4 testcase studies: (1) the initial period of archaeology in the Southwest (1840-1860), (2) the history of archaeology in the Grand Canyon region (1540-1964), (3) the development of Kentucky prehistory (1661-1957), and (4) the study of early man in the United States (1500-1965). A number of discrepancies and weaknesses are shown in all the schemes under review, and the use of any such period scheme in the initial history of a science is questioned. The nature of period schemes is then examined resulting in the suggestion that all such undertakings should serve as tentative working hypotheses rather than end goals in themselves.

A small collection of gravers from the Fisher site, an Early Paleoindian (Parkhill complex) site in Ontario estimated to date between 10,400 and 11,000 years B.P., produced two previously unrecognized tool types: single- and double-scribe compass and coring gravers. Experimental use-wear studies on replicated tools confirm that the compass and coring gravers were probably used on organic materials for engraving single or concentric circles, cutting thin disks, and boring holes. Although not identified as such, the compass graver occurs widely in North American Paleoindian assemblages and, judging from the presence and context of similar tools in the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic and Siberian Neolithic, may represent a specialized tool designed to express decorative, artistic, or symbolic aspects of Paleoindian culture. Together with other tools in Paleoindian assemblages, the new tool types promise to contribute to comparative studies concerned with the origin, development, and spread of Paleoindian cultures.