Artifacts related to the Cody complex occur in medium-grained sand that is spread as a blanket eolian deposit a few feet thick in the Claypool site area, Washington County, Colorado. The artifact-bearing sand lacks noticeable dunal topography and lies unconformably on marl of Yarmouth age and on waterlaid coarse sand and fine gravel of Kansan age that underlie the marl. The deposits underlying the artifact-bearing sand are much too old to date the artifacts precisely, but the physical characteristics of the artifact-bearing sand suggest that it was deposited under conditions cool and dry, rather than warm and dry, possibly during retreat of Valders ice that began about 10,000 years ago. A moderately mature Brown Soil about 5 feet thick developed on the sand, possibly about 7000 to 5000 years ago during a moist phase of the Thermal Maximum. Thus, the artifacts are possibly 10,000 to 7000 years old. Deposits which overlie the artifact-bearing sand reflect several episodes of erosion and sedimentation that are inferred to represent climatic changes.

Corers and augers have become increasingly useful in archaeological investigations, but more in cultural-resource management (CRM) than in research archaeology. Although this increase is evident, coring and augering were used in the earliest CRM projects in the 1970s and merely have gained in popularity in the last five years. Schuldenrein (1991) points out that of all the coring and augering equipment described, the manual bucket auger with a large-diameter barrel is of special value. However, one major disadvantage is that sediment is disturbed during extraction, making observations about soil structure and stratification difficult. The disadvantages have to be balanced against the fact that bucket augers are more versatile than corers and penetrate many more types of substrate. Because of these differences between augers and corers, the terms should not be used interchangeably.

Maize is claimed to occur occasionally in preceramic deposits in Peru. Cobs, kernels, tassels, pollen, and plant parts have been reported to be associated with Cotton Preceramic period refuse (ca. 2500–1750 B.C., uncorrected) in several north-central coast sites. Maize has been found in some much earlier highland occupations that also have yielded a wide range of ancient dates. These samples represent many types, some with characteristics not found again until late in the first millennium A.D. This arouses suspicion. Checking of artifacts, ecofacts, and radiocarbon dates associated with the maize reveals some that are less than 100 years old and many that are less than 1,500 years old. It also reveals shallow deposits and/or much disturbed context.

Larson's hypothesis that southeastern warfare was instituted to increase the agricultural territories of demographically expanding Mississippian groups is not demonstrable for similar protohistoric chiefdoms in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Ethnohistorical data support an alternative perspective of warfare as a principal equilibrium-regulating institution through which cancellation of status deterioration, common in the peculiar ranked social structures of lower valley groups, might have been achieved.

The study of trash, although long in the forefront of actual archaeological research, has seldom been conducted in such a way as to emphasize the social and cultural context of the rules governing trash disposal. Evidence from the Early Dynastic town site of Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt is used to support the contention that a knowledge of human patterns of trash disposal can be a valuable tool in the study of the composition and functioning of "urban" centers, as well as of general use in interpreting archaeological remains.

It is generally presumed that intensive survey yields reliable representations of regional archaeological variability. We evaluate this assumption with an analysis of the results of two intensive surveys of the same terrain in the Upper Basin, a heavily forested upland ecosystem located south of Grand Canyon National Park in Kaibab National Forest, northern Arizona. By comparing differences between the results of site-based surveys with those of mapping-unit-based surveys, we demonstrate that units of observation have a profound effect on how archaeological landscapes and their variability are characterized and interpreted. In addition, results of four analyses of survey data show that the archaeological resource inventories created by the application of these two different units of observation cannot be reconciled. We suggest that because some units of observation may be more appropriate for certain problems and for different kinds of surface and near-surface archaeological records, additional studies of the effects of units of observation on characterizing the archaeological content of the same terrain should become a research priority in survey archaeology. Without such studies, the identification of archaeologically sensitive areas, particularly those that necessitate active management and vigilant protection on public lands, will be underdetermined, thereby placing those heritage properties at risk.

Eighteen archaeological objectives are ordered within two general classes: Class A, placement of archaeological units—traits, types, and assemblages — within a space-time framework, and Class B, integration of the units in a cultural context. Four levels of interpretation of data are distinguished: identification, unidimensional distribution, bidimensional distribution, and processual analysis. Statistical methods appropriate to the different levels of interpretation, including cluster analysis, matrix analysis, and factor analysis, are discussed. It is suggested that the matrix method provides a statistical model of findings in archaeological field work. It is concluded that archaeological theory can be advanced by interpretation in terms of series rather than in terms of classes.

A newly discovered paleo-Indian site in the mountainous interior of northwestern Maine yields tools identical to those reported for the Debert site in central Nova Scotia.

For an observer within the “tropics,” the day-count for a sun calendar is easily determined to the nearest day on four occasions: on the two equinox days, which are the same for all cities, and on the two zenith passages of the sun, which depend upon the observer's latitude. Sunset observations alone, contrary to a tacitly accepted dictum, determine the precise day of equinox, and the average 365¼-day length of the “tropical year,” if the record is continued over several years.

Powell Plain and Ramey Incised jars are considered to be hallmarks of the Mississippian period at Cahokia, but the actual function of the vessels has not been adequately addressed. This study sought to determine the typical use of both vessel types as indicated by carbonization present on the interior and exterior of the vessel surfaces. Traces of carbonization were identified, and distinct patterns were correlated with cooking behavior. Interior carbonization patterns were the most telling, indicating the preparation of beverages or medicines using a cooking process called “decoction.” In combination with the ceremonial nature of the vessels, the jars with discernible use-alteration evidence indicate that both vessel types were employed almost exclusively for the purpose of ritual drink preparation.

Projections of Paleoindian range mobility in the late Pleistocene are typically inferred from straight-line distances between toolstone sources and sites where artifacts of these raw materials have been found. Often, however, these sourcing assessments are not based on geologic analysis, raising the issue of correct source ascription. If sites of similar age can be linked to a toolstone source through geologic study, and direct procurement of toolstone can be inferred, geographic information systems (GIS) modeling of travel routes between the source and those sites can reveal route segments of annual rounds and aspects of landscape use. In the Hudson Valley of eastern New York, Paleoindian peoples exploited Normanskill chert outcrops for toolstone during the late Pleistocene. Here, we combine X-ray fluorescence sourcing results that link Normanskill chert artifacts at Paleoindian sites to the West Athens Hill source outcrop in the Hudson Valley with GIS least cost path analysis to model seasonal pathways of late Pleistocene peoples in northeastern North America.

In a Previous article in American Antiquity I have outlined the four main divisions of Maya history: the formative period (prior to A.D. 320); the Initial Series period, which is the classical age (A.D. 320–900); the Mexican period (A.D. 987–1204); and the Mexican absorption period (A.D. 1204–1540). I have also sketched briefly the three provinces into which the Maya area can be rather readily divided.1 Nevertheless, it is difficult to place exactly the boundary between the central and northern areas. I have included in the former the various sites of southern Campeche—such as Calakmul—which are culturally a part of the Peten, and which appear to have been abandoned at the close of the Initial Series period.

During the past fourteen collecting seasons, paleontological expeditions of the University of Nebraska State Museum have excavated a large number of sites which contained the bones of extinct mammals associated with the artifacts of Early Man. Many of these sites have been reported but some data have not been published. All of the studies of Early Man have been carried on from a paleontologic and stratigraphic point of view. It is hoped that a faunal and stratigraphic sequence connecting the Pleistocene and Recent will eventually be established, and that Early Man's relation to this sequence will be determined. It is the purpose of this brief paper to summarize the work relating to Early Man which has been done by the field parties of the University of Nebraska State Museum since 1937. The explorations have been confined chiefly to Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming. Since the studies of the Nebraska sites have, for the most part, been published, the discussion will be confined to the sites in the latter three states.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, over 450 precolumbian and historic Indigenous agricultural fields were documented across the state of Wisconsin. Today, the vast majority of these features are generally assumed to have been destroyed. Focusing on the Wisconsin River basin, which has the highest concentration of known archaeological field systems in the Midwest, this study explores the potential of using historical aerial photographs to identify and interpret archaeological agricultural features. Relying on state site records, an archive of high-resolution 1930s aerial images, and modern lidar data, we carefully examine the region surrounding 59 sites where fields had previously been documented. At a quarter of the sites we investigated, we successfully identified both known and unrecorded archaeological features—including agricultural fields, effigy mounds, earthworks, and house basins—most of which have been destroyed by recent land use practices. Our analysis sheds light on the complexity and richness of the archaeological landscape, with vast agricultural spaces situated beyond traditional site boundaries, and suggests that precolumbian and historic Indigenous agricultural fields may have been much larger and more widespread than conventionally understood.

The correlation of culture sequences provides the basic framework of archaeology, the essential understructure of any interpretations which may follow. In the New World, prehistoric sequence correlations seldom are projected for territories of greater size than the conventional culture area. The southwestern United States, Peru, or, at the largest, eastern North America are classic examples. The reason for such a restriction seems to be that native American cultures but rarely outrun the boundaries of their natural environmental settings, and it is difficult to effect alignments of culture phases or units on an interareal basis.

This paper considers problems inherent in constructing typologies based on subdividing artifacts using clustering algorithms that assume a paradigmatic structure (as do most, if not all, currently used algorithms) and presents an alternative method based on a taxonomic, rather than a paradigmatic, structure for the artifact classes. The method is exemplified by analysis of an assemblage of utilized flakes from a series of late prehistoric habitation sites in the central highlands of Peru. These flakes were previously analyzed using more intuitive, traditional methods but without identifying any satisfactory groupings within the assemblage. Similarly, paradigmatically based clustering algorithms applied to the entire data set and using the several variables measured over these flakes were also unable to extract meaningful groupings. In contrast, the method presented here was able to (1) construct a partition of the flake assemblage into groups that also made intuitive sense to the practitioner, (2) have functional interpretation assignable through a model of transmission of forces from agent to object acted on, and (3) produce units differentially occurring across the several subsites from which the utilized flakes were obtained, i.e., units that add another dimension to the analysis of activities represented by the archaeological assemblage. Although demonstrated with utilized flakes, the method has general application.

Early in May 1947, a United States Geological Survey field party of five was flown by ski plane to the headwaters of the Utukok River in northwestern Alaska, about 200 miles southwest of Barrow. Three 18–foot canvas boats of a special folding design were taken in along with enough equipment for four months. Food caches had been flown in to six localities on the 200–mile–long river a short time before the group landed. When the “break–up” came late in May the party started down the river working out the geology of the area from a series of 18 camps which were established before reaching the Arctic Ocean in August.

During the season 17 archaeological sites were discovered. It is believed that most of these sites are of Eskimo origin and are probably fairly recent. However, an important exception is a well–made Folsom point, announcement of which has been made.

Following my attempt at an explanation of the function or use of Mexican stone yokes I was led on to consider, in a similar vein, two other classes of well known stone objects also common to the eastern coastal regions of Mexico, namely, the palmas or palmate stones and the thin stone heads, also known as hachas. Both of these groups of objects include some of the finest stone carvings known from the ancient cultures of Mexico, but their curious forms and possible functions have never been satisfactorily explained. Hints or suggestions as to how they may have been used appear to be singularly rare. Those I have been able to gather are equivocal enough and far from conclusive, but I believe they are worth reviewing at the present time as a beginning toward investigation of the problems involved.

In this article, we discuss new stable isotope data obtained from human dental tissue at the Krieger site, a Late Woodland Western Basin Tradition occupation from southwestern Ontario, Canada. These data point to significant maize consumption within an otherwise diffuse subsistence economy and settlement pattern geared toward the occupation of short-term campsites. The degree of maize consumption at Krieger implies the necessity for storage and year-round use. We suggest that maize horticultural practices during this time were as intensive as those suggested for contemporary and more sedentary Iroquoian groups to the east yet were accommodated without major changes to other aspects of the subsistence-settlement regime. Furthermore, the absence of a breastfeeding signal in the dental tissue not only implicates women in the role of maize production but might also imply demographic consequences. Accordingly, and with reference to comparative data, we suggest that notions of food production be recast and decoupled from the advent of sedentary lifeways in the lower Great Lakes region.

The Spanish missionary entrada (A.D. 1769 to 1833) along the California coast created a series of complex encounters between multiple cultural discourses. The Franciscan mission system directly brought colonial and indigenous cultural metaphorical understandings into play. Missionary and indigenous discourse interacted largely via the media of material culture, animals, embellished architecture, and landscape—media interpreted through preexisting cultural metaphors and understandings. Investigating how metaphors played a role in constituting colonial entanglements is important in understanding cultural interactions and change. Metaphors structured colonial interactions, simultaneously hindering and enabling missionary–indigenous relationships. These relationships created parameters for unforeseen transitory configurations: a process best theorized under the term polyvalence. By adopting polyvalence, the processes of colonialism can be approached without usage of ethnic or racialized terms such as creolization, hybridity, or amalgamation. In the case of indigenous south-central California, it is suggested here that widely different forms of evidence can be better appreciated without recourse to terms laden with racial or ethnic connotations. The evidence suggests that while missions may have failed to create entirely new ethnic groups, missionary endeavors did result in unanticipated outcomes, presenting problems and creative opportunities for indigenous groups living within immediate coastal and extended interior populations.