The MacHaffie site, in the foothills a few miles south of Helena, Montana, is an unusual open site in that it has three occupation levels. Folsom Fluted points occur in the bottom; Scottsbluff points in the middle; later types of points comparable to Signal Butte II come from the top level. In 1938 A. J. Harstad, an amateur mineralogist from Helena, discovered the site. He saw flint and bones projecting from a cut bank; he later pointed these out to E. D. MacHaffie, also of Helena. In a surface survey, MacHaffie discovered artifacts of a late type, and Mrs. MacHaffie also found a Clovis Fluted point in the small creek near the site and possibly from the site itself (Fig. 62, 12). On a later visit MacHaffie found a point of Scottsbluff type on the surface. At this time he dug into the cut bank and found bones, chips, and some flaked knives.

Chemical analyses of soil samples from the Utz site, Missouri, provide results which make it possible to distinguish between soil stains of human origin (postmolds) and similar stains produced by other agencies (for example, rodents). Based on the comparison of the concentrations of magnesium and phosphates in the stains with those of the immediately surrounding soil, postmolds were correctly identified with 96% accuracy in a limited sample. Other soil disturbances in the site (bulldozer drag, an old excavation, and so forth) were also localized on chemical grounds during the course of the research.

In a series of articles Robert McK. Bird systematically has denied that preceramic maize has been discovered in the central Andes. The authors consider Bird's methodology to be unscientific and illustrate this by demonstrating the value of a significant body of archaeological evidence in support of preceramic maize.

We propose a new method to analyze spatially cohesive sets of artifacts and relate them to intrasite activity areas using the spatial similarity and cohesion of artifact types. This method can handle heterogeneous data and is able to reveal and deconstruct overlapping areas into their constituent elements. Application to a Mousterian habitation site from the Levant as a case study enables us to distinguish three spatially cohesive yet overlapping sets ("tool kits") of artifact and ecofact types within the boundaries of an excavated 50 m² sub-area of the site.

Presumably all archaeologists know that radiocarbon dates are estimates of true dates, or, more precisely, that they are derived from estimates of the true rate of emission of electrons from radioactive carbon. If it were possible to keep each specimen in the counter for an indefinitely long period or if the emissions occurred with the regularity of clock ticks, there would be no need to talk of estimates of rates. Unfortunately, the emissions do not occur at regular intervals nor is it practical to count for a very long time, so there is no escape from the uncertainty of estimation.

Changing perspectives on concepts of personhood are explored by deconstructing mortuary customs from 10 Tucson Basin (Arizona) Hohokam archaeological sites dating from the Preclassic (A.D. 700–1150) and Classic (A.D. 1150–145011500) periods. Results indicate that certain aspects of personhood did not change across time and space at these sites. However, by analyzing changes through time in cremation rituals, it was possible to infer that some aspects of personhood did change. In the Preclassic period, after bodies were burned, the remains were distributed as inalienable possessions within social networks. This behavior suggests a relational social construction of self where burning transformed the deceased and the remains were considered part-person and part-object. Later in the Classic period, a higher frequency of cremated remains were not divided but instead transferred as a unit to secondary deposits. Perceptions of personhood during this period appear to have defined self as a complete, bounded unit, even after transformation by fire. This change possibly occurred as a result of a general decrease in remembrance networks. These changes in cremation parallel broader sociopolitical changes where increases in social differentiation and complexity are proposed for the Classic period Hohokam.

Galena artifacts from Middle Woodland Copena burial mounds have been analyzed by means of atomic absorption spectrophotometry in order to determine their trace element compositions. These results are compared to trace element characteristics of galena sources in eastern North America. Analysis to date suggests the Upper Mississippi Valley galena district as the source for these artifacts. Implications concerning Middle Woodland exchange systems are also offered.

Archaeological evidence documents apparent depopulation of the Hohokam region of Southern Arizona at the end of the Classic period (A.D. 1150-1450). Major population centers were no longer occupied, and many distinctive material culture traits associated with the Hohokam tradition seem to disappear. Proposed explanations include migration, dispersion of the population into less archaeologically visible settlements, and wholesale population decline. The latter hypothesis is attractive partly because of a seminal study of paleodemography and health at the Classic-period site of Pueblo Grande in the Phoenix Basin. That study suggested that the population was not sustainable due to very low life expectancy, a very high dependency ratio of juveniles to adults, and other indicators of biological stress. A hazards analysis of the published demographic data reveals life expectancy at birth in the expected range for prehistoric populations with no evidence of a dependency crisis. Population decline at the end of the Classic period is more likely explained by reduced fertility than by increased mortality. Birth rates are sensitive to cultural and economic forces, and we should look beyond health factors in trying to account for the disappearance of Hohokam traditions.

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 chipped stone industry of Cihuatan and Santa Maria, Postclassic sites of north-central El Salvador, is discussed briefly in terms of behavioral/technological typology. The industry was based almost exclusively on obsidian and emphasized specialized production of prismatic blades. Source determinations by X-ray fluorescence and neutron activation analysis of 20 obsidian specimens from Cihuatan indicate that at least three highland Guatemalan sources supplied obsidian to the site. Twelve specimens are attributed to the Ixtepeque source, seven to El Chayal, and one to San Martín Jilotepeque. The multiple-source procurement pattern is interpreted as a hedge against the fragility of Postclassic sociopolitical alliances and shifting exchange networks.

In 1964, a conference of American and French prehistorians explored the techniques of manufacture of chipped-stone artifacts. The conference was held at Les Eyzies, France, and included sessions in which implements were manufactured and discussion sessions in which artifact collections were evaluated in terms of observable evidences of manufacturing technique.

New data from the South American lowland tropics are used in support of a recent argument extolling the potential of fish utilization in major floodplains. The discussion will cover five points: (1) major floodplains in general, and the Amazon and Orinoco floodplains in particular, have similar characteristics that make them biologically productive regions; (2) high fish productivity and the use of mass-fishing techniques in floodplain regions are characteristics of lowland South America; (3) the ecological dynamics of the seasonally inundated savanna are particularly productive and propitious for seasonal exploitation using mass-fishing techniques; (4) differences in species composition and fish size may have implications for seasonal and spatial variations in fish exploitation; and (5) substantial biases are apparent against the retrieval of small fish remains using traditional archaeological recovery techniques.

The periodization used to distinguish sites and artifacts as "prehistoric" or "historic" translates to the selection of field methods and analytical techniques. This comes at the expense of developing new approaches to track continuities and adjustments in Native American site use, technologies, and other cultural traditions, such as mobility across an artificial divide between prehistory and history. To evaluate the mobility of Coast Miwok people in colonial San Francisco Bay, California, this article presents an experimental technique that compares radiocarbon and geochemical data from a Late period Phase 2(A.D. 1500-1800) shellmound (CA-MRN-114) to baptismal records from Spanish missions (A.D.l 776-1830s). Supported by eyewitness accounts of native fugitivism, furlough, and foraging at the missions, Coast Miwok baptisms before 1817 are at their lowest during traditional times of mussel harvests. After 1817, a different pattern is examined vis-d-vis the colonial landscapes taking shape in the region. Radiocarbon, geochemical, and documentary evidence supports the conclusion that seasonally oriented Coast Miwok mobility involving the collection of shellfish continued even during missionization. With further refinement, the proposed methodological framework holds promise for documenting patterns that often go unseen in the historical record and enhancing the archaeology of colonialism in North America.

Modern datasets provide the context necessary for accurate interpretations of isotopic data from archaeological faunal assemblages. In this study, we use the oxygen isotope ratios (δ18O) of modern small mammals from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, to quantify expected isotopic variation in a local population. The δ18O values of local, modern small mammals encompass a broad range (−6.0‰ to 4.8‰ VPDB), which is expected given the extreme seasonal variation in the δ18O of precipitation on the Colorado Plateau (−11‰ to −3‰ VPDB). Isotopic ratios of small mammals obtained from excavated archaeological sites in Chaco Canyon (ca. AD 800 to 1200) show no significant differences with their modern counterparts, suggesting that there is no difference in the origins of the archaeological small-mammal collection and the modern, local Chaco Canyon small-mammal collection. In contrast, δ18O values of large mammals from Chaco archaeological sites are significantly different from those of modern specimens, reflecting a nonlocal, but also nonspecific, source in the past.

The burial of the dead is a conservative trait in all cultures, and thus the diffusion and spread of the rare extended burial pattern in the American Southwest provides excellent evidence of cultural contacts and cultural change. Prior to A.D. 1000, the common Southwestern burial pattern is seen to be that of flexure of the dead, with a few rare extended burials known. Concentrations of extended burials first appear at Chaco Canyon sites dating about A.D. 1050, and the pattern seems to spread from there first to the Sinagua region and to nearby Mogollon groups, then to the Hopi and Zuni regions, and finally, with the Sinagua and Salado migrations, into the Gila-Salt River Valley. The complex may ultimately be of Mesoamerican origin. Some data on grave types and burial covering are also discussed.

Analysis of unpublished house floor and fill data has revealed new information concerning the production and distribution of shell artifacts at the Hohokam site of Snaketown. In addition to presenting data on the frequency and distribution of shell in structures, the analysis identifies manufacturing loci and evaluates previous statements concerning craft production at the site. Implications for the organization of production and exchange during the Sacaton phase also are considered. It is concluded that local kin groups could have procured, produced, and distributed shell products. This reconstruction is provided as an alternative to views which hold that a higher-level administrative agency was in control of the production and distribution of marine shell.

The Chalchihuites culture of the Colorado-Suchil river drainage of western Zacatecas began about A.D. 100 as a somewhat evolved and belated Early Preclassic colonization of simple agriculturalists. By the Alta Vista phase (ca. A.D. 350-550) it had assumed the role of a much more complex society. A great expansion of population occurred. This transition was very rapid and present evidence supports the hypothesis that highly organized social groups colonized the area in order to exploit the mineral resources located there. Extensive mining operations, coupled with self-supporting agricultural patterns, characterize the zenith of the period. The extent of mining was much more than local consumption could possibly require and therefore points to the economic dependence of the exploitative organization upon the high cultures farther south and southeast. This paper reviews the 1963 and 1965 surveys of the Alta Vista mining operations and draws some conclusions about the character of the society which sponsored them.

The Hopewellian Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture, on the Florida Gulf Coast, includes seven or more burial mounds. Analysis of the individual complexes demonstrates that these mounds occupy points on a cultural continuum, with some clustering into two mortuary or ceremonial complexes. The earlier Yent complex, with the Pierce, Crystal River, and Yent mounds is in the Deptford time period. Some of the pottery has Tchefuncte characteristics, and there are Hopewell artifacts. The later, Green Point complex includes the Huckleberry Landing and Green Point mounds, with mostly complicated-stamped pottery and a few Hopewellian traits. The latest mounds, also placed in the Green Point complex, are Andersons Bayou and Alligator Bayou, which have Troyville or Troyville-like pottery associated with complicated-stamped pottery in an east-side deposit, a characteristic of the following Weeden Island period. The continuum originates in a Deptford-Tchefuncte period, in which there are direct Ohio-Illinois contacts, and ends in the Troyville period with Lower Mississippi Valley rather than midwest contacts. The inferred time span is from approximately 200 B.C. to A.D. 800.

Among the various pre-maize indigenous crops of eastern North America, Cucurbita pepo gourd is the most enigmatic. C. pepo gourd remains have been found on mid-Holocene (8000–4000 B.P.) archaeological sites as far north and east as Maine. Their presumably extremely bitter flesh would have made the fruits inedible. Two not mutually exclusive hypotheses for use of the fruit are currently being debated: (1) the nutritious seeds were processed to remove bitterness and consumed, and (2) dried fruits were used as fishnet floats and/or containers for general use. We report on a series of experiments that demonstrate the gourds function extremely well as fishnet floats. These results lend support to the second hypothesis, but do not conclusively prove they were used for this purpose.