Since the publication, in 1891, of Mindeleff's maps and descriptions of five ruined pueblos along the rim of Antelope Mesa, the Jeddito Valley in the Hopi Reservation, northeastern Arizona, has been known as an interesting archaeological area. Subsequent short field trips by Fewkes, Russell, Hough, Kidder, the Cosgroves, Gladwin, Morris, and Hargrave have furnished further information about the large sites, called attention to the great number of small sites, and emphasized the archaeological importance of the region as a melting pot in which were blended elements of cultures and probably peoples from many directions. San Juan, Little Colorado, and Puerco met here; the San Francisco Mountains are within sight to the west, and a Rio Grande tongue is still to be heard on the Hopi mesas.

The archaeological knowledge of practically every large area suffers from unevenness. The lure of the spectacular and the overemphasis on the higher aspects result in concentration of interests on a few regions, while other parts remain practically unknown scientifically. In few regions is this more true than in Middle America. To the average person without special interests all Mexican archaeological phenomena are Aztec, just as all South American ones are Inca. Even many sites in the United States have been popularly ascribed to the Aztecs, as for instance the site of Aztec in New Mexico and Aztalan in Wisconsin. Contritely we must confess that similarly some professional archaeologists seem to see little in Middle America but the Maya and their influences.

Archaeological investigations in the Southwestern field proceed apace. New facts and fancies burst forth in such profusion that the trend of the studies is well-nigh obscured by the complexity of information emanating from the area. The specialists at times find it difficult to comprehend developments. Hence there is little wonder that students and laymen are prone to succumb to a sense of futility when they view the welter of material on the subject. To many the archaeology of the Southwest now seems so involved, so cluttered with minutiae that it has become dull and stupid and can no longer be regarded as the source for a fascinating story of the cultural and material growth of a primitive people. Yet the new chapters being added are even more interesting than those with which most people are familiar.

Middle American archaeological research has always been especially centered in the Maya region of Guatemala and Yucatan, for here, apparently, ancient American civilizations reached their culmination in art, architecture, writing, and probably in mathematics and astronomy. There are more specialists who limit their researches to one field in the Maya area than in any other branch of American archaeology, and among these are many whose sole interest is in the topics of epigraphy and the calendar. This field is highly specialized and requires experts, but the great value of their results is not per se, but lies in the accurate dating which can be given to developmental phases of architecture, ceramics, and similar products; once the temporal relationships of these are established, they may be used as a time-scale for adjacent regions to which these objects and traits were carried by influence and trade.

Data from archaeological investigations in the habitation mounds of the lower Sacramento Valley by the Sacramento Junior College during the last three years have thrown much light on a very interesting and hitherto imperfectly known aboriginal trait of molding and baking small clay objects. Wissler characterizes California as an area in which pottery was absent. Kroeber subsequently notes that pottery-making occurred north of the Tehachapi Mountains. Gayton describes pottery in detail for the Yokuts and Western Mono. Meredith first specifically noted the occurrence of baked-clay objects in the northern San Joaquin Valley. Holmes, Jones, and Schenck followed, the latter's being the most comprehensive study.

The cotton sample used in the following fiber study was found in the summer of 1932, in the Canyon Creek ruin, Fort Apache Indian Reservation, in east-central Arizona. During the excavations remnants of cotton fabrics were frequently found in the rubbish, indicating that the occupants of the pueblo evidently made considerable use of the fiber. A small quantity of raw cotton, in the process of being spun into yarn, was found with an adult female buried below the floor of a room.

In the summer of 1935, a road gang working in the vicinity of Torrington, Wyoming, near the north bank of the North Platte River, was blasting for road material in the face of a low bluff. Among the debris of one explosion they found several broken skeletons, together with a few stone artifacts and some bone beads. The artifacts were dispersed among the workmen, but the skeletal material, together with a few of the beads, came into the hands of Dr. S. H. Knight, Professor of Geology at the University of Wyoming. On a trip to New York he brought the cranial fragments to the American Museum of Natural History, where they were restored by the author.

There is reason to believe that the bow came into use in the New World in relatively recent times, and that prior to its introduction, or its much less probable local invention, the spear-thrower enjoyed continent-wide distribution in both Americas. These suppositions are based on the apparent total absence from all respectably ancient deposits of small, light points suitable for the tipping of arrows; and, conversely, by the presence in such deposits of larger points, of sizes and weights appropriate for service with the heavier, longer darts propelled by the spear-thrower. Furthermore, the spear-thrower is known to have been replaced by the bow in the Southwest during the Basket Maker II period, probably in the early centuries of the Christian era.

Archaeological research in the Mississippi Valley during the past decade, although a map illustrating the areas intensively worked would have an exceedingly spotted appearance, and programs of study have been hardly more than superficial anywhere, has resulted in more clearly defining many of the problems for that field, and in marked progress toward the solution of a few of the more simple problems. Perhaps the most important advances made are in relation to such final preliterate manifestations as are classified under the Upper Mississippi Phase. Certainly, relatively small headway has been made in the general field of the Woodland Pattern.

The custom of burying the dead in earthenware vessels, or more briefly, urn-burial, was widely distributed throughout the world. Before the coming of the Europeans the Indians living in what is now the state of Alabama practiced this custom extensively, for records of urn-burial exist from a number of archaeological sites in central Alabama along the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers and their tributaries. For many years there have been reports of the finding of human bones in pots by farmers during plowing or while examining recently eroded banks of streams. In 1884 Dr. Edward Palmer made a report upon such finds to the Smithsonian Institution.

The resemblance of certain objects from the Crystal River Mound in Florida to others taken from mounds of the Hopewell culture in Ohio was first noted by Shetrone in 1931. Willoughby discussed a certain type of design on a round copper plate, interpreted by him as representative of the foot of a bear, and commented upon the presence of such Hopewell-like objects as plummets of shell, stone, and copper, copper ear spools, and conjoined copper tubes. The resemblances between these widely separated mound groups are much more numerous than have been listed in any publication up to the present date, but the Crystal River Mound and other related mounds in Florida have been denied inclusion in the Hopewellian culture for the reason that most of the pottery found in them is not of the Hopewell type.

During his recent field work in south-central Canada, Professor A. Irving Hallowell obtained from Mr. W. H. Rand, Keeper of the Manitoba Museum, Winnipeg, a sample series of potsherds from several localities in the valley of the lower Red River, north of the city of Winnipeg. This material is said to have been collected on the surface and in one instance, at Lockport, in presumably archaeological (occupational?) deposits. Through the kindness of Dr. Hallowell I have examined the sherds from the standpoint of technology.

Following a brief reference, in Science to a paper presented by the writer at the Denver Meeting of the A. A. A. S., wherein the occurrence of Woodland-like vessel shapes in a Puebloan pottery complex was reported, a number of requests for further information have been received. In consequence of the apparent interest shown, the following preliminary report is offered.

During the progress of an archaeological survey of north central New Mexico in 1932, particularly in that section drained by the western tributaries of the upper Chama and southeasternmost affluents of the San Juan rivers, a large number of sites were recorded which, in architectural forms and pottery content, appeared to differ somewhat from more usual Pueblo patterns.

Mr. John F. Isackson, while working for the United States Bureau of Reclamation, September 13, 1934, discovered two Indian knives or side scrapers. The Bureau of Reclamation was engaged in making a survey of the quality of the soil at this point to hold water for a storage reservoir to impound the waters of the Deschutes River. The project was known as the Wikiup Damsite No. I, Deschutes Project. The site is located in Sec. 8, R. 9E. T. 22S., Willamette Meridian. It is shown on the Maiden Peak quadrangle of the U. S. Geological Survey of Oregon. Plate I, Figure 1 shows the location of the test pits, drill holes, and trenches. The logs of these are shown in Appendix B. Pit 4 is just to the east of the concrete monument on Control Line Damsite No. I at 14, 47.8.

The many Iroquoian village and camp sites scattered throughout New York, Pennsylvania, New England, and Ontario, have produced innumerable pottery fragments but relatively few perfect vessels. Many sherds come from the village refuse dumps, for the Iroquois were a cleanly people, and it is only after the advent of the historic period that we find pottery jars and other goods in the graves. Our problem deals with this mass of fragmentary and intact pottery.