Archaeological excavations in certain New World areas, such as Mesoamerica, yield great volumes of potsherd refuse. When the purpose of excavation is primarily chronological or sequential, there is reason to save, classify, and tabulate total excavated collections of sherds from stratigraphic cuts; but when the principal use of pottery debris is for gross dating of architectural or settlement features, it is debatable if the same detailed counting procedures are necessary. Examples from the Maya Lowlands are cited and reference is also made to procedures in handling large quantities of ceramic material in Middle Eastern archaeology. The question is left open for comment.

A review of problems in American archaeology is organized around the Lithic, Archaic, Formative, Classic, and Postclassic stages of Willey and Phillips. Among the problems raised and discussed are: the inadequacy of the Early Lithic or generalized gathering tool stage, the need for a better definition of the Archaic concept, the difficulty in extending the Archaic stage into South America, the dating and interpretation of the Peruvian Preceramic period, the origin of New World cotton, the possibility of trans-Pacific contacts and the feasibility of ocean travel, the Mesoamerican origin of the Formative stage, the dating of Valdivia culture and the Formative in general in South America, the relationship between Chavin and the comparable cultures in south coastal Peru, the inappropriateness of identifying most of the Mesoamerican centers as cities, the Aztec state as an empire, and the Classic stage as essentially urban, and the possibility of yet finding a Siberian origin for the pressure-flaked bifacial projectile points of the paleo-Indians.

This apparently unfinished study of the still poorly described La Brea skull was written in 1914. Measurements by Kroeber and John C. Merriam and photos by Merriam are included. The skull is identified with the earliest of three racial subtypes of California Indians recognized by Kroeber. Robert F. Heizer provides data on a recent radiocarbon date at La Brea and explains that Kroeber's three subtypes were later verified by the detailed work of E. W. Gifford.

Most keys that are designed for use in identifying mammal skulls discuss and figure the skulls and dentitions of mature adults only. In some groups, particularly carnivores, there is considerable variation from the deciduous teeth of the young to the worn dentitions of the old adult. A series covering this age group, of the North American Raccoon, Procyon lotor is figured and discussed.

Human remains at a depth of 37 feet in Arlington Canyon are dated by radiocarbon at about 8000 B.C.

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.

The presence of a fluted point on an island in Chesapeake Bay is explained in terms of a lowered sea level during the time of the Early Man occupation of the area. This study is offered as an example of the value of the use of eustatic oscillations in the study of early prehistoric remains in maritime regions.

Paleo-Indian type artifacts of the Manzanillo complex consist of crude tools, such as choppers and scrapers, made of silicified wood. The find is related to the El Jobo chronology and is also compared with other complexes in North and South America.

Examination of material in the Oregon State Museum of Anthropology reveals two apparent cores and several blades among surface finds from the Northern Great Basin. Collections from excavations at The Dalles, on the Columbia River, contain cores and blades from levels radiocarbon dated at about 5900 B.C., and possible examples from earlier levels.

Microlithic cultures of the steppe and desert zone of Asia include the Kel'teminar of the Aral Sea region and comparable cultures in Kazakhstan, Turkmenia, Trans-Baikal, Mongolia and China. This microlithic industry is characterized not by the size of the tools, but by the use of blades rather than flakes for the manufacture of stone tools. The prismatic core, often small and pencil-shaped, is very common; bifacial retouch is rare. The microliths are consistently found in association with pottery and bifacially worked projectile points of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of the third and second millennia B.C. The tendency of Soviet archaeologists to seek the ethnic affiliations of archaeological complexes may explain the considerable regional variation in pottery and stone tool inventories, but adjustment to environment is a more likely explanation for the wide-spread occurrence of the basic features of the microlithic industry. A way of life based on migratory hunting of small game and collecting developed as a result of refinements in missile weapons which included the bow and arrow. These developments can be correlated with the introduction of the microlithic blade technology. This way of life and the use of microliths survived in the steppe and desert areas, but in the regions to the south where farming developed the microliths were rapidly replaced by heavy tools such as hoes and pestles, and in the northern forests harpoons, fishhooks, and heavy wood-working tools indicate a shift to a more sedentary life based on intensive fishing. The widespread microlithic survivals in northern Asia demonstrate similar subsistence patterns in similar ecological zones rather than basic ethnic unity. Suggestions concerning origins, historical and cultural ties, and possible population movements are gradually emerging from detailed studies of the boundaries between the microlithic zone and the pottery and forest areas as well as from broader comparative analyses.

Cogged stones from preceramic sites on the coasts of California and Chile may reflect a north-to-south diffusion during the Archaic period with greater elaboration of the trait in Chile.

Although it has been considered possible that certain elements originating in the Olmec culture of Mexico were added to older Peruvian traditions to produce the Chavin civilization, the radiocarbon dates on Olmec and Chavin make them approximately coeval. A black-ware bottle found at Kotosh, in the central Peruvian highlands, bears a design of an ear of maize, a motif of probable Olmec origin. Since this vessel was from a phase immediately preceding the Chavin horizon, it is suggested that the Olmec culture began earlier than did Chavin and, in fact, could have been the progenitor for civilization in the Andean Area.

Recently discovered paleo-Indian sites on the shores of Salar de San Martin in Chile and Laguna Colorada and Laguna Hedionda in Bolivia are described. A cave at Laguna Hedionda is stratified. Comparisons are made with Ayampitin in Argentina and Le Paige's sequence for sites around Salar de Atacama in Chile. Pottery from the Hedionda sites is compared with post-Tiahuanaco to Inca styles in nearby areas of Bolivia. Le Paige's sequence (Puripica, Tulan-Cebollar, Tambillo) is criticized and a revision (Puripica-Tulan, Tambillo-Cebollar) proposed.

An unreported group of petroglyphs, all versions of a single "horseshoe" symbol carved in high relief, occur on an isolated volcanic peak. The more realistic ones appear to represent female genitalia and the rest seem to be more abstract versions of the same motif. Archaeological investigation has disclosed similar motifs in Southern California and ethnological research has turned up clues in the literature suggesting that the same "horseshoe" symbol survived until recently as a magical element in the Diegueño girls’ initiation ceremony.

Width frequencies plotted for 293 microblades and blades from the pre-Dorset Arnapik site on Mansel Island, Northwest Territories, produce a bimodal curve which suggests a maximum width of 11 mm. as a criterion for distinguishing microblades from blades.

The inked-roller technique used to obtain “surface prints” of Chavín carvings, many of which have been discovered only recently, is described, and twelve prints or rubbings of these carvings and one of the Raimondi stela are illustrated.

A brief review of the rise of interest in historic sites preservation and of the use of archaeological techniques in this field, is followed by a discussion of the recent phenomenon of urban renewal as it applies to an increasing necessity for archaeological work in urban areas. Experience gained in the archaeological program at Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, provides the basis for a discussion of some of the specific problems encountered in urban sites: excavation costs, problems of public relations, the necessity for special equipment and specialized artisans, and the archeologists' training.