A program of surveys and test excavations has located 53 prehistoric open midden sites in the Bahamas and procured a large artifact sample from them. Sites in the central Bahamas, concentrated in the eastern islands of the area, are characterized by the shell-tempered Palmetto Series pottery. While sharing specific modes with Antillean cultures, it is an indigenous development, originating in the Caicos where the earliest sites have only ceramics imported from the Antilles. Distribution of sites and ceramic analyses suggest a movement of Antillean Arawaks to the Caicos to secure salt. An indigenous cultural tradition developed there by shortly after 1000 A.D. and spread rapidly to the central Bahamas. Factors affecting the limits of cultural expansion were the temperature and rainfall requirements of bitter manioc agriculture, which eliminated the northern Bahamas, and perhaps, in part, a time factor affecting expansion to the west.

Since mid-1974 very significant advances have been made in interpreting the Mixtec codices of Mexico. Many older hypotheses have been disproved, including the long-accepted chronological scheme proposed by Caso (1949), and these will cause profound changes in archaeological correlations for the Oaxacan area. The most important codex research is now focused upon correcting the chronology, distinguishing between actual history and mythical events, and clarifying the natures and roles of supernatural beings. The use of Central Mexican concepts hindered earlier research, but these patterns are erroneous for the Mixtecs and have now been discarded; accurate interpretations occur only with the use of Mixtec cultural and linguistic data. Mixtec codex studies are now firmly established as a separate and independent area of specialization within Mesoamerican scholarship.

Detailed behavioral observations permitted the dimensional analysis of formation processes operative on the Mask site, a Nunamiut Eskimo hunting stand. Activity structure, technological organization, disposal mode, and spatial organization were all seen as behavioral dimensions that could each vary, altering the patterns of assemblage content and spatial disposition at an archaeological site. These ethnoarchaeological experiences were then contrasted with those recently reported by John Yellen (1977), and a critical evaluation of his “conclusions” was conducted from the perspective of the Eskimo experience. It was pointed out that basic differences in philosophy and approach to research largely conditioned the contrasting character of the conclusions drawn from the different experiences.

The economic behavior and specialization of Indian groups involved in the fur trade of western Canada before 1763 are examined, and a spatial model of the fur trade is developed. The implications of Indian economic behavior and the spatial structure of the fur trade for current archaeological research in the sub-Arctic and northern Plains areas are then considered. It is posited that the nature of the early fur trade would lead archaeologists to underestimate the importance of the protohistoric period as a time of rapid culture change, and indeed, make it difficult to identify this period archaeologically.

Recent information obtained from a questionnaire sent to a sample of archaeologists interested in method and theory identifies topics of specialization, important research frontiers and issues, and documents a differentiation of method and theory under the guidance of specialists. Implications of the analysis are drawn for curriculum design and the organization of information flow in archaeology.

As a step toward delineation of prehistoric urbanism on the North Coast of Peru, Royal Ontario Museum teams have conducted intensive structural-functional analysis of “urban context” at the site of Pampa Grande, much of which was last occupied by a Moche V population (ca. A.D. 600-700). Such analysis entails, among other requirements, rigorous temporal control and a systemic conception of archaeological sites, emphasizing interlinkage of various activity loci. The multistage excavation-sampling design devised for the task was based on codification of architectural forms in terms of access pattern and on the belief that ceramically defined “contemporaneity” is inadequate for functional analysis. Application of the method showed that the site contained dispersed loci of low-output craft production, with a labor force commuting from elsewhere and fed by spatially segregated kitchens. An extensive network of corridors and formal storage complexes further attests to a concern with the control of commodity and labor movement.

Meggers, Evans, and Estrada's (1965) thesis, that storm-tossed Jomon fishermen drifted across the North Pacific to the coast of Ecuador and introduced pottery-making at the Valdivia site, is presented. The thesis is examined from the standpoint of the mechanics of such a voyage. The nature of the surface current patterns in the North Pacific are discussed, together with the weather conditions found along the presumed route, the types of vessels known archaeologically for the early Jomon, and the suitability of such vessels for a trans-Pacific crossing. Finally, the survival problems faced by a crew adrift in an open boat on the North Pacific are presented. It is concluded that contact between Jomon and Valdivian peoples was unlikely to have occurred in the manner suggested by Meggers, Evans, and Estrada. Several possible alternative routes and explanations are advanced.

Interregional exchange of commodities appears to have been important in the formation of complex societies. The transition from reciprocal to redistribution economies involved an institutionalization of long distance exchange. Large and important settlements called gateway communities emerged along natural trade routes at key locales for controlling the movement of commodities. A model is constructed that relates long distance trade and regional economics to the emergence of market centers in Formative Mesoamerica. The gateway community model depicts early interregional trade more efficiently than central place formulations. This model is examined in light of data collected from Chalcatzingo in Morelos, Mexico, a community that maintained an important position in both local and long distance trade during the first half of the Mesoamerican Formative.

Sampling design in excavation calls for previous estimates of site dimensions, artifact variability, and density. Sites covered by forest cannot be surface-collected to gain such data. Transect interval sampling provides the data at an early stage of research, at low cost with the collection and processing of soil samples of standard volume taken along a series of transects at regular intervals when the transects extend outward from the known area of the site. The screening of standard-volume soil samples provides a measure of artifact density across space, and empirically discoverable density values can be plotted to create an artifact density contour interval display. An adopted value of artifact density can be used to define site limits for sampling purposes (for example, 0.04 artifacts/liter). Use of such a measure would add to the precision and validity of sampling designs that frequently use more casual ways of estimating site dimensions.

The recent research activity of contract archaeology is reviewed from the perspective of research design and its essential features. Some of the difficulties currently encountered in contract research are attributed to vague notions of research design, lack of general models and methods in the science of archaeology, and ineffective research organizations. It is argued that American contract research offers an unprecedented opportunity to test theories of human behavior, provided the profession can make the necessary organizational shifts in research orientation and structure. Some examples of various applied research designs are examined to indicate the kinds of successful adaptations being made in the contract sphere, as well as outright scientific contributions to the discipline. We conclude that contract archaeology has already provided at least three benefits to the profession (1) by forcing researchers to cope theoretically and methodologically with heretofore unexplored and unexplained archaeological remains, (2) by promoting a scientific merging of historical and prehistoric archaeology, and (3) by stimulating archaeologists to probe the resource base in new and explicit ways for all possible dimensions of significance.

This study contends that flooding and related stream-flow phenomena have had an extensive impact on archaeological resources. An analysis of 1972 flood damage on 226 aboriginal sites in a portion of the Susquehanna River drainage indicates a need for special concern about differential preservation, discovery techniques, and interpretation of archaeological data in stream valley areas. Unless archaeologists and cultural resource managers take into account the natural and/or man-induced events and processes which may have affected the fluvial history of a region under study, their prediction and detection of sites-and their description, analysis, and interpretation of those that have been discovered-may be hampered seriously.

Of the measures currently available for quantifying the abundance of taxa within archaeological and paleontological vertebrate faunas, the minimum number of individuals per taxon is most frequently employed. This paper explores the relationship between the minimum number of individuals (MNI) calculated for a given taxon and the number of specimens (E) from which these values were calculated. Several approaches for controlling for the complex interrelationships between MNI and E are advanced and discussed.

This paper examines the relevance of systems theory to archaeology. General Systems Theory and Mathematical Systems Theory are considered. Although it is important for archaeologists to look at the materials they study as components of a larger cultural and ecological context, neither version of systems theory can offer archaeologists much help in constructing archaeological theories or in providing models of archaeological explanation.

Despite a continuing heavy reliance on general ecology and allied subfields for analytical models and empirical findings, ecological anthropologists remain reluctant to critically evaluate potential pitfalls of borrowing from other disciplines. Through an examination of how archaeologists have superficially and selectively applied the concepts of ecotone and edge effect, it becomes evident why anthropologists must take a closer, critical view of cross-disciplinary terms and studies.

Pristine state government evolved among the indigenous cultures of the central Andes, but archaeologists have not demonstrated when and where. Conceptualization of the state as an integrative mechanism for gathering and processing information and for deliberating decisions provides explicit archaeological criteria for statehood. Examination of the archaeological record reveals that Middle Horizon Huari fulfills almost all of these criteria for statehood, although many data remain to be collected before the processes of prehistoric Andean state formation will be fully understood.