In 1938, a seemingly unusual type of side-bladed knife with its stone blade in place was excavated at the Old Fort Abraham Lincoln Mandan village, across the Missouri River from Bismarck, North Dakota. This specimen, now in the collections of the North Dakota Historical Society, was found in an ash-filled storage pit at a depth of 90 cm. The same pit also contained two other side-bladed knife handles of bone and three ovoid stone knife blades, as well as other artifacts, some indicating European contact. The Old Fort Abraham Lincoln village is of protohistoric age and was occupied by the Mandan prior to 1800. The general characteristics of the site and the excavations in question have been outlined elsewhere. The present specimen (Fig. 6, left) is distinctive in that the lanceolate blade of Knife River flint is so inserted that one corner of the butt serves as the cutting corner or point of the knife.

One of the first aspects of Middle American culture which strikes an amateur as interesting and possibly significant is the ordered arrangement of the buildings in almost all sites. Like those of Egypt—and unlike those of Greece and Rome —the sites seem to have been planned on a large pattern. The individual buildings are arranged according to a scheme which gives them space and which orients them on a common axis. They are not dropped in helter-skelter, crowded cheek-by-jowl, and set at odd angles to one another. Further, the city plans of Middle America seemollow fhe another and larger pattern. This is the pattern of the north and south axis of each site and each building. This orientation almost invariably follows one of three schemes. I t is sometimes true north, sometimes about 7 degrees east of north, sometimes about 17 degrees east of north, but practically never west of north. There are some sites which have no general pattern, and therefore no orientation.

One does not usually think of the American Indian as a paleontologist, although it is known that occasionally he did use fossils (vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant) for their presumed medical and magical values. I t is possible, however, that a fossil might have been collected and carried home simply because of the curiosity aroused by its resemblance to more familiar objects in nature. In this particular instance, the mental processes of the collector are not to be dug out of his rubbish heap.

On August 5, 1944, a number of biology students from Reed College, and other interested persons were digging in a kitchen-midden which is exposed for some 50 yards along the south bank of Fogarty Creek, Lincoln County, Oregon, just above the entrance of the creek into the ocean. The midden consists of a layer of mixed ash and shells 10-12 inches thick, marking an old campsite, now covered with brush and forest.

At the present time there is much interest in the relationship of Ohio Hopewell to Southeastern archaeology in general. It seems important, therefore, that all evidence which can contribute towards the formulation and ultimate solution of this problem be duly recorded.

The evidence in question consists of a perforated copper breast-plate, two tapered celts, fragments of design-cut sheet copper, and a copper celt, all found with a micacovered, extended burial at the base of a stone mound near Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia.