bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Material Culture of Kinishba
Authors: Baldwin Gordon C.
Published: April 2006

The architecture and burials of the prehistoric pueblo of Kinishba have been presented in a previous issue of American Antiquity. The present article is a preliminary report of the lesser objects of material culture as represented by the pottery, stone and bone implements, ornaments, a few charred fragments of basketry and textiles, food, and ceremonial objects. The majority of these specimens are made from imperishable material. Clothing, sandals, baskets, various types of textiles, wooden implements, and other perishable materials have but a very short existence in open sites such as Kinishba. Hence the following description of the artifacts presents only a limited picture of the arts and crafts of these prehistoric people.
Jade and String Sawing in Northeastern Costa Rica
Authors: Lothrop S. K.
Published: April 2006

Costa Rican jade ornaments have been known chiefly through collections made by Padre José Maria Valasco in the Nicoya peninsula, which forms the northwestern corner of the country, and through the subsequent publication of these specimens by C. V. Hartman (1907). The Velasco jade is now in the Museo Nacional at San José and the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh.

The term jade is loosely used by archaeologists. Hartman employed it to describe 3 minerals: a blue-green jadeite, saussurite, which in Costa Rica usually is blue-green with white spots, and a dark green bowenite. These shades are characteristic of Nicoya specimens but not of the jades of northern Central America and Mexico. More recently, W. F. Foshag has identified the principal minerals used for ornaments in Costa Rica as diopside-jadeite and chalcedony (Anonymous 1947, Specimens 1-7, 15-18).
The Technic of Collecting Osteological Materials
Authors: White Theodore E.
Published: April 2006

Occasionally it is desirable to remove archaeological material, such as burials, so that the relationship of the elements, one to another, will be maintained. For about 50 years paleontologists have been employing a technic of enclosing specimens in plaster jackets which, under some circumstances, should prove useful to archaeologists. This method has been fully described in a few publications but, in general, it has been passed along from one academic generation to the next by demonstration and instruction, and new modifications have been presented informally.

It is hoped that the present discussion will prove a satisfactory description of the technic and useful in most of the situations which archaeologists will encounter. Since most of the objects which the archaeologists will want to take out by the technic of casting will occur in unconsolidated material, the procedure discussed here is one most applicable to that type of matrix.

Materials. There are a number of materials, not normally carried by archaeologists, which are necessary for this method.
A Note on Jadeite from Manzanal, Guatemala
Authors: Barbour George B.
Published: April 2006

As far as can be learned from a study of the scientific contributions of Yoder (1950), Foshag (1945), and others who have dealt with the jade-jadeite problem, it appears that, although the presence of one or the other mineral has been reported from a considerable list of widely separated localities in both the Old and the New World, the exact conditions leading to their development have been subject to controversy, partly because occurrence in situ is extremely rare. The passing references to places from which the Mayans secured their supplies of raw material are in general vague, based on hearsay or traditional accounts, combined with inferences relating to the abundant artifacts unearthed at classical sites.
The Radiocarbon Method of Age Determination
Authors: Broecker W. S. , Kulp J. L.
Published: April 2006

Five years after the first publication of age measurements by the radiocarbon method (Arnold and Libby 1951) the method has been established as a powerful technique in the study of archaeology. Lists of radiocarbon dates have been published by a number of laboratories (Libby 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955; Kulp 1951, 1952; Broecker and Kulp 1956; Suess 1954; Ruben and Suess 1955; Blau, Deevey, and Gross 1953; Preston, Person, and Deevey 1955; Ralph 1955; Anderson, Levi, and Tauber 1953). A few scientists feel that the radiocarbon dates contradict archaeological or geological theories which they regard as wellfounded and have suggested that because of this the method is invalid.
The Second Mammoth and Associated Artifacts at Santa Isabel Iztapan, Mexico
Authors: De Anda Luis Aveleyra A.
Published: April 2006

Among the numerous problems still to be resolved in the archaeology of Mexico, one could not find a more captivating, more fundamental, and at the same time, less known one, than the early genesis of the native civilizations of Mesoamerica. Lack of knowledge of preceramic developments, which are the truly formative ones of the high prehispanic cultures, leaves the whole complicated sequence of better-studied civilizations without a real foundation. The investigation of this field requires collaborative research in the geological and paleontological sciences.
The Fallis Site, Ontario
Authors: Ridley Frank
Published: April 2006

The fallis village site is an area of some 4 acres, situated on Lot 2, Concession 4, in the Township of Tiny, Simcoe County, Ontario. Springs at the site are the source of a small stream, which joins the River Wye at the head of Mud Lake. At the foot of this small lake are the ruins of Fort St. Marie (Kidd, 1949) built in the opening decades of the seventeenth century, as the center of activities of the unfortunate mission of the Hurons. Thus the Fallis site is situated in the heart of the historic Huron country.

In A. F. Hunter's work (1899, p. 38), the site is listed as No. 38, “John Fraser's and William Smith's,” with the information that the author casually inspected the site and found fragments of pottery scattered about. Hunter does not report European goods at this site, nor does he say whether it had been cultivated.
Supplementary Note on the Aleutian Core and Blade Industry
Authors: Laughlin W. S. , Marsh G. H. , Leach J. W.
Published: April 2006

Completion of the analysis of the artifacts from Chaluka, the old village site at Nikolski, Umnak Island, has brought to light a number of new observations on the Aleutian core and blade industry, orginally described in American Antiquity, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 52-54. The use of lamellar flakes is part of the earliest Aleut culture and most of the flakes, four fifths, are found below the three meter level. This earliest Aleut culture was introduced by the paleo-Aleut people.

These flakes were used mainly for scrapers and retouched on only one surface and along one or both edges. Quite a few of these are tanged, apparently for end-hafting. A number have well-worked points which, together with their general form, suggests their use as gravers. There are also two adze blades, two knives and at least one projectile point which appears to have been made from lamellar flakes.
White Cat Village
Authors: Champe John L.
Published: April 2006

White Cat Village, a newly-explored site of the Dismal River Aspect, is located on Prairie Dog Creek about 3 miles above the point where it joins the Republican River from the south. The greater part of the village is included within a 70-acre field just southwest of the center of Section 24, Township IN, Range 18W, some 6 miles southeast of Alma, Harlan County, Nebraska. The village occupies an area approximately 1000 feet long and 250 feet wide, lying along a 30-foot bluff which forms the north bank of Prairie Dog Creek at this point (Fig. 70, e). The terrace on which the site is located will be a few feet under the normal level of the Harlan County Reservoir, and nearly 20 feet below the maximum level.

A preliminary survey of the village was made in November, 1946, by Marvin F. Kivett and J. M. Shippee, for the Missouri River Basin Survey.
“Tepexpan Man,” a Critique of Method
Authors: Black Glenn A.
Published: April 2006

On October 17, 1947,1 read a paper, “A Critique of Some Archaeological Field Methods,” before the Anthropology Section of the Indiana Academy of Science. The occasion was the annual meeting of the group at Ball State Teachers College, Muncie, Indiana. The paper in its entirety was accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the Academy. I later withdrew the paper because I did not believe this to be the proper medium for its dissemination. The Proceedings for 1947 has now been issued and since it contains an abstract of my paper1 I think it proper to proceed with its publication with some minor changes.
Pre-Columbian Towers in the Southwest
Authors: Schulman Albert
Published: April 2006

Towers have long been an important and integral feature of architecture. The earliest record of towers is in Mesopotamia with the Statue of Gudea at a date of approximately 2700 B.C. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1948, p. 330). From there they may be found ranging over the entire world. They have met numerous demands, but from their very beginning towers have served two principal functions: military and religious.

A focal area of tower building was in the southwestern United States. Here towers have presented numerous problems which, despite comment and work, still remain largely unanswered. Their intriguing possibilities, however, early attracted the attention of writers. A brief history would include such men as Jackson (1876), Holmes (1879), and Morgan (1881), who first called public attention to these towers. Their accounts were descriptive and mention ruins of the Hovenweep, Mesa Verde, and McElmo areas. Moorehead, in a series of six articles entitled “In Search of a Lost Race” forIllustrated Americanof 1892, discussed ruins of the McElmo.
Five Sites of the Intermediate Period
Authors: Carpenter Edmund S.
Published: April 2006

Shortly before the last war I prepared for publication a monograph on the tumuli of Pennsylvania. War conditions prevented its immediate publication, and so it was put aside until 1948 when a few additions and changes were made. By this time it had grown to include the detailed descriptions of 63 mounds plus a fearsome array of plates. No editor would touch it.

This year the study will at last appear, published by chapter in various journals. The brief report which follows was an appendix, included for comparative purposes. It deals with five scattered burial components excavated by three students of archaeology: Dr. Lewis M. Haggerty, a dentist of Hackensack, New Jersey; Mr. Harry L. Schoff, former professional archaeologist, now of Honeoye Falls, New York; and Mr. Gerard Fowke, pioneer Smithsonian archaeologist. I am indebted to the former men for the use of their field notes and to the U. S. National Museum for photographs of the Bowman mound material.
Burial Mounds on the Gulf Coastal Plain
Authors: Sears William H.
Published: April 2006

Burial mounds, with their contained structures, artifacts, burials, and the patterns of relationship between these concrete items, represent the largest recoverable body of data in the eastern United States which bears directly on problems concerned with prehistoric religion and ceremonialism. These data in turn are directly applicable, with varying levels of reliability, to problems of prehistoric social and political structure. This is possible through the predictably intimate relationship between supernatural and social controls which obtains in primitive societies.
Neolithic Find in the Chukchi Peninsula
Authors: Krader Lawrence
Published: April 2006

In the summer of 1947, Levoshin (1950) found a group of objects on a terrace of the Yakitikiveem River in the central part of the Chukchi (Chukotski) Peninsula (approximately 66° N., 175° W.), which forms the Asiatic shore of Bering Strait. These objects are as interesting for their typology as for their geographic location. The announcement of the find had been foreshadowed by Beregovaya (1948), where reference was made to an oral report by Okladnikov. In this report, Okladnikov had referred to a Neolithic station in the valley of the Amguema River in the Chukchi Peninsula. Shimkin (1949), in a recent review of Soviet anthropology, has made note of the discussion to that point. Now, the brief communication by Levoshin, and a further comment by Okladnikov (1950) himself help to bring the information on these finds up to date. It is almost certain that the Amguema Valley reference is the same as the Yakitikiveem River site reference. Yet, while existing maps show the Amguema River as emptying into the Arctic Ocean in the Chukchi Peninsula, the Yakitikiveem River is not reported on any known map or chart.
An Archaeological Survey of the Blowouts of Yuma County, Colorado
Authors: Gebhard Paul H.
Published: April 2006

Ever since Yuma points were recognized as being particularly ancient, Yuma County, Colorado has been a logical area of interest. Nevertheless, until 1941 the county had received scant attention from professional archaeologists, with the sole exception of a partial surface survey by Dr. E. B. Renaud. On the other hand, there had been considerable collecting by local residents, most particularly by Perry and Harold Andersen of Yuma, Colorado, who have amassed a large and valuable collection including numerous Folsom and Yuma points.

In 1941 Yuma County was still liberally spotted with blowouts resulting from wind erosion of the sandy soil consequent upon the previous drought. Conditions were, for the archaeologist, optimal. Thanks to Dr. Donald Scott, who arranged that expenses be defrayed by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, my wife and I were enabled to spend part of the summer and early fall in Yuma County and adjacent portions of other counties.
Round Houses in the Western Arctic
Authors: Giddings J. L.
Published: April 2006

The Ghosts of “round” pit houses in Alaska were dispelled by Henry B. Collins 2 decades ago (Collins 1937: 282–6). They had emanated from the casual remarks of early explorers and the later hasty glances at house depressions. Up to now, 300 or more of the floors of old pit houses in Alaska have been exposed, and they overwhelmingly show that the winter house of the western American Arctic is some variation of a square plan. Even so, exceptions have just turned up — perhaps not merely to prove the rule. They are large oval pits on Choris Peninsula, the remains of early dwellings apparently without corners or entrance passages, or even the means of side entry.
Irrigation Systems in the Valley of Teotihuacan
Authors: Millon René
Published: April 2006

Several excavations have recently been completed in the Maravilla system, a small abandoned irrigation system in the Valley of Teotihuacan, discovered by Armillas on an aerial photograph in 1954 and reported on by Armillas, Palerm, and Wolf (1956). For a recent summary of irrigation studies in Mesoamerica, see Wittfogel (1957: 19–20). For an earlier summary of climatic conditions in the Valley, see Millon (1954). The present paper is a preliminary report on two of these excavations with additional data on other abandoned and existing systems of irrigation in the Valley.
Comparative Notes on the Hand-Eye and Related Motifs
Authors: Rands Robert L.
Published: April 2006

Almost 50 years ago, Clarence B. Moore called attention to the presence of “the symbol of the open eye on the open hand” in both the Southeastern United States and Mexico (Moore 1907: 346). The design has achieved some renown as one of the motifs characterizing the so-called “Death Cult” in the Southeast and has also continued to be cited as an indication of Middle American connections (for example, Phillips 1940: 356). Rather little has been done in following up Moore's observation through detailed comparative studies between the 2 areas.
Observations on the Butchering Technics of Some Aboriginal Peoples Numbers 7, 8, and 9
Authors: White Theodore E.
Published: April 2006

The Following 3 papers continue a series of brief articles on this subject appearing from time to time in American Antiquity (Vols. 17, 19). Each paper presents a group of raw data with some brief suggestions for their interpretation. All but one are the result of the study of materials recovered from archaeological sites excavated by the River Basin Surveys program of archaeological salvage in the Missouri Basin. That one (No. 6) dealt with an elk specimen from Michigan. Paper Number 1 was concerned with the analysis of the antelope bone from 2 sites in the Angostura Reservoir, South Dakota. Number 2 dealt with the bison bone from 2 earth-lodge villages sites in the Oahe Reservoir near Pierre, South Dakota. Number 3 compared the use of small and large animals as food in one site in the Garrison Reservoir, North Dakota. Number 4 was a comparison of the treatment of bison bone from 3 earth-lodge villages, 2 in Oahe Reservoir and one in Garrison Reservoir.
Cultural Unity and Disunity in the Titicaca Basin
Authors: Bennett Wendell C.
Published: April 2006

In pre-Columbian Peru, conditions favorable for population concentration and cultural development were largely restricted to the coastal valleys and the high structural basins in the mountains. Most archaeologists who have dealt with comparative chronology have grouped adjacent valleys and compared their combined cultural sequences with those of a highland basin. The justification for this procedure has been the assumption that cultural uniformity would be found throughout these regional units in any given time period. For the valleys, such an assumption is based on the limited size of the area and the fact that each has only one major source of water supply to support an economy based on irrigated agriculture. The intensive archaeological work in Viru by the Institute of Andean Research verified the thesis of cultural uniformity for one valley. The situation in the highlands is, however, somewhat different since the basins are comparatively large, have many sources of water supply, and allow economies not totally dependent on irrigation. Only one highland basin, the Lake Titicaca, is sufficiently known archaeologically to allow examination of distributions at different time periods as a basis for evaluating its cultural unity or disunity. The present paper undertakes such a review.
Archaeological Resources of San Nicolas Island, California
Authors: Meighan Clement W. , Eberhart Hal
Published: April 2006

San Nicolas is a small island located off the coast of southern California some 75 miles southwest of Los Angeles and 55 miles from the nearest point of the mainland. It is the most distant from the mainland of eight islands referred to collectively as the Channel Islands. San Nicolas is about 8 miles long by 4 miles wide and is 32.2 square miles in area. According to Norris (n.d., pp. 67-74), San Nicolas Island is a faulted asymmetric anticline composed of Pleistocene sediments lying unconformably on Eocene sandstone and shale. Original deposition during the Eocene was followed by anticline development and faulting in Eocene-Oligocene times. Miocene volcanic activity probably accounts for the several small diabase dikes on the island and for rhyolitic Begg Rock 7 miles northwest. The Pleistocene sediments were laid down during the first half of that period when the island was nearly or entirely submerged.
Suggested Use of Clam Shells
Authors: Leechman Douglas
Published: April 2006

Clam shells, particularly species of Elliptio, considerably worn from use, were found by the late W. J. Wintemberg in a number of comparatively recent archaeological sites in Ontario, such as Roebuck, Lawson, Uren, and Sidey-Mackay. He suggested that some of these had been used as knives, as scrapers, and as tools for shaping pottery vessels.

Among the specimens collected were several which showed attrition in the middle of the longer side, as shown in Figure 26. Wintemberg was apparently unable to suggest to what use these might have been put.

The following extract from Memoirs of Odd Adventures, Strange Deliverances, etc. in the Captivity of John Giles,Esq.…may afford an explanation: “To dry corn when in the milk, they gather it in large kettles and boil it on the ears, till it is pretty hard, then shell it from the cob with clam-shells, and dry it on bark in the sun.“
Excavations at the Polvo Site in Western Texas
Authors: Shackelford William J.
Published: April 2006

In the Summer of 1949 an archaeological; field group, sponsored by the University of Texas, excavated a large house structure at the Polvo site (57D2-3) in western Texas. The previous summer J. Charles Kelley had excavated 2 structures at this site, which he reported in 1949. The site itself he identified as a component of the Bravo Valley aspect.

The Polvo site is located in southern Presidio County, Texas, some 8 miles south of the junction of the Rio Grande and the Rio Conchos, in what is referred to as the “La Junta” region of the Big Bend. The site lies about one mile to the southwest of the modern village of Redford, at the edge of the old Mexican pueblito Polvo. Physiographically, the site is located in the Redford Vajley, through which the Rio Grande flows into the Canon Colorado. Midway in the valley, an arroyo, known locally as the Arroyo Bayo Nuevo, enters the river.
Archaeology and Proteins
Authors: Watson Virginia
Published: April 2006

Increasingly, Americanist archaeologists are tackling problems relating not only to broad ecological adaptations of the peoples whose cultures they study but also to more specific considerations such as dietary patterns. The amount of light which archaeological data can shed is unknown, but the potential is increasingly probed for enlightening clues. Current ethnographic work in New Guinea prompts the following comments concerning 1) degree of exploitation of available protein sources; and 2) social restrictions influencing protein intake.

Sources of concentrated protein available to the Agarabi are not large. However, they are exploited to such an extent that the diet is not as deficient in protein foods as a superficial view would suggest. Pigs, although highly valued, are not plentiful nor are they eaten in large quantities. Wild fowl and small mammals, again not abundant, are eagerly hunted and consumed. Finally, a wide variety of worms and insects are caught and eaten.
First Note on the Archaeology of the Mohawk Town of Ossernenon
Authors: Ewing J. Franklin
Published: April 2006

The grounds of the shrine dedicated to three of the canonized North American Martyrs, in the township of Auriesville, N.Y., have long been believed to embrace the site of the Mohawk town of Ossernenon. The two reasons for such an opinion have been principally: the topography, and the surface finds. To this evidence may be added the sundry post-contact Indian graves found nearby. In order to locate and study the town accurately, excavations were made on the shrine grounds, during the summer of 1952, under the direction of the writer.

The site is situated on a terrace, some 400 feet above sea level, on the south side of the Mohawk River, 40 miles up the river from its confluence with the Hudson, and a mile upstream from the juncture of the Schoharie River with the Mohawk. The area is represented on the' Fonda Quadrangle of the U.S. Geological Survey maps, and on the map accompanying the monograph of Brigham (1929, p. 60), who calls this terrace the Schoharie Wash Plain, and identifies it to be a lacustrine formation dating from the closing phase of the last glaciation.
On the Use of the Concept of Area Co-Tradition
Authors: Rouse Irving
Published: April 2006

In 1947, at a conference on Peruvian archaeology held in Viking Fund headquarters in New York City, Wendell C. Bennett proposed a concept of area co-tradition and used it as a means of expressing certain characteristics of Peruvian culture history. He first defined the concept in abstract terms, then described the Peruvian co-tradition, and finally suggested the possibility that other area co-traditions might exist in the Southwestern United States, Middle America, and Northwest Argentina (Bennett, 1948).

Acting on Bennett's suggestion, Martin and Rinaldo (1951) subsequently worked out a Southwestern area Co-tradition in some detail. In addition, Willey (1953, p. 374) has suggested the existence of an Arctic or Eskimo cotradition and of three co-traditions in the Eastern United States: Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippi.

In the present paper, I shall confine myself to the use of the concept in Peru and the Southwest, since these are the only places where it has yet been applied in any detail.
Plaster Under the Newport Tower
Authors: Pohl Frederick J.
Published: April 2006

Was the round stone tower in Newport, Rhode Island, built by the Colonists in the seventeenth century, or by the Norsemen in an earlier century? If the tower is of Colonial origin it is of interest only to local historians. If built as the beginning of a fortified Norse church before the time of Columbus, the tower is a priceless heritage of importance to all Americans.

An architectural feature of the tower which impresses the beholder is that it stands on eight columns. These mortared columns are a trifle over 3 feet in diameter. Each column rests upon a large circular stone about 3 feet 8 inches in diameter and about 8 inches thick ( 1 ). The architectural term for such a base stone is plinth. The bottom of a plinth is normally at the floor level. Since the Newport tower had no groundlevel pavement, it seems fair to assume that the builders intended that the bottoms of the plinths would appear to rest upon the surface of the ground, as they appear to do today. Actually, the plinths rest upon column foundations going down to more than 4 feet below the surface (2, 3, 4).
Late Pleistocene Extinction and Radiocarbon Dating
Authors: Hester Jim J.
Published: April 2006

All radiocarbon dates from North America, associated with extinct Late Pleistocene mammals, those from levels stratigraphically later than levels with extinct forms, and dates associated with recent fauna are tabulated alphabetically by site. Dates associated with extinct fauna are cross-referenced in an alphabetical listing of species. Dates considered invalid are tabulated and are not utilized in formulating conclusions. Most herding animals, such as the Columbian mammoth, horse, camel, and bison, as well as the dire wolf, rapidly became extinct about 8000 years ago. The dates suggest a southward withdrawal from the Great Plains by the mammoth and a partial contemporaneity of Clovis elephant hunters in southern Arizona with Folsom bison hunters on the Plains. Dates for the extinction of the Imperial mammoth are probably too early. The mastodon may have survived in isolated areas after the extinction of other forms. The super bison may have become extinct earlier than 8000 years ago and Bison bison seems to have been present in some areas before the extinction of B. antiquus. Radiocarbon dates do not support the supposed late survival of the ground sloth. Extinction apparently occurred earlier in the Great Basin and Coahuila than in intervening areas.
The Truman Mound Site, Big Bend Reservoir Area, South Dakota
Authors: Neuman Robert W.
Published: April 2006

Six dome-shaped, late Woodland burial mounds were excavated at this site (39BF224). Primary and secondary interments were found; either or both types may be present in a single mound. Primary burials were flexed and always found in deep pits. Each pit contained a single individual and burial offerings. Secondary interments of one or more individuals on the mound floor are represented by scattered masses of bone and also by a compact bundle burial.

Pottery from the mounds was of a single, undecorated type, described here as Truman Plain Rim. Vessels are conoidal, tan to dark brown, and tempered with quartz particles. The most distinctive characteristic of this pottery is the simple-stamped impressions extending horizontally around the vessel exteriors. Stone artifacts consist of triangular projectile points with corner notches and a straight base or side notches and a concave base, planoconvex scrapers, knife fragments, grinding stones, and retouched flakes. Bone artifacts include tubular and barrel-shaped beads and a splinter awl. Artifacts of fresh-water and marine shell recovered are a pendant, spoons, rings, disc beads, and a tubular bead. Additional artifacts, found in a stratum below the mounds, represent an earlier, non-ceramic occupation.

In the concluding sections, a history of mound excavations in the central and northern Great Plains is given, and the relationships between the Truman Mounds and material from other Woodland sites in Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota are discussed.
A Flint Site in Northernmost Manitoba
Authors: Giddings J. L.
Published: April 2006

The Churchill area of Manitoba is a meeting place of Eskimos and Chipewyans. It is also the boundary of the northern forest and the barren grounds. My field trip in the summer of 1953 to this part of the western margin of Hudson Bay had to do with both of these facts, for I intended to collect samples of timberline spruce for treering dating, and I hoped to find flint sites comparable to those of northern Alaska. The archaeological site that did turn up on the North Knife River was gratifying beyond expectations, because its flints fall into a very precise relationship with artifacts of early Alaskan and early Greenland sites.

Upon first reaching Churchill by rail on the ninth of July, I inquired of several people as to their knowledge of arrowheads or other flints. Two or three reports of flint finds pointed either to remote places in the interior or to Dorset-culture sites in the northern part of Hudson Bay.
Robinson's Coefficient of Agreement—A Critique
Authors: Lehmer Donald J.
Published: April 2006

Despite a firm conviction that statistical analyses have a definite place in archaeological interpretations, I want to register a protest against the Coefficient of Agreement proposed by W. S. Robinson (American Antiquity, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 293-301, 1951). Robinson's coefficient is offered as a measure of the degree of similarity between two collections of sherd material. It is arrived at by adding the differences between the percentages of each type of sherd in the two collections and subtracting this sum from 200.
The New Mexico Program in Highway Archaeological Salvage
Authors: Wendorf Fred
Published: April 2006

The vast program of highway construction which our country has undertaken creates an urgent problem for all archaeologists, for the construction of these new highways will result in major changes in the roadways of every state and the inevitable destruction of great sections of our archaeological resources. This destruction need not result in the loss of scientific data, however, for the Eighty-fourth Congress included archaeological salvage as an integral part of the expanded highway program.
A Metallographic Study of Certain Pre-Columbian American Implements
Authors: Frank Leonard , Mack David J.
Published: April 2006

A metallographic study was made of certain large native copper implements to determine the methods of manufacture. Metallurgical knowledge of the diffusion of oxygen into copper, the recrystallization of copper, and the working characteristics of copper are used in this analysis. The artifacts analyzed are listed below. The Wisconsin Historical Museum catalog numbers of each specimen is also given.
The Archaic as Seen from the Ozark Region
Authors: Baerreis David A.
Published: April 2006

While the discussion and identification of complexes as “Archaic” is at present a common feature in a substantial number of archaeological reports, the actual excavation of Archaic sites has not kept abreast of the recognition of the importance of this stage in the culture sequences of North America. Much of its current importance as a widespread cultural manifestation is based upon the typological identification of surface materials through which period placement is inferred on the basis of resemblance to forms of known archaeological provenience or on the putative absence of traits of late origin such as ceramics.
Californian Cultures and the Concept of an Archaic Stage
Authors: Meighan Clement W.
Published: April 2006

Western archaeologists have almost unanimously shunned the term “Archaic” in describing their finds. In the few cases where the word has been used at all, it has generally been qualified by using quotation marks, a question mark, or some statement indicating the author’s belief that this is not arealArchaic culture. As a result, none of the described western cultures is conventionally labeled “Archaic.” Avoidance of the term has stemmed from two conditions:a)a desire to avoid confusing western cultures with those generally called Archaic in the East; andb)the temporal implications of the word “Archaic.”
Earlier Structures within the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán
Authors: Millon René , Drewitt Bruce
Published: April 2006

A major problem in Mesoamerican prehistory is whether the gigantic Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán in the Valley of Mexico was constructed in a single building operation as has long been assumed by many Mesoamerican specialists. Because the Pyramid appears to be the earliest monumental structure at Teotihuacán and because it is so immense, some archaeologists have suggested that a foreign elite was responsible for its construction. With this and other problems in mind the tunnels in the interior of the Pyramid were re-examined in 1959 for evidence of earlier structures. A modest stone-faced structure was found within it, but it is so small as not to alter significantly the conclusions of earlier investigators concerning the building of the Pyramid in one operation. However, an obsidian figurine offering found in the northwest corner of the small structure, together with other evidence, suggests that the Teotihuacán “great tradition” was coming into being early in the Tzacualli (Teotihuacán I) phase under the leadership of an incipient elite which seems to have been developing indigenously at Teotihuacán. While the problem of the enormous size of the Pyramid remains, evidence suggests that its solution lies at Teotihuacán rather than elsewhere.
The Use of the Term “Mixtec” in Mesoamerican Archaeology
Authors: Nicholson H. B.
Published: April 2006

Vaillant's geographic and stylistic term, Mixteca-Puebla, is rapidly and unfortunately being supplanted by an ethnic and linguistic term, Mixtec, which has rather suddenly become a popular label for the final pictorial horizon style of much of Mesoamerica. The well-known dangers of using an ethnic or linguistic term for an archaeological manifestation are intensified in this case by the lack of systematic archaeological work in the Mixteca region. The great mercantile and religious center of Nahua-speakers rather than Mixtec-speakers at Cholula is suggested as the origin of the almost pan-Mesoamerican diffusion of the Mixteca-Puebla style in Postclassic times. Thus, Mixteca-Puebla, not Mixtec, should be used to describe this style which flourished in and probably originated somewhere in a geographic region dominated in late preconquest times by Nahua-speakers in the north and Mixtec-speakers in the south.
Similarities in Hohokam and Chalchihuites Artifacts
Authors: Johnson Ann Stofer
Published: April 2006

One of the most stimulating problems in present day Southwestern archaeology is that of relationships to the south — to the high cultures of Mexico. Evidence of such relationships is strongest in the Hohokam remains of southern Arizona. The broad outlines of Hohokam development have been fairly well established. The same is true for the cultures of central Mexico. The next step in solving the problem of Mexican-Southwest relationships would appear to be that of obtaining an understanding of culture history in the area between central Mexico and southern Arizona.
Irrigation at Teotihuacān
Authors: Millon René F.
Published: April 2006

The role played by irrigation in the development of civilization in Mesoamerica has never been satisfactorily determined. Steward (1949: 12-13, 17) has assumed that it played a role in Mesoamerica similar to that which it played in the development of the earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, north China, and coastal Peru. In each of these other areas the first urban civilizations to develop were in regions requiring the control of water for the cultivation of crops, and the necessity for this control is generally accepted as having provided the basis for the development of these urban class societies. Yet in Mesoamerica the matter has actually never been established one way or the other. Armillas (1948: 109) states that rainfall is sufficient today during the rainy season in the highlands of central Mexico in general, and the Valley of Mexico in particular, to produce a crop of maize without irrigation, but that irrigation is necessary for the production of an additional crop in any year.
New Evidence on the Origin and Ancestry of Maize
Authors: Mangelsdorf Paul C.
Published: April 2006

New evidence concerning the origin of maize — a question which has puzzled botanists for more than a century — has made it possible to reach several rather definite conclusions:

(1)

Maize is undoubtedly an American plant.

(2)

Maize undoubtedly had at least one center of origin in Middle America.

(3)

The ancestor of maize is maize.

(4)

The ancestor of maize is a form of pod corn, hut perhaps not the extreme type of pod corn known today. The ancestor was certainly a popcorn.

(5)

Sometime in its history maize hybridized with Tripsacum or teosinte or both to produce radically new types which comprise the majority of modern maize varieties of North America.

The evidence on which these rather sweeping conclusions rest comes from three fields —botany, archaeology, and genetics.

Substantially conclusive evidence of the American origin of maize was obtained from fossil pollen grains discovered at a depth of more than 200 feet below Mexico City.
A Prehistoric Maritime Culture of the Okhotsk Sea
Authors: Befu Harumi , Chard Chester S.
Published: April 2006

This paper analyzes the culture history of the little-known Okhotsk culture and makes suggestions about its relationships with neighboring cultures. The Okhotsk culture is important in understanding the cultural history of the northern Pacific because it shows no affinities with the Ainu and Japanese cultures and has an economy remarkably like that of the more distant Aleut and Eskimo. The Okhotsk culture appears to have historical relationships with cultures in Siberia and Manchuria. The maritime hunting economy of this culture was probably derived from the Eskimo via Bering Sea and the Siberian coast. Other cultural elements, the most noticeable being ceramics, were of mainland origin and served as an influential force in forming Okhotsk culture. Once established on Sakhalin, this culture moved southward along the northeastern coast of Hokkaido, where a secondary and later cultural center developed. Migrations up the Kuriles occurred shortly thereafter. This culture probably flourished for at least a thousand years, beginning in Sakhalin several centuries before Christ and persisting until sometime after A.D. 1000 and possibly until the 17th century in the Kuriles. Several unsolved problems concerning the Okhotsk culture are presented.
Pre-Columbian Ball-game Handstones: Rejoinder to Clune
Authors: Borhegyi Stephan F. de
Published: April 2006

On the basis of ethnohistorical data, Clune has questioned the identification and use of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican stone objects formerly known as “padlock stones” or “sling stones” and recently designated by de Borhegyi as “ball-game handstones.” According to de Borhegyi, these stones were used by players in the Mesoamerican ball game to deflect or propel a high-arching ball. Archaeological evidence strongly supports the inference that “ball-game handstones” and such ball-game paraphernalia as stone yokes and palmate stones were used in the ball game as it was played during Early and Late Classic times (A.D. 200-900) along the Gulf coast of eastern Mexico and in the Maya area. The indiscriminate use of Spanish and other early ethnohistoric records may be misleading in the reconstruction and interpretation of cultural events that occurred centuries earlier in a variety of places.
A Curious Scratched Design on a Connecticut Paintstone
Authors: Powell Bernard W.
Published: April 2006

Nonceramic designs are rarely described from southern New England. One is here illustrated and its elements examined. Several controlled speculations as to its meaning are advanced. These include attenuated Southern Cult motifs, depicted natural-history phenomena, and the possibility of its being a map or a record of some cultural event. No conclusions are drawn. Re-examination of similar artifacts in local collections may reveal additional scratched designs.
Further Comment on the Sheep Island Site, McNary Reservoir, Washington
Authors: Garth Thomas R.
Published: April 2006

The Sheep Island site in the McNary Reservoir area of the Middle Columbia is unique in showing a burial stratigraphy, with flexed burials underlying a cremation “floor” and cremation pits. Both are prehistoric, whereas the nearby Berrian Island site on the north shore of the Columbia shows an abundance of historic flexed “cedar cist” burials. The presence of a mixed Salish and Sahaptin population in the area in early historic times casts doubt on these “cedar cist” burials as typically Sahaptin.
The Transitional Phase on Long Island
Authors: Boyd Glenda F.
Published: April 2006

Stratigraphic evidence and radiocarbon dates make possible the extension of the distinctive Archaic-to-Early-Woodland cultural sequence, which has been established in Pennsylvania and the Hudson Valley, to the coastal regions bordering on the Long Island Sound. Stone vessels and associated spearpoint forms are recognized as characterizing a period which succeeded the Lamokan-Laurentian level and slightly antedated the first manifestations of the Early Woodland period, in which cord-marked Vinette 1 pottery was introduced from another source. It is demonstrated that the Orient Point burials on eastern Long Island were constructed mainly during this Transitional period and not, as it has been asserted, during the succeeding Early Woodland period.
The Castanheira Site: New Evidence on the Antiquity and History of the Ananatuba Phase (Marajó Island, Brazil)
Authors: Simões Mario F.
Published: April 2006

The geographical distribution of the Ananatuba phase has been extended to the eastern coast of Marajó by the discovery of J-26: Castanheira on the right bank of the middle Rio Camará. Two stratigraphic cuts were excavated, and the pottery obtained was classified into the types established by Meggers and Evans (1957). The resulting seriated sequence shows trends of ceramic change parallel to theirs and a similar intrusion of Mangueiras phase sherds in the upper levels of the deposit. Interdigitation of the J-26 levels into the seriated sequence for the Ananatuba phase shows the new site to occupy a relatively late position, supporting the earlier inference of expansion from the north coast toward the southeast during the history of the phase. A charcoal sample obtained from Cut 1, Level 40-50 cm., and correlating with the appearance of Mangueiras phase sherds in the refuse, gave the date of 980 B.C. ± 200 (SI-385), which places the initial occupation of Marajó by pottery-making groups within the Formative period.
An Olmec Mask from the Maya Lowlands
Authors: Thompson J. Eric S.
Published: April 2006

An Olmec mask from northern Petén is a very rare witness to Olmec contact with the Maya lowlands (Central area).
Fletcher: A Paleo-Indian Site in Alberta
Authors: Forbis Richard G.
Published: April 2006

In 1963, the Glenbow Foundation excavated a bison bone bed exposed at a water hole in southern Alberta near the Montana border. Age estimates grounded in geology place the bone bed between 7,000 and 11,000 years ago. Projectile points at the Fletcher site include the Alberta and Scottsbluff types. Other artifacts suggest that the site was not only a kill but also a butchering station. The heavy emphasis on bison here, as well as at nearly all related sites in the northern Great Plains, makes it clear that Fletcher properly belongs to the Paleo-Indian big-game hunting continuum rather than to the Archaic stage.
The Milnesand Site. Revisited
Authors: Warnica James M. , Williamson Ted
Published: April 2006

In the summer of 1953 the Texas Memorial Museum of Austin, Texas, conducted scientific excavations of a Paleo-Indian bison kill near Milnesand, New Mexico. After the departure of this group from the site, a large number of artifacts were collected from the bison bone bed by Ted Williamson of Milnesand, New Mexico. Because of the site's importance and the paucity of culturally related sites, a detailed description of the artifacts collected by Williamson is considered to be of immense value to specialists in the Paleo-Indian field.
Tuna Tagging and Shell Fishhooks: A Comment from Oceania
Authors: Reinman Fred M.
Published: April 2006

The possibility of tuna fish being an agent for the diffusion of the circular shell fishhook found in California and Oceania is discussed. Data from the latter area indicate a specific type of hook and of fishing technique for these fish, suggesting that the circular shell hook would not be used in this way. The experimental evidence of Robinson (1942) and Glidden (Heye 1921) and an examination of the function of fishhooks further suggest that the circular shell hooks function best in a different subenvironment of the sea and for a different group of fish than the tunas. While it is impossible to state unequivocally that the tunas could not be the agents of diffusion for this hook, the specificity of the existing tuna-fishing techniques and the evidence for a different use of the circular hook make it more improbable than is suggested by Heizer or Landberg.
Comments and Addenda on Tuna Tagging and Shell Fishhooks
Authors: Landberg Leif C. W.
Published: April 2006

Reinman's misinterpretation (in his article in this issue) of Landberg's (1966) remarks about the aboriginal use of the curved, single-piece shell fishhook is corrected, and the unlikelihood that this type of hook was used by fishermen to catch tunas is further emphasized. Conclusive evidence that tunas transport fishhooks is introduced for representatives of one species, bluefin, in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Oceans. Taking this evidence into consideration, the tentative nature of the tuna-tagging evidence is again noted, and it is stressed that considerably more data will be required to substantiate presently proposed models of migration for tuna populations before incontrovertible geographical relationships can be drawn between Oceania and other areas. Independent invention as an alternative to the hypothesis of hook transportation by fish as an explanation for the distribution of the curved, single-piece shell fishhook is examined with reference to Crain's (1966) article on the mechanical aspects of this hook type. It is concluded that independent invention, as suggested earlier (Landberg 1966), probably accounts for part of the distribution of the curved, single-piece shell fishhook and that transportation of this type of hook by migratory fish would have been only a complicating factor in its geographical distribution.