Archaeologists have held a lengthy debate around the question of complex sociopolitical organización in the prehistoric American Southwest. Recent theory, though, urges scholars to “unpack” the properties of complexity. In this paper a southwestern regional center is compared with one on the northern Mesoamerican periphery in terms of properties generally associated with sociopolitical complexity: population size, labor investment in monumental construction, extent of road systems, mortuary practices, and symbolism of integrative facilities. Contrary to the conception of Mesoamerican societies as larger and more politically centralized, Chaco Canyon appears to have been organized at a larger scale than La Quemada. Yet it is argued that La Quemada was more hierarchically structured. Correctly evaluating complexity in both nature and degree is not only theoretically significant, but has implications for particular models of long-distance interaction between such large centers.

Specialization encompasses many ways to organize craft production, ranging from small, household-based work units to large workshops. Distinctive types of specialization develop in response to various social, economic, and environmental factors, including the demand for crafts, the social relations of producers, and the support base for artisans. These factors in turn influence manufacturing technology. Thus, different types of specialization can be characterized by a “technological profile,” which reflects relative labor investment, skill, and standardization. An analysis of Prehispanic ceramic technology in the central sierra of Peru demonstrates how these technological profiles can be used to identify the ways ceramic production was organized to provision consumers with utilitarian and luxury pottery. As we demonstrate in our analysis of pottery recovered in the Yanamarca Valley, utilitarian Wanka-style cookwares and storage jars were produced by independent household-based artisans, while imperial Inka-style jars were produced by locally recruited corvee labor working for the state.

Emil Walter Haury (1904–1992) played a key role in the definition of southwestern archaeology. Raised in a Mennonite academic community in Kansas and educated at Bethel College, the University of Arizona, and Harvard University, Haury participated in the development of dendrochronology and gained extensive archaeological field experience with Byron Cummings and Harold Gladwin. Inspired by A. V. Kidder, he contributed greatly to our knowledge of Clovis, Archaic, Mogollon, and Hohokam. His definition of southwestern archaeology continues to be the foundation for the study of prehistory in the Southwest.

This paper presents a method of identifying lithic reduction loci based on size-sorted debitage in the macroscopic size range. Multivariate analysis of decremental size classes of debitage derived from the use of nested screening provides a means of investigating the differential operation of size sorting at various size levels, so that size thresholds for distinguishing deposits of probable primary and secondary refuse can be identified on empirical grounds. The method is used to distinguish refuse dumps from what appear to be lithic reduction loci within an obsidian core/blade workshop excavated at the Early Postclassic city of Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico.

During the past 20 years the collection of samples for flotation and subsequent paleoethnobotanical analyses have flourished. At the same time, archaeologists have become increasingly concerned with both the physical and cultural contexts of material remains. With this in mind, we must critically examine the sampling schemes used in the field and laboratory. This article presents a method that can help archaeologists recover the most complete information needed to address both the physical and cultural context of archaeobotanical remains. By comparing flotation samples from features and adjacent locations, we demonstrate the need for systematic, comprehensive sampling and analytical procedures to delineate the chronological, stratigraphical, and cultural relationships between and among materials in adjacent areas.

Bison bones are found in Columbia Plateau archaeological sites from throughout the Holocene, yet no information on people's tactics for procuring them has yet been reported. The discovery of the Tsulim Site, a 2,100-year-old bison kill near the Columbia River in central Washington, has provided the opportunity to investigate those tactics. Despite the deteriorated state of the evidence, analysis of stone artifacts, faunal remains, and site geology revealed that at least eight animals were killed in the apex of a parabolic dune during the early to mid-winter by hunters using both atlatl and bow. Local topography and meteorology make it most likely that the herd was encountered in a low paleochannel, driven northward between the limbs of the dune, up the steep channel wall, and into the kill area, a sort of inverted buffalo jump. Results not only illuminate the large-game hunting practices of the Plateau peoples, but also point out how much can be learned from disturbed, low-density scatters of debris that are often dismissed as insignificant.

Industrial and medical x-radiography can be used in a manner analogous to back-scattered electron microscopy to identify the approximate mineralogy of rock temper particles in ceramics, but without their destruction by thin-sectioning, and at low cost. Particle traits similar to those used in petrography to identify a mineral are visible in a magnified x-radiograph. The traits include particle x-radiographic gray level, which varies with a particle’s mean atomic number, specific gravity, and mineralogy; size; morphology; cleavage; and internal texture. Blind tests are made to evaluate the specificity and accuracy of the method. Its utility is shown through a study of the exchange of Ohio Middle Woodland ceramics.