An analysis of 77 collections of mammalian fauna from Paleolithic occupations in Cantabrian Spain reveals a number of possible trends in the adaptations of prehistoric human groups to past regional ecosystems. Throughout the history of occupation of Cantabria, from the Mousterian through the Solutrean, prehistoric man took a greater number of large game animals from forested biotopes, but probably acquired more total meat from fewer but larger prey taken in open country. Regular exploitation of the alpine zone and of dangerous forest creatures (Sus and felidae) begins only with the Aurignacian, when there is some evidence in the form of nocturnal or burrow-dwelling carnivores that self-acting hunting devices (traps, snares, for example) may have been employed. Lower Magdalenian faunas seem to indicate the specialized and intensive exploitation of a single species (red deer), while in the Azilian there is a return to patterns characteristic of the Mousterian-Solutrean periods. Site location seems to reflect exploitative strategy.

Frequency seriation has often led to valid ordering of archaeological data, yet critiques of the technique, and in particular of the construction of unimodal popularity (battleship) curves, have appeared periodically for almost 20 yr. Problems of type definition, collection manipulation, and chronological inference have been emphasized. It is here suggested that, above and beyond these difficulties of execution and interpretation, frequency seriation is methodologically unsound: that the battleship curve concept is self-contradictory; that a type/collection frequency has descriptive value only within a collection but has no comparative value between collections; that the most commonplace kinds of ceramic variation can negate the type/collection unimodal curve; that seriation of collections to conform to the self-contradictory battleship curve provides a mechanical method by which significant changes in ceramic complexes may be obfuscated. If this basic form of frequency seriation is methodologically invalid, then more complex schemes for manipulating type/collection frequencies using the same or equivalent assumptions (for example, the Brainerd-Robinson technique and others) are also methodologically suspect.

In an effort to operationalize recent advances in archaeological theory and technique, this paper presents a systematic organizational strategy for field investigations and artifact analysis. Four general principles are suggested that lead to productive archaeological research designs: the explicit combination of inductive and deductive reasoning, the utilization of programmatic and analytical feedback, the employment of probability sampling in a multistage framework, and the formulation of analytical techniques appropriate to assumptions underlying the research and to the hypotheses being tested. These principles and associated statistical methods are discussed as they have been applied to the investigation and analysis of the material from the eighth millennium early farming village of Çayönü in southeastern Turkey.

Fifty-five pieces of cordage and 13 textile fragments, probably dating from the ninth through sixth millennium B.C., are described from this dry multi-component site. Wood and bone tools may also be associated with the textile and basketry industries. It appears that twining in South America as well as North America is the basic textile technique from which most of the others are derived, and that it has a similar antiquity in both continents. Spiral interlinking and cross-knit looping are also represented in the early deposits, and there is a possibility that simple loom weaving may have a longer history in Peru than previously supposed.

A series of "Clear Fork" tools from the Rio Grande Plain of southern Texas have been subjected to a functional analysis. Macroscopic, microscopic, and edge angle studies were conducted. A high frequency of nibbling wear was recorded on steeply-angled working edges. Comparisons of these data with several published studies indicate that this tool form was used in the working of wood or other tough materials.

Small quantities of Early Woodland ceramics and knives were identified in a collection excavated from a predominantly Middle Woodland (Havana-Hopewell phase) occupation site in the lower Illinois Valley. Using simple statistical significance tests, hypotheses generated by the vertical and horizontal distribution of these items are tested. The results confirm an earlier observation that Black Sand phase sites tend to be located on a particular soil type, and that the Dickson knife co-occurs with Black Sand ceramics.

The Old Fort (23SA104), an earthwork enclosure and mound complex on a high ridge near the Missouri River in central Missouri, has long been considered a Middle Woodland or Hopewell construction. Excavations in 1970 cross-trenched prehistoric ditches and embankments on the north end of the enclosure. A well-developed soil profile containing predominantly Middle Woodland pottery was exposed, into which aboriginal ditches had been cut. Oneota pottery lay on the floors of these ditches, embedded in a thin laminated horizon of alluvium. Oneota and Middle Woodland pottery are mixed in ditch fills. Field data, although limited, thus support the identification of the enclosure as Oneota, aboriginally constructed on a Middle Woodland habitation site.

X-ray diffraction analysis of red, yellow, white, and black pigments from pictographs in Toquima Cave in central Nevada reveals that gypsum was used as a binder in all colors; ocher (hematite and goethite) and carbon (charcoal) formed the coloring agents. Gypsum and ocher are not found in or near the cave, so the paint mixtures were made from ingredients found elsewhere and then transported to the site of the paintings.

A method is presented for preparing animal skeleton collections while in the field.

A hypothesis incorrectly reported in the Current Research section of the April, 1971, American Antiquity is clarified. The methods and results of preliminary testing of this hypothesis are described. A high correlation obtains between the 2 variables, which leads to the construction of a regression equation. By use of this equation, the access volume of a facility may be predicted from knowledge of the diversity of contents.