I Suppose every digger has at one time or another yearned for a potoscope or dreamed of an archaeologicallyrendowed hazel bush whose twigs would tug and dip to well-stocked graves. But if such sure-fire indicators existed, I doubt if fieldwork would be as much fun as it is. Would fishing have quite the same lure if every cast brought a strike? For better or worse, archaeology is a great gamble; each new site offers unlimited possibilities of surprise. So although the introductions to our reports often let it be inferred that our finds have been the result of keen scientific foresight, very few excavations, I imagine, turn out as we expect them to. It was certainly that way at Kaminaljuyu.

The intent of this paper is to present the hypothesis that there are at least two discernible periods of prehistoric Aleut art; one early, the other late. Most designs of the early period somewhat resemble those of the Dorset Eskimo in the East. The art of the late period is suggestive of Punuk Eskimo in northern Alaska.

The formulation of these two periods is based upon an examination of decorated artifacts from the “D” site on the southwestern coast of Amaknak Island (Dutch Harbor, Alaska). These artifacts are part of a large collection donated to the Chicago Natural History Museum by Lt. Alvin R. Cahn, U.S.N.R.

Los Primeros historiadores de la conquista de América que tuvieron conocimiento personal de los pueblos indígenas que desaparecieron rápidamente, exterminados sus habitantes o reemplazadas sus culturas por usos europeos, nos dejaron un incompleto relato etnológico de tales pueblos cuyos verdaderos fenómenos en lo religioso, social, industrial, técnico o artístico solo pueden ser comprobados ahora por el descubrimiento arqueologico. Tal es el caso de los Chibchas Muiskas que habitaron las altiplanicies andinas de Bogota y de Tunja en Colombia. De los dos autores mas autorizados que relataron los usos y costumbres de tales indígenas—Fray Pedro Simón y Don Juan de Castellanos—mucho hay en sus obras de fantasia y de opinión ultra católica. Los demás cronistas como Fray Pedro de Aguado, Lucas Fernández Piedrahita, y Gonzalo Fér-nández de Oviedo parecen repetir a los primeros.

Traditions have an incalculable appeal to the human mind. Often tenuous, remote, impossible to prove, they are occasionally startling. The frustrated researcher upon some fascinating problem of human history which fails, otherwise, of solution comes again and again to the consideration of floating tales which seem to hold a kernel of truth, a hint—just a faint hint—of veracity masked in the trappings of legend. Such material may be used, but on the whole it is ghostly, disembodied, and unverifiable. Lacking corroboration, it fails to bring conviction. Often the tale has been borne by some single native who, long since disappeared into forest anonymity, is no longer available for questioning. His story may, however, have passed through several intermediate hands and be quoted in old books whose scholarship is naive. The result is that, use these sources as we may, we turn seriously to other more tangible means of establishing truth. Then, if the search languishes, we are prone to return, still captivated, to the tale spun long ago.

The notes which follow are the work of an amateur. I am fully aware of the possibility that all of the conclusions, speculations, and suggestion s contained in them may be refuted by further inquiry. This would not be unwelcome, for the main reason for compiling the material was the hope that some day The National Museum of Canada and the various scientific institutions in the province would attack the intriguing problems of our archaeology. The University of Manitoba, The Manitoba Museum Association, The Manitoba Historical Society, The Natural History Society, The Government of the Province of Manitoba, and others should be aware of the rich story of our past and should give earnest consideration to securing the necessary funds and properly trained personnel to interpret that story.

During the past several years, a steatite quarry in Westfield, Massachusetts, was excavated by the Connecticut Valley Chapter of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society under the writer's direction. This quarry is one of two known steatite deposits in this part of the Connecticut Valley worked by the aborigines, the other one being located at North Wilbraham. The Westfield steatite is finely grained with a high percentage of talc, a firm but soft stone, easily shaped into eating utensils and other articles. Only a small part of the original quarry has escaped damage from recent serpentine-marble quarrying. Enough has been left to provide factual evidence of the kind of steatite products and quarry tools that were made at this site.

The only inhabited native village,Ba-li, in the Treasury group is on Mono Island. Although only six months old, it consists of thirty-one dwellings, two open-air churches, and 165 people who make up the native population of Treasury. Formerly, the chief village was situated among the coconut groves on the protected southern shore of Mono Island, acrciss the channel from Sterling Island, a coral atoll. Here the villagers enjoyed the excellent fishing and gathered and traded coconuts. When the Japanese landed there the natives fled to the caves in the cliffs bordering the open sea. There they lived a miserable existence until the Allied forces landed and exterminated the Japanese. Released from their cave hideouts, they decided the most undisturbed location for them, in view of the feverish military activity along the coasts, would be in the interior. Therefore they selected, for their site a ridge a mile and a half inland from the eastern beach of Mono.

At the present time a considerable number of types of projectile points, recognized as having respectable antiquity, are well known to the archaeologist. Among these are the Folsom, Sandia, Yuma, Gypsum Cave, Silver Lake, Pinto Basin, Lake Mohave, the Texas types, and others. Only relative ages can be given for most of these. What dates are possible are possible only in round numbers, as geological rather than dendrochronological evidence must be relied upon.

The ideal archaeological site would be one where all the above-mentioned types, together with all later types, serially down to the most recent one of modern times, were found stratigraphically laid down in their normal relations to each other, awaiting only the trowel of the archaeologist to relate them properly. It is safe to say that a site of this kind does not exist.

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.

The late George Chamberlain of Lynd, Minnesota, reported a unique vessel in the Minnesota Archaeologist, Volume 8, Number 4. The drawing which accompanied this article engaged my attention, and, through the courtesy of Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Ernest S. Macgowan, Secretary of the Minnesota Archaeology Society, a photograph (PI. XVIII, upper) and additional drawings of the vessel were secured. The vessel was obtained in 1934 from a previously disturbed small mound near the town of Lynd, in Lyon County, Minnesota. The vessel was resting in the right hand of one of the skeletons, four feet beneath the center of the mound. As is often the case with Oneota burial vessels, this specimen is small, having a height of 3 ½ inches and a diameter of 5 inches. It is shell-tempered, and the exterior surface is well smoothed.