One hundred and twenty years ago, the first obsidian implements were reported from Hopewellian mounds by Squier and Davis (1848). Since that time, a number of regions have been suggested as the source area: Alaska, the Pacific Coast, Yellowstone National Park, New Mexico, and central Mexico. Neutron activation analysis of the elemental composition of Hopewellian obsidian indicates two separate element groups. One of these, the 150 Group, has its source at Obsidian Cliff in Yellowstone. The second, the 90 Group, is also located in Yellowstone, but the exact flow has not yet been discovered.

Dating a moderately large sample of obsidian artifacts from a site can contribute highly accurate knowledge about three basic unknowns for site deposits: (1) the presence or absence of a statistically significant tendency towards superposition in the deposit; (2) the nature and degree of disturbance inhibiting the full expression of the superpositional tendency; and (3) the directional bias associated with the disturbance.

Deposits of the following three sites are analyzed: Mammoth Junction site, California; La Victoria site, Guatemala; and the Chorrera R-B-1 site, Ecuador. A test for artifact reuse is described and is applied to the three sites.

Excavations in northeastern New Mexico have confirmed the presence of a variety of Jicarilla Apache house types mentioned in Spanish documents of ca. 1700. Associated with a 7-room adobe structure and a pit house was an artifact complex closely resembling that of the Plains Apaches represented by the Dismal River aspect. The predominant pottery, however, is a thin micaceous ware, herein described as Ocate Micaceous, accompanied by trade sherds of Tewa Polychrome, plain black Pueblo ware, and Puebla (Mexico) blue and white majolica. Mid-19th-century Apache sites in the area are “tipi-ring” sites yielding a thicker micaceous ware, herein described as Cimarron Micaceous, White man’s trade goods, and a few stone artifacts. The relationship between Apache micaceous pottery, made from ca. 1600 (or earlier) until the early 1900’s, and that made at Taos and Picuris is still not clear.

Test excavations made in the spring of 1964 along the Salt River near Mesa, Arizona, by personnel from the Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, provide new data on the earliest Hohokam. The Red Mountain site produced inhumations, a burial cairn, a different grinding-tool complex, and other items previously unknown in early Hohokam associations. Since only Vahki Plain and Vahki Red pottery are present, the site might be designated Vahki phase; however, this designation alone would obscure and ignore the important differences that are present. There are several better interpretations, two about equally plausible: (1) since the only other excavations in early Hohokam sites in the Red Mountain area have also produced inhumations and at least one other burial cairn, and these sites span the Pioneer period, one can emphasize the persistence of differences in the Red Mountain area by identifying a "Red Mountain branch" Hohokam at least through the Pioneer period; hence, Vahki phase, Red Mountain branch. This designation employs a traditional South-western concept. On the other hand (2) if one subscribes to the hypothesis that both Mogollon and Hohokam are derived from the San Pedro stage Cochise, the Red Mountain data support the identification of a phase transitional between San Pedro stage and Vahki phase — Red Mountain phase. This latter interpretation does not preclude a Red Mountain branch.

Study of archaeological material of chili peppers (Capsicum spp.) from the sites of Huaca Prieta and Punta Grande on the coast of Peru has shown that the first species to be cultivated was C. baccatum, which was probably domesticated in Bolivia. This pepper reached the Peruvian coast during the same period as four other crop plants of probably southern Peruvian or Bolivian origin, which suggests that southern contacts were important during the late Preceramic stage. During the Initial period, maize (probably of Mexican origin) and peanuts (possibly domesticated in Bolivia) spread along the coast. Another pepper, Capsicum chinense, which is thought to have been domesticated in the lowlands of the Amazon Basin, apparently also reached the coast at about the same time as pottery. Manioc likewise arrived on the coast during this period, and there may have been an introduction of new varieties of maize from Mexico. These crops suggest a mixture of tropical forest and Middle American contacts during the Initial period and the Early horizon.

An examination of the data used to support Nunley’s hypothesis (1967) that Texcoco Fabric-marked pottery vessels functioned as flowerpots to adapt chinampa agriculture to saline Lake Texcoco does not confirm his conclusions. The distribution of the ware and tlateles coincides not with chinampa agriculture but with salt-producing communities of the 16th century. Aboriginal salt-making produced large mounds of washed or leached soils which are the tlateles. Texcoco Fabric-marked ware is suited for the rapid heating of saline solutions. It is concluded that the sherds and the tlateles are the archaeological remains of Aztec salt-making activities.

Aerial reconnaissance and photography have established the existence of extensive tracts of ridged fields and planting platforms (bancos), apparently of pre-Columbian origin, in the overflow lands behind the natural levees of the Rio Guayas immediately north and east of Guayaquil, Ecuador. These vestiges of an ancient, labor-intensive agricultural system are similar in character to others that have been described in Bolivia, Colombia, and Surinam.

Coxcatlán Cave has yielded the earliest records of two domesticated species still grown as minor grain crops in Mexico. Amaranthus cruentus, previously unknown archaeologically, is tentatively identified from a level dated at about 4000 B.C. and positively identified from six levels dated between about 2500 B.C. and the time of the Conquest. Amaranthus hypochondriacus was found at two levels dated about A.D. 500. There is no evidence that either species was domesticated locally.

In view of the potential significance to American archaeology of the discovery of man-made artifacts along with extinct fauna near Valsequillo, Puebla, Mexico, it is considered useful, in addition to the detailed field documentation, to present the evidence of independent observers concerning the in situ associations. Comments by three such independent scientists, R. S. MacNeish, F. A. Petersen, and H. M. Wormington, on the character of the evidence at Valsequillo are quoted.

Binford's specific postulate that archaeological corncobfilled “smudge pits” of the eastern United States were utilized for smoking hides is challenged as being too narrow, and an additional function is postulated, namely, that they were also used in some areas for smudging the interiors of ceramic vessels. Additional references to their archaeological occurrence are also presented, and it is argued that all of these features postdate A.D. 1000.

Euler's (1968) criticisms of Jett’s "criticisms" are based largely on misinterpretation of Jett (1968). No political cause is espoused in Jett nor is criticism of colleagues the motive for the article. Enumeration of sites overlooked by various surveys was to show how “… the number of known sites has increased with each survey, how continuing revision of interpretation has been necessary, and how survey work is by no means complete…” (Jett 1968), suggesting that long-term work in an area adds more to knowledge than does work limited in time by reservoir construction. Jett does not criticize popular publication per se; however, caution in revealing locations of incompletely excavated sites is recommended.