It is argued that as a scientist one does not justifiably employ analogies to ethnographic observations for the "interpretation" of archaeological data. Instead, analogies should be documented and used as the basis for offering a postulate as to the relationship between archaeological forms and their behavioral context in the past. Such a postulate should then serve as the foundation of a series of deductively drawn hypotheses which, on testing, can refute or tend to confirm the postulate offered. Analogy should serve to provoke new questions about order in the archaeological record and should serve to prompt more searching investigations rather than being viewed as a means for offering "interpretations" which then serve as the "data" for synthesis. This argument is made demonstratively through the presentation of formal data on a class of archaeological features, "smudge pits," and the documentation of their positive analogy with pits as facilities used in smoking hides.

Most studies on the use of punched cards and computers in archaeology seem to take for granted that scientific standards exist to express the data upon which algorithms are to be performed, for retrieval or classification purposes. The author's view is different; examples are given of descriptive codes which have been designed under his direction since 1955 for the storage of archaeological data (artifacts, abstract or figured representations, buildings, etc.) on punched cards of various kinds (marginal, peek-a-boo, IBM, etc.). In order to obviate the shortcomings of natural language, three categories of rules are required: orientation, segmentation, differentiation. The concluding remarks concern the relation of the descriptive languages which are thus obtained to scientific language in general; differences are stressed, as well as reasons for postulating a continuum from the former to the latter.

Archaeologists have failed to use all available data relevant to climatic changes and other environmental factors necessary for the reconstruction of paleoclimates. This neglect has fostered the continuance of significant problems of reconstruction and interpretation in archaeology. Paleolimnology can be helpful in elucidating some of these problems. Research of this sort has already provided valuable evidence for the advent of agricultural man in Austria, as well as providing data for the reconstruction of paleoclimates in other areas. While pollen analysis has traditionally been used as an indication of climatic change, certain aquatic micro-organisms manifest a more rapid and subtle response to slight climatic changes. Paleolimnological evidence can provide important data for paleoclimatic reconstruction in archaeology.

This paper begins with a discussion concerning the development of the term "atlatl weight" in archaeological literature. It then proceeds to analyze in detail data relative to 60 atlatl weights from 39 locations on the Plains area of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa. Although most of the specimens are surface finds, a number are from systematically excavated, radiocarbon-dated occupations.

Differentiated primarily on their general shapes, five groups of atlatl weights seem apparent: Class I, loaf-shaped; Class II, end-ridged; Class III, long ellipsoidal; Class IV, zoomorphic; and a miscellaneous category.

Available evidence suggests that atlatl weights were being made, in the area under consideration, from about 2500 B.C. until A.D. 800.

At five Little River focus village sites in Rice and McPherson counties, Kansas, so-called council circles are probably the most notable features present. Each consists of a low central mound surrounded by a ditch or a series of depressions (borrow pits) or both. No village site has more than a single circle. At the only one yet excavated (Tobias site), elongate house pits arranged around a patio within the ditched zone formed a structural complex which is apparently unique in Plains archaeology. The houses were built of poles and grass, earth-covered wholly or in part, and had evidently been destroyed by fire. The covering fill contained numerous large boulders and scattered human bones, some fire-blackened. From their plan and contents, it is suggested that these house complexes were special-purpose structures; from their demonstrated orientation, it is further suggested that one of their functions may have been to record solstitial sunrise (and sunset?) points on the horizon.

Test excavations at the site of Huistla in Jalisco, Mexico, yielded a series of ceramic types which is similar to types or wares found in the coastal lowland strip of Nayarit and Sinaloa. These affiliations indicate an occupation during a period sometime between about A.D. 800 and 1200. A reappraisal of the Aztatlán complex, recently divided into a series of local phases by Kelley, Winters, and Grosscup, leaves the impression that, while subdivision of the complex is justifed in light of their new data, certain continuities in ceramic design styles between these phases still give substance to the Aztatlán complex.

Application of ammonium chloride powder to artifacts of quartz, obsidian, and chert aids in the production of photographs that show excellent surface detail.

Iodine staining and ultraviolet photography are described as techniques for working out unclear and confused stratigraphic situations. They are viewed as complementary to existing techniques and of limited application.

An important distinction is here made between two types of Southwestern sites, each of which appears on the surface as a doughnut-shaped midden of burned rock with a depressed ashy center. "Midden circles" are debris thrown back from a central hearth lying on the ground surface. "Mescal pits" have central pits dug below the natural ground surface and are the remains of earth ovens.

Since Alaska lacks stable political units equivalent to counties, it has become necessary to develop an alternative for a standardized system of site designation. This system utilizes the 1:250,000 USGS topographic quadrangle as an areal base equivalent to the county. Alaska is completely covered at this scale. The quadrangle names may be abbreviated and joined with the prefix "49" to form a trinomial paralleling the Smithsonian system. A list of these quadrangles and abbreviations is appended.

A feline sculpture in serpentinite from Dsibalchen on the Yucatan Peninsula (probably in the northeast part of the state of Campeche) was found by Teobert Maler in 1887. Its half-human face shares characteristics of the Olmec "were-jaguar" sculptures of Veracruz and Tabasco.

An Olmec figurine said to have been found at La Venta falls stylistically within the range of variation of other figurines known to be from that site. Four designs engraved on the upper parts of the limbs represent abstract were-jaguar heads identical with those of the serpentine mosaic pavements at La Venta. Thus, the pavements should be considered as examples of the Olmec style and not, as has been claimed, pre-Olmec.

An illustration of the Huarmey Valley in Joris van Speilbergen's journal from the year 1615 shows a “ruined castle, occupied by our men.” In an archaeological survey conducted by the author, a site was located which is very likely to be the one occupied by van Speilbergen. The site appears to be Chimu or Inca in date on the basis of the plan, the construction of tapia adobe, and the high percentage of reduced-fired ceramics. Despite the small size and relative unimportance of the Huarmey Valley, the site, to judge by the illustration and the existing ruins, was a large and impressive structure of some importance to the Chimu and/or the Inca Empire.