All species of Cucurbita (which includes squashes, pumpkins, and the common, small, yellow-flowered gourds) are native to the Americas. Their center of origin lies in Mexico where most of the 26 wild and cultivated species still grow. Chilicayote (C. ficifolia), a perennial and probably the oldest cultivated species, is grown from Mexico to Bolivia and known archaeologically only from coastal Peru (3000 B.C.). Oldest archaeological cucurbits are C. pepo and Lagenaria siceraria, the bottle gourd. Specimens of these species were recovered from Tamaulipas in cave material dated 7000-5500 B.C. Pepo and Lagenaria spread over most of the United States probably with the advent of agriculture. Cucurbita moschata appeared in coastal Peru at the same time as C. ficifolia (3000 B.C.), but it does not occur in the Ocampo Cave cultures until 1400-400 B.C. when pottery and village life entered, and corn, cotton, pepo, and beans (common, lima and jack) were being grown. While the earliest dates for moschata in southwestern United States are about A.D. 1100, it probably entered the same time as cotton, perhaps as early as A.D. 700. Cucurbita mixta, the cushaw, is the most recent of the cultivated species. It is found mainly in Mexico and in post-A.D. 1000 sites in the southwestern U.S. Prehistoric C. maxima is known only from Peru and to the south and east in Chile and Bolivia. Its ancestors probably were carried there by man from the Mexican center, and the weedy C. andreana may have been taken along at the same time.

The bottle gourd is most variable in the Old World. It probably originated there, and was carried to the New World in pre-agricultural times by ocean currents. A number of other cucurbits and the tree gourd, Crescentia cujete, not a true gourd but a member of the family Big-noniaceae, are briefly mentioned. Parts useful in identifying the cultivated cucurbits are the fruit stem or peduncle, seeds, rind, and leaves. A list of the collections of Cucurbita and Lagenaria which have been studied is given, with estimates for the date of each site.

Paleolithic remains, mostly surface finds from blowouts, are known from 63 sites in the Trans-Baikal, one of the five large regional subdivisions of the Siberian Paleolithic. Most important recent discoveries are the stratified sites of Oshurkovo and Sannyi Mys and the Pleistocene faunal sequence on Tologoi Mountain. Characteristic stone tools are made from whole or split pebbles and from blades removed from prismatic cores. Bone artifacts, known only from Oshurkovo, include slotted points and knives and flat antler harpoons. The Trans-Baikal finds, all Upper Paleolithic in time, are tentatively arranged in five chronological stages. The earliest period is based on the lower levels at Sannyi Mys in which microblades, but no pebble tools, are found with woolly rhinoceros and mammoth. The next period is represented by large pebble tools and cores from Ust"-Kiakhta Locality 3. Typical Siberian pebble tools found with horse in the upper levels at Sannyi Mys are assigned to the third stage. The fourth is best known from Oshurkovo where all the common Siberian Paleolithic stone tools are found along with bone artifacts in deposits which contain abundant fish bones. A number of sites are assigned to the fifth stage, but it is best represented by the uppermost level at Oshurkovo where flakes, flaked pebbles, and small blade tools of regular outline replace the large blades and pebble cores of the earlier periods. This tentative sequence is strengthened by correlations with the Angara and Yenisei areas to the west and with Mongolia and North China to the east. The Trans-Baikal is seen as an area in which the prismatic core and blade tradition of Eurafrican origin and the split pebble-tool tradition of eastern Asia were in contact from the earliest known period.

A cache of nine miniature mushroom stones and nine miniature metates with manos from the Verbena cemetery at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, date from the Verbena subphase of the Miraflores phase of the Preclassic, 1000-500 B.C. All of the mushroom stones are of Type B with a circular groove around the base of the cap. This type has been found in a Verbena tomb in Mound E-III-3 at the same site. The cache of nine miniatures demonstrates considerable antiquity for the “mushroom-stone cult,” and suggests a possible association with the nine lords of the night and gods of the underworld, as well as the possible existence of a nine-day cycle and nocturnal count in Preclassic times. The association of the miniature mushroom stones with the miniature metates and manos greatly strengthens the possibility that at least in some areas in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica metates were used to grind the sacred hallucinatory mushrooms to prepare them for ceremonial consumption.

In an attempt to establish an archaeological chronology for northwestern Costa Rica, excavations were carried out in 1959-60 in the coastal region and Tempisque River drainage of Guanacaste Province. Four periods have been defined: Zoned Bichrome, Early Polychrome, Middle Polychrome, and Late Polychrome. These are roughly equated in the Maya sequence with Late Formative, Early Classic through the beginning of Late Classic, the latter part of the Late Classic through the early Postclassic, and late Postclassic, respectively. The Zoned Bichrome period has been established on the basis of three geographically separate but coeval phases: Chombo on the Santa Elena Peninsula, Monte Fresco in the Tamarindo Bay zone, and Catalina on the middle Tempisque. All three phases are linked to each other through trade pottery; a radiocarbon date on Monte Fresco is within the first century of the Christian era. Outstanding characteristics of the period are bichrome zoning, dentate rocker-stamping, wavy black lines produced by a multiple brush, engraving, and incising. Considerable fishing and hunting was carried out, and intensive maize agriculture is inferred. These village materials indicate that lower Central America was participating in at least some of the trait diffusion which linked remote areas of Nuclear America in Formative times.

A series of superimposed structures spanning the Preclassic, Classic and Postclassic periods was uncovered in 1959 in the Oztoyahualco zone of the ancient city of Teotihuacán in the Valley of Mexico. Superimposed structures spanning so long a period have not previously been found in the Valley. The earliest structures in the sequence are earth floors of the Tzacualli (Teotihuacán I) phase, beneath which were found a number of caches of broken pottery and other objects. These are followed by massive, concrete, ceremonial structures of the Xolalpan (Teotihuacán III) phase and above these are structures built after the fall of Teotihuacán. The nature and distribution of these successive structures is such as to suggest that the locality became sacred in Tzacualli times and maintained this sacred character even after the fall of Teotihuacán. The Tzacualli structures receive primary attention in the discussion because of their importance.

Three miniature cotton shirts, found among the textiles of the Uhle collection from beneath the Temple of Pachacamac, in the University Museum, Philadelphia, show an unusual style of tubular construction in which the warp yarns run horizontally and the neck and arm apertures are located along the upper edge of the shirt. Apparently falling in Uhle's early classification of “Epigone Style” these miniatures show the same general garment form as that of a large shirt reported from the La Capilla cemetery of Hacienda Marques, and in addition, display pleats and a yoke-like use of warp-wise bands seen in a few garments of a related style reported from Piedras Gordas and Huacho, the latter presumably of later date than the former. Although the miniatures are sufficiently sturdy to have served as doll clothing, their purpose is unknown.

The diagnostic value of animal remains from archaeological sites is discussed in the following order of importance of the various osteological elements which can be used for interpreting the fauna they represent: teeth, skull fragments, articular ends of limb bones, foot bones, portions of the pectoral and pelvic girdles, and vertebrae.

A polychrome mural in the upper portion of the temple pyramid at Panamarca in the Nepena valley depicts a religious procession before a sacrifice. The main figures are a priest followed by two assistants, three prisoners, and a guard. The mural contains several motifs new to Mochica painting. It is assigned to Larco's fourth phase of Mochica culture, but some elements suggest the possibility of a somewhat later placement.

Measurements of the fluorine, uranium, and nitrogen content of a representative series of bones from Lagow and neighboring terrain show that while the human skeleton from the Lagow Sand Pit is not modern, it cannot be assigned an antiquity equivalent to that of the Lewisville Pleistocene fauna at the site.

The results of the F-U-N tests by Oakley and Howells, which show that the Lagow skeleton is not of the same antiquity as the Pleistocene fauna at the site, make possible a reinterpretation of the depositional sequence recorded by Shuler, who reported the apparent association of human remains with Pleistocene fauna. The Lagow human skeleton is now seen as an intrusive into the Upper Shuler yellow sand after the Pemberton Hill-Lewisville (T-2) terrace had been built up and eroded down to near the level of occurrence. Since the age of the overlying red clays is estimated to be about 9500 years, the Lagow skeleton may possibly be early Archaic.

A specimen from a bundle of rope found at Playa Grande in association with pottery of Playa Grande 1 style and the white-zoned and white-slipped varieties of the Baños de Boza style is dated at A.D. 570 ± 160 (L-384A). Since the Playa Grande ceramic style has good crossties with Late Mochica, Salinar, Puerto Moorin, Maranga, and Nazca styles, this date tends to substantiate the generally accepted but not clearly demonstrated contemporaneity of the Mochica 3, 4, 5 sequence on the North Coast with the Playa Grande, Maranga sequence on the Central Coast and the Nazca A, B, Y development on the South Coast.

Four points of Eastern Clovis type, found in Beaufort and Jasper counties at sites which also produce points of the Savannah River Archaic, are the first occurrence of fluted points on the southern Atlantic coast. The flint source was apparently the extensive quarries along Briar and Buckhead creeks located chiefly in Screven and Burke counties, Georgia. Other finds of fluted points along these streams indicate a paleo-Indian occupation within the drainage, but no sites are yet known.

A worked wolf cranium discovered in burial association at a Glacial Kame site near Russells Point, Ohio, is interpreted as part of an animal mask-headdress. This is the first record of the use of such paraphernalia by the Glacial Kame People, and probably one of earliest evidences of ceremonialism in the Ohio Valley.

Small blades, blade tools, and cores recently found at the Cahokia site, Illinois, represent a microblade industry probably affiliated with the Old Village stage of Middle Mississippian. The artifacts are described, and attempts to assess their probable functions are discussed. The available comparative evidence is insufficient to demonstrate the degree of historical relationship, if any, between this newly defined industry and such other blade industries in the eastern United States as Poverty Point and Hopewell.

The difficulties of using B.P. for radiocarbon ages figures is discussed in terms of the contrast between an age and a date, and the abandonment of the B.P. method of expressing dates is urged.

The Hell Gap point, excavated from a cultural level dated by radiocarbon at 8890 B.C. (10,850±550 B.P.), is described by H. M. Wormington. It represents the oldest known cultural level at Hell Gap, an extensive multi-component quarry site occupied by paleo-Indian groups over a considerable period of time.

A copper-covered, wooden, human-effigy mask from a burial in a site of the Spoon River focus of Late Mississippi, about 1200-1400, probably was a rattle much like the specimen from Mound C, Etowah, Georgia.