Nation states, or partisans thereof, control and allocate symbolic resources as one means of legitimizing power and authority, and in pursuit of their perceived nationalistic goals and ideologies. A major symbolic resource is the past. In this paper I review three cases in which the past and, in particular, relevant archaeological resources were "used" for such purposes, and I refer to several other well-known instances. The three cases discussed are Mexico from ca. A.D. 900 to the present, Britain from ca. A.D. 1500 to the present, and the People’s Republic of China since 1949. The implications of such uses in relation to archaeological theories and interpretations are discussed.

Probability sampling, controlled surface collecting, and explicit research designs are standard working procedures for a large portion of the archaeological profession. The need for adopting these approaches and their utility in the field have been persuasively argued in the literature for 20 years. Despite their agreed-upon utility, these approaches are often poorly understood. Field strategies of four projects and their rationales are presented to provide examples of specific approaches that have had positive results. Based on these case studies and a review of the literature, I propose six basic principles as guides to the formulation of future field strategies. The researcher must define interpretive objectives, specify minimal data requirements, understand the problems of data recognition, structure the flow of research and evaluation, choose appropriate tools for each stage of research, and maintain cost effectiveness.

A recent archaeological survey was conducted of a highland Peruvian valley in order to evaluate the effect on a local culture of the expansion of empires. The strategy employed in the consolidation of a region under an imperial administrative structure is the result of two general factors: the needs of the empire, and the level of extant local political organization. Evidence of Wari and Inka imperial facilities in the Carahuarazo Valley is interpreted in light of changes in the local culture during each occupation to provide a more complete picture of this process. A relatively greater Wari presence and lesser Inka presence are interpreted as the result of differing administrative needs on the part of the respective empires, as well as differing local systems at the time of each conquest. Similarities in goods and services extracted by each empire serve to indicate that although imperial strategies differed, the end result of consolidation of the area into each empire was roughly similar.

While investigating the archaeological background of early maize on the coast of Peru, I realized that several factors affect interpretation. The estimated date for the start of common use of maize there is close to the apparent dates of a large tsunami, the abandonment of many coastal sites, and the start of occupation at Chavin de Huantar in the highlands. While investigating the possible relations between the principal pre-tsunami coastal culture and Chavin, I discovered that depictions of a monstrous head link the two cultures. Dating of first millennium B.C. materials is complicated by changes in the atmospheric 14C level, so iconographic, stylistic, and material linkages are even more important in thinking about cultural development in this period. Inconsistencies between older inferences and newer observations can be resolved by a new model.

Zooarchaeologists have used several methods to assess the relative dietary contribution of species found at archaeological sites. The most common methods are either based upon the assumption that bone weight is a fixed percentage of total body weight, or require estimating an "average" body size for identified taxa. In fact, the relationship between parameters of bone and body mass is generally allometric and can be described by linear regression. Use of allometric models places original body mass predictions on a more sound biological basis and makes calculations of "average" weight unnecessary. The potential of allometry is discussed and objections addressed with the goal of encouraging others to develop allometric formulae and to use them in their research.

Bituminous coal, previously suspected as a contaminant in radiocarbon samples, has now been demonstrated to be a source of dating error in archaeological and geological samples. Standard laboratory procedures are inadequate to recognize or remove coal from samples, but techniques for identifying coal particles include paleo-botanical and reflectance analyses, and possibly accelerator dating.

To enhance the recovery of dense, nonfloating botanical remains, we used a siphon subsequent to the normal flotation process. The siphon vacuums the heavy fraction of a flotation sample and retrieves most of the non-floating botanical material. Experiments show an improvement averaging 9.9% and 11.3% by count and weight, respectively, for the recovery of high-density botanical remains using the siphon technique.

The settlement area that encompasses all the refuse-generating activities that contribute to a single midden may be referred to as a midden's "catchment." Two related issues are explored with respect to the problem of measuring midden catchment: 1) the relation between settlement density, midden size, and distribution, and midden catchment; and 2) the relation between the heterogeneity of a midden's contents and its catchment.

We show that a structure built by the Inkas at the entrance to a cave at Machu Picchu was designed to admit the light of the rising sun only for a brief period before and after the December solstice. This structure is precisely constructed, unique at Machu Picchu, and may have played a part in the annual Inka ritual, Capac Raymi.

An accelerator date of 1775 ± 100 B.P. obtained from a maize (Zea mays) kernel from the Icehouse Bottom site in eastern Tennessee is the most convincing early date for maize in eastern North America.

Specimens of desiccated Chenopodium berlandieri ssp. jonesianum from Cloudsplitter and Newt Kash Rock-shelters in Menifee County, eastern Kentucky yielded accelerator dates of 3450 ± 150 B.P. and 3400 ± 150 B.P., respectively, extending the known age of this prehistoric domesticate by 1,000 years.

Recent research has resolved problems surrounding the chronology and archeobotanical record of the Salts Cave Vestibule. Formerly, widely disparate radiocarbon dates made assignment of the site to either the Late Archaic or Early Woodland period equally problematic. Eight new radiocarbon determinations from Vestibule charcoal indicate an occupation in the first millennium B.C., confirming an assignment to the Early Woodland period. Previous analyses of carbonized plant remains from stratified deposits in the Vestibule indicated that the domestication of two native plants, sumpweed and sunflower, preceded the introduction of cucurbits into this part of the Eastern Woodlands. Data from other Midwestern sites have contradicted this generalization. A recent analysis of a second series of archeobotanical samples indicates that cucurbits were present at Salts Cave as early as the domesticated native annuals. These new data render the archeobotanical record of Salts Cave less anomalous than previously, and support the currently accepted reconstructions of prehistoric subsistence change in the Eastern Woodlands.

Based on published lexicostatistical dates, two intervals in the prehistory of southern Mesoamerica stand out as fertile periods in terms of the generation of new languages: the Terminal Preclassic/early Early Classic Periods, and the Early Postclassic Period. After comparing archaeological evidence with language distributions within the subregions of southern Mesoamerica during the first of these periods, we conclude that the cultural processes during both periods had the same potential for producing rapid rates of linguistic divergences. Just as rapid proliferation of linguistic divisions was symptomatic of the well-known collapse of Late Classic Maya civilization, so it can be taken as a sign of a collapse of Terminal Preclassic civilization. Both collapses were characterized by severe population reductions, site abandonments, an increasing balkanization in material culture, and disruption of interregional communication networks, conditions that were contributory to the kind of linguistic isolation that allows language divergences. Unlike in the Terminal Classic collapse episode, small refuge zones persisted in the Early Classic Period that served as sources of an evolving classicism; these refuge zones were exceptions, however, not the rule. Although the collapse of each site had its own proximate cause, we suggest that the enormous geographical range covered by these Early Classic Period site failures points to a single ultimate cause affecting the area as a whole, such as the onset of a prolonged and devastating climatic change.

Two prehispanic South American animal domesticates, the cavy Cavia porcellus and muscovy duck Cairina moschata, are identified from the later prehistoric occupations of Salango, Manabi province, Ecuador. Possible implications, raised by their presence in an area that is known to have participated in an ancient and widespread trade network, are briefly discussed.

Bibliographic information on split-twig figurines is given to supplement that provided in Euler's (1984) site report on Stanton Cave, Arizona. In addition, previously unpublished figurines, from Arizona and Utah, are described.

Existing evidence to support the interpretation that Oneota garden beds in southwestern Wisconsin functioned as wetland agricultural drainage systems is reviewed. In addition, previously unreported analyses of sediments from the Sand Lake Site (47 Lc44), La Crosse County, Wisconsin, are presented. Based on these data the interpretation that the Sand Lake Site garden beds represent wetlands drainage systems is rejected.

Comments offered by Overstreet are based on a misunderstanding of the physiographic setting of the Sand Lake site and selective reading of the data. The Sand Lake ridged fields are situated in a floodplain in the Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin, a setting very different from that of upland ridged fields in glaciated eastern Wisconsin. Overstreet attempts to refute interpretations that we have already revised significantly. Current interpretations of the floodplain ridges suggest that, although surface drainage of the fields was probably not their primary function, periodic internal drainage of the soil would have been important.