Excavations of the last decade have yielded much data which cannot be adequately handled by extant models of Plateau cultural development. The 15,000 years of pre-history revealed by these new data appear to break into seven distinct periods. For each cultural period we present a synthesis of elements, including varying trait-unit intrusions from both the Great Basin and the Canadian Plateau. Included in this examination are such important new factors as a pre-Old Cordilleran stemmed point tradition and a microblade tradition some 5,000 years in duration. Reanalysis also suggests that the "emergence" of Columbia Plateau culture (as ethnographically known) can be placed at about the time of Christ, instead of about A.D. 1200-1300 as previously hypothesized.

A simple graphical method is presented for the seriation or ordering of archaeological assemblages or types. Like most seriation methods, it requires the tabulation of coefficients of similarity between the units in question. By a consideration, restricted to the most similar neighbors of each unit in turn, a uniquely determined structure usually emerges within a few minutes. When the archaeological material is such that it may be seriated well, this structure compares closely with computer seriations of the same data. The method is illustrated by the reexamination of seriations by other workers and is exemplified by graphical and computer seriation of the Cycladic cemeteries of the Aegean Early Bronze age.

The type-variety system of ceramic analysis, as currently used at many sites in southern Mesoamerica, differs in certain respects, especially in emphasis, from the system outlined by Smith, Willey, and Gifford in 1960. The reports on the pottery from the lowland Maya sites of Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico and Seibal, Petén, Guatemala, in both their overall formats and the specific formats of their descriptive sections, have combined certain aspects of both taxonomic (typological) and analytic (modal) classification. It is argued that the type-variety system, as employed at these two sites, overcomes many of the objections to typological analyses recently raised by J. V. Wright (1967) and provides an adequate basis for both tight intersite comparisons in southern Mesoamerica and reanalyses of the ceramic data by other archaeologists in future studies.

Recent archaeological and ethnographic research has made known the pre-Conquest and contemporary settlement patterns of the Teotihuacán Valley. Similar data for the intervening post-Conquest period are not available. Most archaeologists have restricted their research to the pre-Conquest period, and the documents do not contain pertinent detailed information on settlement patterns.

To resolve this problem I propose the application of archaeological methodology to sites located and identified through ethnohistoric research. My preliminary results in the area southeast of Otumba suggest that the method is feasible and productive.

I also explore the theoretical implications of the data recovered from dated archaeological deposits for which the relevant sociocultural factors are known.

Laurel-North Bay ceramic affinities are briefly stated. Possible objections to a northern Minnesota Laurel source and a northwest to southeast diffusion of pseudo-scallopshell stamping and other modes to North Bay are discussed. Archaeological complexes around the Upper Great Lakes are examined for pertinent information, and data drawn from Ontario Laurel sites are used to delimit the probable direction from whence came the Laurel-ascribed elements in northeastern Wisconsin. Diffusional connections with Ontario are favored over Minnesota.

Mortality frequencies of domestic and wild species from prehistoric settlements are becoming increasingly important in reconstructing economic patterns, and in certain areas, for isolating stages in animal domestication. The methods whereby such mortality frequencies have been estimated, however, are considered to be unreliable and, in some cases, misleading.

This paper presents a new and considerably more accurate method for estimating the mortality frequencies of domestic animals than those currently in use, and it suggests fields where its application will prove of value as a research tool for the economic prehistorian.

Aerial techniques have been proven effective for archaeological reconnaissance in several parts of the world.

This paper describes photoarchaeological techniques which were used in a survey of a section of the Potomac River, near Washington, D.C. Thirty-six stone structures and one major Indian village site were discovered. The stone structures were primarily stone fish traps and fish weirs. One of the structures was found to be a navigation weir, constructed by the Potowmack Company, founded by George Washington in his efforts to open up the American "Western Frontier," regions in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Physical descriptions and locations of the structures are listed on the following pages, together with a comparative analysis of the structures. A recommendation is made for a site designation system which strengthens the standard Smithsonian system by adding Universal Transverse Mercator coordinates to them, thus simplifying location designation.

Sunken gardens are a response to a situation in which ground water is near the surface of a desert but does not reach it. Since the 19th century this situation has generally been met in Peru by raising water from wells for canal irrigation. No mechanical means of raising water was known in ancient Peru, however, and sunken gardens provided the most economical solution to the problem. Ground water occurs near the surface on the Peruvian coast in some valleys where there is not enough water to maintain a river on the surface, and at the lower ends of better watered valleys where surplus irrigation water accumulates but does not reach the surface. The problem of salinization appears to have been more serious in sunken gardens than in irrigated fields. Since sunken gardens are effective only under rather rare combinations of circumstances, it seems unlikely that they played a major role in the development of Peruvian agriculture.

An examination of archaeological materials from the lower Texas coast has revealed the presence of a number of deliberately altered human bones. Modified sections of human long-bone shafts, severed proximal and distal ends of long bones, and sections of ribs have been found with burials in Kleberg, Nueces, and Cameron counties. Single examples of altered human bones have also been found in the interior of southern Texas and on the northern coast of Tamaulipas, Mexico. These unusual bone artifacts are described, and their provenience is noted.

The plant content of coprolites from the Glen Canyon region of southern Utah, as determined by phosphate analysis, is compared with the pollen analysis of other pieces of the same coprolites. The authors conclude that the pollen analysis definitely supplements the information obtained from the other source, and the material studied revealed the unsuspected presence of Cleome.

Salwen (1967) in commenting on Emery and Edwards’ stimulating article supplied several important data for northeastern United States. The author, who has for a long time been in agreement with Emery and Edwards’ general conclusions, offers additional supportive data from both coasts of Florida.