In recent years, there has been much interest in the use of ethnographic data derived from modern Maya groups for the interpretation of Classic Maya civilization. It has been suggested by some that civil and religious positions in Classic Maya society were filled by a system of rotation such as exists today among some Maya groups. Such a system would have served as a powerful force for the integration of both priest and peasant in Classic Maya society. This proposition is examined here in the light of recent data which show a relation between such existing "cargo" systems and population size. On the basis of settlement data from Tikal, Guatemala, it is concluded that such a system of rotation would not have been an effective force for social integration at large sites of the Classic period, and that other possible factors must be considered in this respect.

It is suggested that four major types of survey can be identified: (1) reconnaissance, which is extensive rather than intensive, and results in a catalog of sites; (2) survey which is done in conjunction with a specific program of excavation and is designed to increase the sample of material culture; (3) limited survey that is problem oriented and is conducted for a specific reason (this is usually the most successful type); and (4) survey that involves intensive study of a local area and is designed to extract all possible information from each site found. It is believed that the last type, despite a large expenditure of time and funds, provides much more information than other types of survey. Data from a survey of Cebolleta Mesa, New Mexico, are presented to document the value of the intensive archaeological survey.

This historically oriented description of the development of archaeological research and conceptualization in the area of Grand Canyon National Park begins with the contributions of the earliest Spanish explorers of the area and proceeds to research completed in 1964. Three periods of research are identified: discovery and exploration, 1540 to 1900; general investigation, 1900 to 1950; and concentrated analysis, 1951 to 1964. By the end of the first period the historic tribes and the presence of Pueblo ruins in the Grand Canyon area had been recognized. During the next 50 years many details were added to the understanding of the Pueblo material, including a sound temporal framework, the postulation of a second prehistoric group in the area, the Cohonina, and additional information on the ethnographic groups of the area accumulated. In the years between 1951 and 1964 there developed an increasingly complete description of the Cohonina branch, an analysis of Havasupai culture history, an examination of the Anasazi occupation within the depths of the Canyon, and the discovery of a Canyon occupancy some 2000 years earlier than had been known previously. Finally, a summary of the current conception of the area's culture history is presented, along with an indication of possible directions for future research.

History of development of the American Formative concept is briefly outlined. A chronology is presented that covers the three millennia before the Christian Era and which extends from Ecuador to the Ohio Valley. The Stalling’s Island complex of fiber-tempered pottery from the coast of Georgia is compared with the Valdivia Period ceramics of Ecuador, and the Orange fiber-tempered wares of Florida are compared with the Machalilla Period ceramics of Ecuador and related material in Mesoamerica. The conclusion is drawn that these early Southeastern Cultures ultimately derived from the Ecuadorian early Formative by way of colonies that probably existed in the southern part of Mesoamerica.

Eighteen archaeological objectives are ordered within two general classes: Class A, placement of archaeological units—traits, types, and assemblages — within a space-time framework, and Class B, integration of the units in a cultural context. Four levels of interpretation of data are distinguished: identification, unidimensional distribution, bidimensional distribution, and processual analysis. Statistical methods appropriate to the different levels of interpretation, including cluster analysis, matrix analysis, and factor analysis, are discussed. It is suggested that the matrix method provides a statistical model of findings in archaeological field work. It is concluded that archaeological theory can be advanced by interpretation in terms of series rather than in terms of classes.

Ethnohistorical, archaeological, and ethnological data are combined in a discussion of Inca bridges in the Huanuco area. A colonial document provides the details of how a major bridge on the Inca highway was constructed by placing a series of logs over projecting canes. The division of labor in providing the logs was described as being divided among neighboring communities, with the river itself as a significant dividing line. The section of the Inca highway in question is still in use today and the bridge still exists, apparently much the same as it was in the Colonial Period and probably in the Inca Period. Other bridges in the area are discussed from the point of view of function and maintenance and as an example of the persistence of an ancient tradition of bridge building.

Doctrinaire diffusionism is a menace to the development of sound archaeological theory based on comparative studies; it distracts archaeologists from such studies and seeks to destroy the basis of comparison. Diffusionist arguments are defective in principle, however. The bias in the selection of data for these arguments can be illustrated by listing cultural similarities between ancient Peru and the ancient Mediterranean.

Fluctuating modes of thought concerning the origins of the American Indians are traced from the time of the Spanish Conquest to the present. Early Man studies are related to the broader aspects of archaeology in Europe as well as in North America. Six periods are presented, in each of which different conceptions of Indian origins were dominant: (1) 1520-1780, (2) 1780-1859, (3) 1859-1890, (4) 1890-1925, (5) 1925-1950, (6) 1950-present. It is shown that developments in other fields of inquiry influenced the conceptions that evolved in each of these periods.

Fossil pollen is directly associated with a radiocarbon date, mammoth bones, and the same stratigraphic units in which mammoth, bison, tapir, and horse bones and Clovis artifacts were recovered at the Lehner site. The pollen evidence indicates that desert grassland occupied the San Pedro Valley of southeastern Arizona about 9000 B.C.

Faunal analysis suggests that before the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciers from North America, the occupants of the Valley of Tehuacan, Puebla, engaged in communal drives of jackrabbit (and possibly pronghorn antelope as well). With the arrival of the present (warmer) climatic regime, antelope and jackrabbit were replaced by whitetailed deer and cottontail, and all evidence of communal drives ceased. This change, which has interesting implications from the standpoint of interband cooperation, is not reflected in either artifacts or settlement patterns as presently rscoverable by archaeologists. It also suggests that the nature of the post-Pleistocene "readaptation" in semi-tropical America differed from that postulated for the northern temperate regions.

Curved, single-piece shell fishhooks are found archaeologically in Oceania, Ecuador, southern Peru and northern Chile, and the Santa Barbara region of southern California. The hypothesis that fish were possible transpacific carriers of these shell fishhooks is examined in the light of recent tuna-tagging research. Tag release and recovery data show that three species of tuna are capable of undertaking long-range migrations. Skipjack tunas are known to migrate from Baja California to Hawaii. Some bluefin tunas have migrated from Baja California to Japan. Albacore, which is believed to consist of a single population in the northern Pacific Ocean, probably circumnavigates the Pacific. A migration model of the northern Pacific albacore population suggests at least one possible transportation route of shell fishhooks between Hawaii and the Santa Barbara region. Heyerdahl has postulated that the association at historic contact in the Santa Barbara region of the curved, single-piece shell fishhook, the frameless plank canoe, and the Polynesian-type cosmogony of the Chungichnish cult is evidence for pre-Columbian transpacific contact. Contrary to his theory, reasons are advanced here to suggest that these traits may instead be fortuitously associated rather than diffused as a complex.

Field work in southwestern Idaho in 1959 has led to definition of a boundary zone between the Great Basin and Plateau culture areas. Around A.D. 1300, this boundary lay along the Snake River in southwestern Idaho, but in the 19th century it lay nearly 100 miles to the north of the Snake River. It is suggested that the contemporary environment of southwestern Idaho was established about 1000 B.C.

This paper shows that two previous lines of evidence (radiocarbon dating and historic dynasty lists) for calculating absolute dates in prehistoric northern Peru produce a hiatus between the regional Classic and the late periods (kingdoms and confederations), which can best be resolved by expanding the time span of the Tiahuanacoid (Middle) period. Material evidence is adduced for this longer period by quantifying total construction for the last three precolonial periods on both the northern and central coasts. This procedure indicates that the last two periods combined were only half as long as the preceding Tiahuanacoid period and provides the temporal basis for postulating that the late-period trends, such as urbanization and secularization, were evolved largely during Tiahuanacoid times.

This paper reports a series of obsidian hydration dates from Temesco, a small Terminal Late Preclassic ceremonial site in the Valley of Mexico. Temesco is located in the Texcoco Plains, an area which may have played a key role in the emergence of the elaborate Classic Period Teotihuacan civilization. Analysis of ceramics and cross-dating with radiocarbon dates from Cuicuilco suggest that Temesco was a short-span site of the first century B.C. Confidence in this conclusion is reinforced by obsidian dates as an independent line of evidence giving approximately the same result.

Even a cursory examination of data-processing methods currently used in archaeology indicates that there is a great need for a low-cost system that allows the investigator to study large masses of data without abandoning the units of archaeological analysis with which he is familiar. The authors recommend the use of a new system, Termatrex, which is a simple semiautomatic system that involves perforated cards and a light source for information retrieval. Termatrex is an inverted data-recording and searching system, with a virtually unlimited memory, which can be used at a desk. At present, Termatrex is the only system that provides true random access, continuous feedback between the investigator and his data, and compatibility with the standard digital computers.

Four years of intensive archaeological survey, supplemented by excavations in the Teotihuacán Valley, Mexico, have greatly clarified our picture of the transition from Preclassic to Classic. The definition of two new phases of culture history, Tezoyuca and Patlachique, that belong to the Terminal Preclassic (post Late Ticoman) strongly suggests a local development of the great Classic city of Teotihuacán. This runs counter to the hypothesis that a great migration, possibly from the Gulf Coast region, was responsible for the fully developed Classic Teotihuacán culture. Present evidence indicates that the Patlachique phase is intrusive and appears in the Teotihuacán Valley possibly as the result of migrations from the southern Valley of Mexico, perhaps precipitated by the eruption of the volcano Xitli. When peoples carrying this culture entered the Teotihuacán Valley, they encountered the Tezoyuca culture and gradually absorbed it. The fusion of these two groups eventually produced Tzacualli, which is the first recognizable phase of the Teotihuacán culture.

Excavations at the Clovis site near Portales, New Mexico, in 1962 and 1963 produced much new information on the Llano complex. This work, which was done principally by the El Llano Archaeological Society (Portales, New Mexico), yielded the skeletons of four mammoths and other Pleistocene faunal remains and enlarged the tool inventory of the Llano complex. Significant ancestral ties with the Upper Paleolithic of Siberia, which have been postulated on the basis of prismatic blades and blade-tools collected from the Clovis horizon seem to be further confirmed. Further information on the size range of Clovis projectile points has been obtained from small projectile points found in the mammoth-bone bed. Analysis of lithic materials from the Clovis site reveals extensive use of Alibates flint from the Canadian River valley of Texas.

Interest in the nature of the socio-political and ceremonial life of prehistoric inhabitants in recent years has resulted in an exchange of information between archaeologists and ethnologists. This paper is an initial effort to furnish a list of the kinds of social units to be found among Southwestern groups in the ethnographic present. It is hoped that this list will stimulate further discussion, bring about greater exchange of information, and result in a better understanding of the nature of prehistoric and ethnographic socio-political and ceremonial units in the American Southwest.