The large flint blade (Fig. 45) was found several years ago by A. C. Smith, who lives on West Sugar Loaf Creek near Lead Hill, Arkansas. He found the specimen near a small shelter entrance on the stream in association with three others of the same size and type. However, the others have been given away and their whereabouts are unknown. Artifacts found in the same general area are all of the stemmed and barbed projectile point variety commonly associated with the Woodland Pattern.

For some time I have been trying to find a meaning to certain rock-cut basins on Saint Lucia in the British West Indies. One series, numbering 35 small basins, is situated at Micoud on the southeast coast (Fig. 76). This series is in a straight line at the edge of a bay; in fact, it ends right in the sea. An attempt to photograph it failed. There is a second series about a mile to the south, not far from the sea, on the top of a rocky elevation above a stream, (Fig. 76). Here again, I have not yet been able to get photographs. The third series is also on the east, or windward, coast at a place called Dauphin. The following is a brief account of my findings at this place.

A number of archaeological sites, particularly in the northwestern part of the continent, have yielded smooth ovoid stones which look suitable in every way for use as hammerstones, but which show no signs of having been used. In excavating a site it is a common experience to come across one of these, thinking one has found an actual hammerstone, only to discover, after it has been washed, that it is merely an ovoid cobblestone. Yet it is quite clear that the stone is part of the archaeological series and not merely a stone lying in situ. So frequent are these in some sites that students on the dig have adopted the habit of calling them “unused” hammerstones.

The grounds of the shrine dedicated to three of the canonized North American Martyrs, in the township of Auriesville, N.Y., have long been believed to embrace the site of the Mohawk town of Ossernenon. The two reasons for such an opinion have been principally: the topography, and the surface finds. To this evidence may be added the sundry post-contact Indian graves found nearby. In order to locate and study the town accurately, excavations were made on the shrine grounds, during the summer of 1952, under the direction of the writer.

The site is situated on a terrace, some 400 feet above sea level, on the south side of the Mohawk River, 40 miles up the river from its confluence with the Hudson, and a mile upstream from the juncture of the Schoharie River with the Mohawk. The area is represented on the' Fonda Quadrangle of the U.S. Geological Survey maps, and on the map accompanying the monograph of Brigham (1929, p. 60), who calls this terrace the Schoharie Wash Plain, and identifies it to be a lacustrine formation dating from the closing phase of the last glaciation.

In a recently published book, “The North American Buffalo. A Critical Study of the Species in its Wild State,” the author, Frank G. Roe, has undertaken an extensive study of the buffalo of North America–including its habitat and historical chronology. Mr. Roe must be complimented on the infinite amount of labor he has put into this very useful treatment of the American buffalo, and for the service he has rendered the numerous archaeologists who will find his study of prime importance when undertaking work in areas within the recent range of these large animals.

Figure 137 shows an unusual form of the so-called filfot cross, a favorite design motif on early and late Mississippi stamped pottery of the southern United States. Although several forms of the “filfot” design have been illustrated by Holmes, Heye, Hodge, and Pepper, Caldwell and McCann, and others, I have never seen this particular variant before, nor one to equal it in ingenuity. It is a minor masterpiece of native American complicated design.

I have reconstructed the motif from two badly overstamped potsherds from a cache of two Lamar vessels exposed when a cedar stump was dug from the southwest slope of a watermelon patch (in 1939) on the Castelberry farm overlooking bottomlands of the left or northeast bank of Chestatee River, Hall County, northern Georgia. Although I could find no surface evidence of a village site in the vicinity, the cache itself has been given the designation 2-HL.

The partial dog skeleton comes from site SJo-68 (formerly C68) near Thornton, California. The remains consist of the cranium and mandible, the atlas and several cervicals, pelves, tail vertebrae, and two femora. These parts lay in anatomical articulation so that we may assume that the partly dismembered skeleton, still bound by integument, was buried. The archaeology of the site as known in 1948 has been published. (Heizer, 1949, p. 7.) The dog remains lay at a depth of thirtyfour inches from the surface, solidly imbedded in calcareous hardpan, and in proximity to human burials. Indeed, the whole deposit was heavily charged with human skeletons, and it is reasonable to assume that the dog had been intentionally buried. Animal burials are not uncommon in later culture horizons in the same area (Heizer and Hewes, 1940).

The Mangum Plate consists of three fragments of elaborately embossed copper sheeting formed of separate parts overlapped and hammered together and riveted where necessary. The pieces were found in 1936 by Spurgeon C. Mangum on a knoll situated on his farm 5 miles northeast of Port Gibson, Mississippi, 1 mile south of Bayou Pierre (R 3E, Tn 12N, S 28). The site has since been acquired by the State of Mississippi for the National Park Service for development as a feature of archaeological interest along the Natchez Trace Parkway.

In the Lillard Collection primarily comprising archaeological materials from California now permanently housed in the University of California Museum of Anthropology, is a prehistoric artifact from Oregon which deserves special mention.

The specimen (Fig. 48) which is broken now measures 8.1 cm. in length, 3.7 cm. in width and 8 cm. in thickness. In cross section it is slightly curved from the natural contour of the original material. The inner convexity bears traces of the interior spongy or cancellous material of the antler.

Archaeological specimens from the United States, now in European museums, are generally unavailable to American scholars. The writer, while resident in England during 1950 and 1951, made a consistent attempt to view and describe American archaeological material which was unique in his experience. A few of the notes collected at the British Museum are presented below.

The specific specimens discussed here are from the region of Avila, San Luis Obispo County, California, a coastal area lying about 140 miles north-west of Los Angeles, 180 miles south-east of San Francisco, and 18 miles north of the Point Sal area described by Carter (1941).

Has the time arrived when we can set up another horizon marker in the archaeology of western United States? An examination of the literature reveals that a projectile point which we will call the Stemmed, Indented Base Point may be so considered. This short note contains a compilation of but some of the references to this type of point in western United States and is written in hopes of stimulating comments and additional information. No attempt has been made to present an exhaustive distributional study of this artifact, but the accompanying chart lists some of its reported occurrences in order to point out its wide geographical spread as well as its estimated age and various terms by which it is known.

This petroglyph (Fig. 138) was found about ninety years ago in Douglas County, Ga., on a hill on the north banks of Sweetwater Creek, not far from where this creek empties into the Chattahoochee River.

The petroglyph is quite different from any of the other known Georgia petroglyphs. The peculiar shape of the stone and the distinctive type of its markings make it one of the most interesting and rare examples of stone carvings in Georgia. The apparently purposely cut deep notch in the bottom of the stone is most puzzling and poses the problem of whether the stone might have been made to be placed upon a cross beam or a ridge pole.

Immediately after the exploration of the Santa Isabel Iztapan mammoth site in the Valley of Mexico had been completed (see pp. 332-40) the recently created Direccion de Prehistoria of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia of Mexico undertook further reconnaissance in the reservoir basin of Falcon Dam on the Rio Grande. Work was concentrated on the Mexican side, where Aveleyra (1951) had located nine sites with abundant lithic materials.

The site of Cedefio is on the south bank of the Orinoco River, approximately 1 km. northeast of the boat landing area of the town of Caicara. The Orinoco at Cedeño is marked by a series of boulders that reach, from the south bank, 100 meters or more into the river. These are uncovered during the summer (dry season) and contain petroglyphs in the form of spirals, mazes and other figures. The river at this point is marked by vertical banks 3-5 meters high. The top of the vertical bank represents the usual high-water mark of the Orinoco; beyond this bank is a more or less level stretch of mixed fields and woodland. The river banks extend in two stages to a sloping river beach. As the water level of the Orinoco varies 10 meters or more between wet and dry season, this beach is above water for a considerable distance during dry weather.

J. Alden Mason (1951) described two soapstone figurines which seemed to be of Chinese manufacture that have turned up in Mexico and Guatemala, respectively. In connection with these, I should like to call attention to still another object of the same substance, discovered in Yucatan, which is undoubtedly of Chinese manufacture.

Gann (1918) illustrates a “soapstone lamp” which he had found in a mound near Bacalar in Quintana Roo. He describes this “lamp” as decorated in front with a floral design and at the back by wing or feather-like ornaments possibly meant to represent the tail and halffolded wings of a bird, and remarks that its pleasing design and flowing lines are totally unlike the cramped and highly conventional style found in “similar small objects of ancient Maya manufacture.”

Campbell and Ellis in their article on the Rio Grande Atrisco Sites (American Antiquity Vol. 17, No. 3, 1952) say: “Perhaps the most interesting characteristic of the type (5 out of 8 specimens) is its tendency to show a definite rifling or beveling which would presumably insure its whirling in flight.” This is an amazing statement to find in a serious report made by two competent modern archaeologists.

Beveling the edges of points is a very ancient trait. Fluted points have been found with beveled edges. However the reason for this beveling was not to insure the spinning of the shaft in flight; beveling is not productive of that effect. In fact, aerodynamically, there is not enough force generated against the surface of these bevels on any point small enough to serve as an arrow or atlatl dart tip, to spin the shaft. Spinning is achieved by the set of the feathering, but we know of no use of unfeathered arrows on this continent. Even the early atlatl darts seem to have been feathered at the nock end.

Completion of the analysis of the artifacts from Chaluka, the old village site at Nikolski, Umnak Island, has brought to light a number of new observations on the Aleutian core and blade industry, orginally described in American Antiquity, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 52-54. The use of lamellar flakes is part of the earliest Aleut culture and most of the flakes, four fifths, are found below the three meter level. This earliest Aleut culture was introduced by the paleo-Aleut people.

These flakes were used mainly for scrapers and retouched on only one surface and along one or both edges. Quite a few of these are tanged, apparently for end-hafting. A number have well-worked points which, together with their general form, suggests their use as gravers. There are also two adze blades, two knives and at least one projectile point which appears to have been made from lamellar flakes.

Under the direction of J. Charles Kelley of Southern Illinois University, an anthropological field school carried out investigations in the State of Durango, Mexico, from June 22 to August 8, 1952, with the permission of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia.

Their camp was established on the rancho “Santa Barbara,” property of Fred Weicker, about 50 kms. west of Durango city, in the Sierra Madre Occidental. The camp was on the side of an arroyo, a branch of the Rio Mimbres, which after joining the Rio Chico, flows into the Rio Tunal. This becomes the Mesquital-San Pedro and flows into the Pacific through the State of Nayarit. The camp was approximately 2280 m. above sea level, near archaeological remains consisting of house-mounds, ceramics, and obsidian artifacts.