Steps taken to clean copper objects from the Etowah site, and to eliminate malignant patina or “bronze disease,” are discussed. The objects are considered in terms of paraphernalia attributed to the Southern Cult. One bilobed hair emblem bears representations of figures in ceremonial dress. One of the figures may be an impersonator of the Long-Nosed God.

Among a collection of whole pottery vessels from the Huarmey valley, Peru, is one piece which is almost certainly a master or matrix for manufacturing molds for mold-made pottery. The piece probably dates in the period between Late Tiahuanaco and Inca-Chimú.

In the Department of Beni, northeastern Bolivia, there are remnants of cultivated fields, roadways, and canals that are distributed over an area of 15,000 square miles. These features are interpreted as indicating the former existence of a highly organized, populous, agrarian society that antedates the culture of the Indian tribes now in the area.

In a recent article, Stuart Struever made certain statements which deserve comment. Discussion of the possibility of pre-maize agriculture in the eastern United States appeared in print as early as 1924. Sunflower and marshelder seem to have been among the plants domesticated, but not giant ragweed. The evidence for cultivation of amaranth and chenopod needs more careful evaluation. The archaeological occurrence of unusually large seeds may be good evidence of domestication, but the occurrence of chenopod at the Pomranky and Hodges sites in Michigan does not appear to be good evidence.

It is argued that archaeology has made few contributions to the general field of anthropology with regard to explaining cultural similarities and differences. One major factor contributing to this lack is asserted to be the tendency to treat artifacts as equal and comparable traits which can be explained within a single model of culture change and modification. It is suggested that “material culture” can and does represent the structure of the total cultural system, and that explanations of differences and similarities between certain classes of material culture are inappropriate and inadequate as explanations for such observations within other classes of items. Similarly, change in the total cultural system must be viewed in an adaptive context both social and environmental, not whimsically viewed as the result of “influences,” “stimuli,” or even “migrations” between and among geographically defined units.

Three major functional sub-classes of material culture are discussed: technomic, socio-technic, and ideo-technic, as well as stylistic formal properties which cross-cut these categories. In general terms these recognized classes of materials are discussed with regard to the processes of change within each class.

Using the above distinctions in what is termed a systemic approach, the problem of the appearance and changing utilization of native copper in eastern North America is discussed. Hypotheses resulting from the application of the systemic approach are: (1) the initial appearance of native copper implements is in the context of the production of socio-technic items; (2) the increased production of socio-technic items in the late Archaic period is related to an increase in population following the shift to the exploitation of aquatic resources roughly coincident with the Nipissing high water stage of the ancestral Great Lakes; (3) this correlation is explicable in the increased selective pressures favoring material means of status communication once populations had increased to the point that personal recognition was no longer a workable basis for differential role behavior; (4) the general shift in later periods from formally “utilitarian” items to the manufacture of formally “nonutilitarian” items of copper is explicable in the postulated shift from purely egalitarian to increasingly nonegalitarian means of status attainment.

Heavy jungle growth prevented economical surveying of Aguacatal (Campeche, Mexico) and the adjacent area despite the efforts of two brief seasons in the field. Aerial photography was used to supplement and expeditiously complete the ground survey work. The operation was inexpensive and utilized readily available equipment such as the K-20 aerial camera. Super-XX, infrared, and color films were used on an experimental basis to determine which film was best suited for archaeologic purposes. All films were found to have special values: Super-XX — the best general film for gray tonal renditions of vegetal differentiation; infrared — for the delineation of wet areas and water courses; and color — for the maximum readability of color differences. Photographic interpretation proved reliable and allowed the archaeologist to extract topographic, ecologic, and archaeologica data from the photographs with little laboratory study.

An undecorated gold disk, considered to be a pectoral in an early stage of manufacture, is described. This specimen is from a stone-covered grave in the Province of Bocas del Toro and is attributed to the Chiriqui culture.

Analysis of phosphorus content of three “hearth” samples and two control samples does not support the claim that the Texas Street “hearths” are the result of man's activity. In fact, the absence of high phosphorus content of the “hearths” is considered to be strong evidence that the site was not occupied by man.

Recent work in the mountains of Honduras has disclosed four ceramic and ten preceramic sites all between altitudes of 5000 and 6500 feet. Fluted stemmed points, medium-sized scrapers, and very small side scrapers link the preceramic sites to late Paleo-Indian or early Archaic times. Stonework from the ceramic sites is typologically different. Migration routes at these altitudes are suggested.

Two points raised in a review of Indian Life in the Upper Great Lakes are discussed. The points questioned were statements about Winnebago social organization and the late glacial and early postglacial vegetation of the Upper Great Lakes. A review of the available evidence suggests that the Winnebago had an Omaha type of kinship system and that the late glacial and early post-glacial vegetation included spruce and fir or spruce and deciduous trees with coeval differences of vegetation being due to factors of soil, drainage, light, elevation, and pioneering ability instead of climate.

Swanton's original identification of Yuchi with Chisca and hence with Mouse Creek does not seem sufficient to establish a firm Mouse Creek-Yuchi relationship. Comparisons of material from the Yuchi site in Alabama with material in Tennessee may indicate a closer relationship with Dallas focus rather than with Mouse Creek.

Portions of two recently observed prehistoric wells at the Blackwater No. 1 locality in Roosevelt County, New Mexico, furnish additional data on features first described by Evans (1951). These wells were exposed by gravel-quarrying operations which have removed the last major remnant of ancient pond deposits containing artifacts of the Llano and Folsom cultures and the Portales complex. The time of well-digging occurred during an erosional interval between Beds 3a and 4; and on the basis of comparisons with the Lubbock Reservoir site, this interval is equated with the Altithermal stage of Antevs, and it is suggested that the wells were dug sometime between 4000 and 5000 years ago.

A rare ceramic form commonly called the doughnut-shape is reported for Kaminaljuyú, Guatemala, Miraflores phase. This specimen provides another example of the stucco technique on Pre-Classic pottery. A trial distribution of doughnut-shaped vessels is plotted for the Americas. Although this chart is based upon only a few published illustrations, certain deductions can be made as to the value of this form as a horizon marker. The horizontal variety of doughnut vessel may be a good marker for the Late Pre-Classic horizon in Mesoamerica.

Very little has been published to date relating to the manufacture of early buttons. This is particularly true of plain, nonmilitary buttons which lack makers' names on their backs. Enough evidence has been assembled from dated garments or excavations to warrant a description of basic button styles, particularly when these styles can be assigned dates of manufacture to aid the archaeologist in the interpretation of his sites.

That cultural units are contemporary merely means that they are assigned to the same arbitrary division of time, or period. The degree of contemporaneity which is implied when units are assigned to the same period depends upon the duration of the units and the length of the period. Correlation is the alignment of sequences of units or the placement of units with respect to sequences. Synchronic correlation, or cross-dating, involves assigning units to the same period because they are contemporary. When correlations are based on contemporaneity, detailed interpretations of the archaeological evidence are possible. Precise cross-dating permits more detailed statements about cultural process and relationship. Precise cross-dating is possible when units are assigned to periods which have brief spans in time or when reference is made to a chronological framework which is not defined in terms of the archaeological materials. Cross-dating is most credible when both the sequences of units in the different localities and the patterning of each cultural unit are known and understood.

The X-ray spectrometer method as an archaeological tool is discussed with special reference to its limitations as a chemical analytical instrument. Qualitative results are presented for six North American copper samples, one European trade brass, and nine artifacts from the Great Lakes region. From this pilot study it is concluded that the most fruitful results in the problem of the determination of provenance of copper artifacts will be obtained from semi-quantitative optical spectographic analyses of carefully collected artifacts and raw materials. The largest inherent error in this problem is that of meaningful sampling techniques. The only recourse is to treat such chemical data statistically and determine the probabilities that given specimens came from the various possible sources.

A chert point, found about 1910 on a farm near Parkman, Geauga County, Ohio, was discovered in an archaeological collection recently donated to the Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. The point exhibits all the features of the classic Sandias from New Mexico, including the single shoulder, stem and basal grinding, and basal thinning.