Early in the 1930's Gladwin applied the phase concept to Southwestern material. The operational basis of this method of ordering cultural units in time and space was subsequently expanded through Gila Pueblo's research, especially in the Mogollon and Hohokam culture areas. The phase was the minimum unit in the dendritic system of cultural taxonomy which Gladwin developed. Other students whose research has mainly been centered south of the Mogollon rim have refined the definition of the concept, added to its applications, and stripped it of some of its earlier taxonomic connotations. Sophisticated survey, metric stratigraphy, the development of regional sequences, and the refinement of method in general in the Southwest have paralleled the usefulness of the concept. The Southwestern usage of phase is compared with the derivative concept presented by Willey and Phillips and with the several methods of phase correlations discussed by Rouse.

To introduce papers presented at a celebration of the 25th annual meeting of The Society for American Archaeology the development of New World archaeology is very broadly and briefly summarized. Expanding knowledge of culture areas and taxonomic systems is traced. The development of salvage archaeology in reservoir areas, along roads and oil pipelines is mentioned. There is an account of the development of various types of relative chronologies in the several areas and comment upon the significance of the introduction of radiocarbon dates. Special mention is made of the possible solution of the question of correlating Mayan and Julian calendars.

The common assumption that Maya stelae record contemporaneity of carving, style, erection, and calendar date is challenged by evidence that shows instances in which (1) stylistic inconsistencies have been caused by alterations of a monument during different periods of time; (2) the latest recorded glyphic date is not the date of erection but rather the date of the latest completed alteration of the monument; (3) the practice of recarving and the associated innovations served as determinants of change in stylistic development. Physical evidence of the removal of carved elements and recarving is reviewed for carved wooden lintels at Tikal and stelae at Xultún, Yaxchilán, Uaxactún, Quiriguá Tikal, Naranjo, Piedras Negras, and Copán. Details of substela chambers, the placement of caches, the presence of multiple floors, and the condition of stela bases at Copán, Quiriguá, and Uaxactún indicate that stelae were raised in position as well as recarved. It is suggested that the period of the original erection of a monument is most closely related to the earliest date present, while the latest date present refers only to the latest completed alteration of the monument.

Archaeological activities in the North American Arctic are reviewed in terms of the sequences and cultures which have been identified in three major culture areas: the coastal zone from St. Lawrence Island to eastern Greenland, the central area around Hudson Bay with extensions to northern Greenland and Newfoundland, and southwestern Alaska including the Aleutian Islands. Three broad culture horizons are suggested for organizing the data for the first two of these areas. The earliest horizon which cannot be surely identified as either Pre-Eskimo or Proto-Eskimo is tentatively called the Denbigh Flint horizon. It is characterized by fine chipping, micro-cores, micro-blades, burins, and the absence of pottery. These traits occur in the Denbigh Flint and New Mountain complexes and in other assemblages perhaps as far east as the Sarqaq of Greenland. The second or Paleo-Eskimo horizon which also emphasized fine chipping is found in two forms, one with pottery, such as the Choris, Norton, Near Ipiutak, and related cultures in northwestern Canada, and the other without pottery represented by Ipiutak and Dorset. The latest or Neo-Eskimo horizon is the northern maritime tradition of the Okvik to Inugsuk range of cultures. Other approaches to the interpretation of northern archaeology are summarized.

Excavations at Site PV62-63 (Cerrillos) uncovered a refuse accumulation several meters deep with two major stratigraphic units, the earlier termed the Cerrillos phase, the later termed the Isla phase. Cerrillos ceramics are of a style new to the Ica sequence and the earliest known in the valley; they represent an early development in the Paracas style, but also share various specific traits with Chavinoid ceramic styles in other areas. Ceramics of the Isla phase represent a local development out of Cerrillos but with many of the Chavinoid traits lacking. The Isla ceramic style had been previously recognized as the earliest known Paracas phase, although no refuse excavations had been made. Isla refuse is associated with a series of superimposed adobe structures, representing terraced habitations arranged in a complex apartment-house-like dwelling unit. The refuse of both stratigraphic units indicates very heavy dependence on agricultural produce, beans and a primitive type of maize being the staples. Various other artifact types were recovered, the Cerrillos textiles also showing similarities with early techniques in other areas.

Sequences of preceramic cultures or well-defined artifact assemblages are now known for the Ecuadorian highlands, the central and southern highlands of Peru, the entire coast of Peru, western and southwestern Bolivia, northern Chile, highland Argentina, Patagonia, and Tierra del Fuego. The known lithic industries of the area can be organized into a scheme of five periods, based on the long sequence at Lauricocha in the central Peruvian highlands and defined by the occurrence of widely diffused artifact types. Periods I and II, estimated at 10,000-8000 B.C. and 8000-6000 B.C., are known only from scattered finds of hunting camps. The earliest evidence of seed-grinding tools and field-stone house foundations is found in central Argentina and north Chile during Period III, 6000-3000 B.C. While nomadic hunters continued to occupy the southern part of the continent until historic times, agriculture was well established in Peru during Period IV (3000-1200 B.C.). Period V, from 1200 B.C. until the extinction of the stone-using Indians of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego in the 20th century, saw the introduction of ceramics to Peru and the southward spread of agriculture, pottery-making, and related activities to Chile and Argentina.

Stratigraphic evidence and radiocarbon dates make possible the extension of the distinctive Archaic-to-Early-Woodland cultural sequence, which has been established in Pennsylvania and the Hudson Valley, to the coastal regions bordering on the Long Island Sound. Stone vessels and associated spearpoint forms are recognized as characterizing a period which succeeded the Lamokan-Laurentian level and slightly antedated the first manifestations of the Early Woodland period, in which cord-marked Vinette 1 pottery was introduced from another source. It is demonstrated that the Orient Point burials on eastern Long Island were constructed mainly during this Transitional period and not, as it has been asserted, during the succeeding Early Woodland period.

A long-term program of intensive excavation and study at the major lowland Maya center of Tikal is described in terms of procedure and results achieved to date. Work has centered on the principal ceremonial area of the site as well as on potential domestic areas. Considerable evidence of Postclassic activity has been encountered throughout a substantial portion of the site in the forms of disturbance of monuments positioned during the Classic, of “abnormal” re-use of monuments, both whole and fragmentary, of excavation for cached offerings and tombs, and of minor constructions for ceremonial purposes that were made probably of “robbed” masonry. The evidence is cited for Tikal having been a sort of pilgrimage center in probably still later times. A theme of “monument obsolescence” throughout much of Classic times is developed to account for the plentiful evidence of shattered, abandoned monuments of those times. Significant new monuments are discussed as to the contributions of their hieroglyphic texts while monuments are dealt with in general as to their changes in time, associations, and positional standards. Important patterns in burial and cache contents are handled as outstanding elements of Classic ceremonialism. The evidence of strong contact with Teotihuacán in late Early Classic times is discussed and in part illustrated. The scope and objectives of the excavations among ceremonial remains are contrasted with those carried out in contexts believed to be domestic. The difficulty of demonstrating residence is emphasized along with the problem of how to deal realistically with “settlement pattern” at a massive, culturally complex site like Tikal. Various other practical questions are cited which relate to the ambiguity of extant terms and concepts as they apply to the Maya area and to Tikal specifically.

Comparative study of both pottery and stone implements indicates that Mongolia, Manchuria, and eastern Siberia constitute a Siberian-Mongolian culture area of great antiquity. During the Neolithic this area was characterized by a small-tool tradition distinct from the microlithic tradition of the west, and unlike the tool-making developments of the Yang-shao and Lung-shan farmers to the south. The so-called “microlithic” character of the Siberian Neolithic is not demonstrated by archaeological collections from the area, and is demonstrated to be the historic result of early terminological confusions that have been perpetuated in the literature. A. A. Formozov's claims for a Eurasian steppe culture characterized by a microlithic tradition distinct from both the southern farmers and the forest culture of the taiga are rejected.

Although the archaeology of the “Eskimo” area need not be that of Eskimos, groups of people, by whatever name they are called, have lived continuously for at least 4000 years in Greenland, around the northern rim of Hudson Bay, on the American side of Bering Strait, and probably around the Pacific shores of Southwest Alaska. Shorter sequences of continuous occupation are known in many parts of the range, including St. Lawrence Island. Meaningful cross-analyses may be made from the coastal or near-coastal sites in which are preserved house, tent, burial, and cache remains, and sometimes whole villages. Sites of the interior are usually accumulations of projectile points and cutting-tools at game crossings, though some, for example, Firth River, Anaktuvuk Pass, and Dismal Lake, afford limited stratigraphy or means of seriation.

A sequence of cultural phases, perhaps those of two regional traditions, is emerging in the Bering Strait region. With this region as a focus, nine horizons are considered, beginning with the earliest: (1) Palisades I and British Mountain; (2) Palisades II, Tuktu, and Denali Highway; (3) Denbigh Flint complex and other microblade sites; (4) Old Whaling culture; (5) Choris, Early Aleut, Kachemak Bay I, and Sarqaq; (6) Norton and Dorset; (7) Okvik, Ipiutak, and Kachemak Bay II; (8) Old Bering Sea and Birnirk; (9) Punuk, Western Thule, and Thule. The two traditions are: (1) Palisades I, Palisades II, to Old Whaling culture, based on a distinctive flint-working technique, and later, the hafting of notched flints to wooden shafts; (2) Denbigh Flint complex, Battle Rock, Ipiutak, to Birnirk, based on side blading and engraving styles. The second of these American traditions parallels in its later period at least the Okvik to Birnirk tradition of the Asian side of the Bering Strait.

The earliest evidence consists of crude chopper-tools and percussion bifacing, followed much later by notched points, then successively by the combination of micro-blades, side-blades, and burins; whaling and deep-house building; pottery and the first midden mounds; elaboration of engraved art and ceremony; and finally by a specialized but utilitarian “Eskimo” form of culture. Minor climatic changes and related shifts in the food supply account for some of the shifts of cultural emphasis through time.

Archaeological research in the Eastern United States is reviewed from the period of large-scale excavations sponsored by federal relief agencies to the present period of trend toward interdisciplinary approaches. An early interest was the identification of the archaeological ancestors of historically and ethnographically known tribes. The need for objective and descriptive classifications led to the development of the McKern or Midwestern Taxonomic Method. Recent developments include the use of functional and evolutionary concepts experimentation with statistics to validate analytical and classificatory techniques, discovery of stratigraphic evidence and the perfection of seriational techniques, emphasis on the value of geological and biological data and the combination of these with archaeological information to produce an ecological approach, and attempts at broad culture-historical synthesis. The introduction of radiocarbon dating, which exposed the extremely conservative time estimates of Eastern archaeologists by greatly lengthening the chronologies, is seen as the major contribution of the past 25 years.

This paper attempts to establish the rules governing the recognition of names in the Maya script, particularly with regard to their glyphic context. These rules are applied to the Quiriguá inscriptions; glyph clauses pertaining to three rulers are established with some probability and two others are suggested more doubtfully. The founder of the Quiriguá dynasty was apparently related to an identified ruler at Copán, and it is shown that at least one and probably two later rulers at Copán share some names and titles with the Quiriguá rulers. It is suggested that the family name of the rulers of Copán and Quiriguá was caan, sky.

Four types of error are commonly associated with the basic problem of the time relationship that exists between the date of a tree-ring specimen and the archaeological manifestation being dated. These errors may sometimes be discovered and amended by using the clustering of dates and the clustering of archaeological traits. A secondary problem arises when lost exterior rings produce non-cutting dates in contrast to cutting dates. Tree-ring data may also be employed in deriving information of a non-chronological nature.

This prehistoric Pueblo III community consists of 14 sites with evidence of efforts to control water and soil on or near the delta formed by Beaver Creek, an intermittent tributary of the San Juan which flows through Cha Canyon draining a watershed of about 16 square miles on the northern slopes of Navajo Mountain. The small house units, kivas, terraces, linear and grid borders, ditches, windscreens, and possible cisterns or walled-in springs were built by Anasazi people of Kayenta affiliation from the adjacent Rainbow Plateau who occupied the canyon lands probably seasonally during the 12th century. The terraces and linear and grid borders are comparable to those found at Point of Pines in east-central Arizona. The stone-lined ditches span sandy surfaces between the steep gravel slopes and the arable alluvial sediments transporting water to areas which could not be farmed without irrigation. Notched stones set at right angles to the ditches served to keep the water in the ditches at grade so that it could be diverted through tapered-stone turn-out gates to terraced and stone-bordered fields. Rows of rock built on high ground and counter to prevailing winds deflected the wind, stopped blowing sand, protected soil moisture, and reduced sand-blasting of plants. This apparently successful use of the canyon lands which was based on careful exploitation of local ecological conditions lasted about 100 years. It was terminated by increasingly dry conditions which lowered the level of the San Juan and caused tributaries such as Beaver Creek to cut the alluvial sediments used for farming. About 1900 Paiute and Navajo groups moved into the area, using it for some farming during the 1930's, but currently only for forage and water.

A review of archaeological research in the short-grass Plains and adjacent Prairie regions shows that although early travelers observed evidences of the prehistoric occupation of the area, no systematic archaeological work was undertaken until very recently. The publication of Strong's Introduction to Nebraska Archeology in 1935 opened the quarter-century of growth which was at first characterized by intensive surveys and testing, then by the excavations sponsored by the federal relief agencies, and since World War II by the large-scale salvage work connected with federal water-control programs, especially the Missouri Basin Project. These salvage operations have produced an enormous body of new data on all major time horizons and from all parts of the Plains, as well as an awareness of the rich potential of Plains pre-history. The scope of these operations has required a high degree of cooperation between research organizations and has led to the development of new excavation techniques, especially those involving heavy earth-moving machinery. Efforts to organize these new data have resulted in a uniform method of site designation and broadly applicable artifact classifications, but no scheme for culture classification to replace the Midwestern Taxonomic System which has been the conventional method of expressing cultural similarities. The direct historical approach to the problem of the ethnic identification of archaeological complexes, settlement pattern studies, and the relationship between man and environment, which have long been major interests of Plains archaeologists, continue to dominate the interpretive scene.

This early Pueblo III site in the Little Rincon of the Colorado River, about 17 river miles downstream from Hite, Utah, is the first site with an irrigation system of any kind to be noted in the upper Glen Canyon. It is most closely linked to the Kayenta branch of the Anasazi culture. It is unusual because of its distance from any center of cultural development and because of the complexity of the irrigation system. This system consists of a large masonry reservoir filled by an internal spring and drained by a metering gate and a slab-lined tunnel into a canal or ditch which was traced for 30 feet. Two possible gates were noted on the downslope side of the canal. Many notched slabs, which were possibly used as canal gates, were located in the reservoir area, but were not definitely associated with other features. Only two dwellings were located. Post-occupational erosion has changed surface contours and erased the possible connection between the reservoir and canal and the fields. The water supply is probably more limited now than at the time of occupation.

Four north coast Peruvian stirrup-spout jars of the middle Moche period show every indication of having been cast from a single mold. Heretofore no more than two actual duplicates from one mold have been described for pre-Columbian north coast pottery. This mold-made product varies from cast to cast in spout form, hue, paint distribution, polish, general surface texture, quality of mold-impressed lines, diameter measurements, and sharpness of relief. A second series of four similar Moche jars which were not from the same mold indicates that duplicates cannot be posivitely identified without careful firsthand examination of the specimens.