At the former habitation sites of aboriginal Indians considerable animal refuse must have been discarded close to their tents or houses. This material would have been largely composed of animal and bird bones, fish remains, and so on, rich in phosphorous. Accumulations of these wastes would have been left behind after abandoning the place, to slowly decay and percolate into the soil by rainwater.

In the humid regions, the visible evidence of such remains may have long since disappeared on an old campsite; however, the soil must have been enriched in phosphorus, and this enrichment might still be ascertainable by soil analysis.

A recent article (Howard 1954) has described certain occurrences of cruciform artifacts in the Sierra Occidental from the Valley of Mexico to southern Arizona. The Valley of Mexico occurrence was reported in an earlier article (Haury 1945) which illustrates one of the objects (Fig. 2 x), and describes it as a “Cross (soft calcareous stone), Cuicuilco (Arizona State Museum collection, No. 13862)” (p. 61). I presume the specimen to be one found by Cummings during his excavations at the pyramid in 1924–25. The present article reports the discovery of 4 additional stone crosses at Cuicuilco in 1942.

Once in a while in American archaeology, funds limited by an expiration date or a pressing need for information before site destruction demand carrying on field operations during winter months. When either or both emergencies occur — both did in the 1954-55 winter at historic Jamestown, in Colonial National Historical Park — certain questions arise as to what type of excavating may be efficiently carried on under adverse weather conditions. Possibly the answers gained from experience here may be of interest and value outside of the National Park Service.

Heinrich Berlin, in 1953 and 1954, conducted an archaeological survey of eastern Tabasco, Mexico, for the Department of Archaeology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (Berlin 1954: 293–5). The pottery recovered was brought to the Institution's ceramic laboratory in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, for analysis and storage. Early in 1955, while Berlin was in Mérida preparing his final report on the Tabasco survey, I had opportunity to examine the material and note the occurrence of dentate and dentate rocker stamping on a ware called Fine Gray. Berlin found Fine Gray in abundance at the sites of Jonuta and Tecolpan on the Usumacinta River associated with untempered “Z” Fine Orange and a tempered Thin Black.

Gila Polychrome pottery has been recognized since the time of the earliest archaeological work in the Southwest. Cushing, in 1887–88, recognized in the polychromes at Los Muertos and other Classic period sites of the Hohokam area the pottery type we now call Gila Polychrome. As more of the Southwest became known this type (W. and H. S. Gladwin 1930: 6) was found to be one of the most widespread, with a range extending from the Mogollon Rim on the north into northern Chihuahua and Sonora on the south and sporadically from Texas on the east through New Mexico to Gila Bend, Arizona, on the west (Haury 1945: 63).

No sooner is an archaeological monograph published than certain errors and misinterpretations become so evident that the author wishes he had an opportunity to do the whole thing over. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), this is not possible, so the next best thing is to correct the text from time to time, thus bringing it into agreement with more recent investigations. Short articles in professional journals are ideal for this purpose, as Stephan de Borhegyi demonstrated recently with a note in these pages (Borhegyi 1955: 284–6), concerning certain pottery specimens described in my Copan report (Longyear 1952). Since Borhegyi's observations incidentally involve the dating of several archaeological periods at Copan, some additional comment is obviously in order.

Burial practices are currently of considerable interest in terms of the developing patterns of Plateau culture sequences. Material documentation of prehistoric and historic burial procedure is now extensive though admittedly controversial in sequential interpretation. Suggestions as to covert behavioral responses accompanying the disposition of physical remains and attendant paraphernalia are much less satisfactory.

The authors recently had called to their attention a cache of aboriginal artifacts which suggested a funeral practice, perhaps widespread in the Plateau, but occurring supplementary to the archaeo-ethnically recognized forms of burial.

There has recently been increased attention paid to the nature of the settlement pattern of Classic Maya civilization. It now seems likely that Classic Maya “cities“ were not secular, urban communities in which large numbers of people were grouped together in close proximity. On the other hand, if these were merely ceremonial centers in which the populace gathered for certain rituals, then the political and religious organization of these centers, and the actual socio-political structure of the entire Maya area, are as yet undetermined.

In December of 1954, Mr. and Mrs. Ruben Emrick of Conrad, Montana, found a broken sandstone object in an arroyo cut located 30 miles north of the town of Empalme near Ortiz in Sonora, Mexico (Fig. 1). They very graciously brought the artifact to the Amerind Museum for examination where it was repaired and studied. The object resembled the tubular stone pipes found in the Southwest (Figs. 2, 3). It had the exterior and inner proportions so characteristic of these pipes, which were produced by drilling out the pipe interior until it resembled a modern venturi tube having a constricted throat.

The problem of the technique whereby the Maya, Aztec, and other peoples accomplished the cutting of wood in the vast quantities needed for construction, and particularly for lime burning has long been a matter of speculation (Morris, Chariot, and Morris 1931). Wood cutting might have required comparatively little effort if metal tools had'been available, but this was apparently not the case.

Certain published designs from Walls-Pecan Point phase pottery are strikingly in the tradition of the socalled “Death Cult” of the Southeastern United States. Particular reference is made to 2 Walls Engraved bottles, illustrated by Phillips, Ford, and Griffin (1951, Fig. I ll g) and by Calvin Brown (1926, Fig. 278). The first of these, showing a winged serpent almost identical to those of Moundville, is at the University of Arkansas. The second, depicting skulls, long bones, and hands with oval markings at the, palms, is at the University of Mississippi.

In The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise of Charles Babbage, an English mathematician who lived over 100 years ago, is contained an appendix entitled “On the Age of Strata, as Inferred from the Rings of Trees Embedded in Them.“ The account is of particular interest since it defines the method of deriving chronology from treerings, and Babbage actually envisages the possibility of employing the method to secure archaeological dating.

As far as can be learned from a study of the scientific contributions of Yoder (1950), Foshag (1945), and others who have dealt with the jade-jadeite problem, it appears that, although the presence of one or the other mineral has been reported from a considerable list of widely separated localities in both the Old and the New World, the exact conditions leading to their development have been subject to controversy, partly because occurrence in situ is extremely rare. The passing references to places from which the Mayans secured their supplies of raw material are in general vague, based on hearsay or traditional accounts, combined with inferences relating to the abundant artifacts unearthed at classical sites.

While engaged in recent ethnological field work in the San Miguel Valley of northeastern Sonora, I had occasion to observe a potter at work. This area, in aboriginal times, was inhabited by the Opata Indian tribe. Today it is predominantly mestizo racially, and culturally is a blend of aboriginal, early Spanish, and Mexican traits. I was assured by many people that the potter, who is extremely Indian in appearance, was “pura indigina.”

In San Diego County clay figurines occur sporadically throughout most of the intermediate valleys, inland valleys, and mountain regions, and although of rather wide areal distribution they seem to be numerically rare. In addition to those described in this report, specimens are known to be in the possession of the Museum of Man, San Diego, and the Cuyumaca State Park Museum. A probable fragment was found by B. F. McCown in the excavations at Temecula. Other finds are occasionally reported but have not been documented or described.

As part of the Gallina project in north central New Mexico, which has been carried on by the University of New Mexico since 1934 under the direction of Frank C. Hibben, a pit house site was excavated in the summer of 1950. Excavations were accomplished with the able assistance of Emily Gray and 4 local workmen. The author was in charge of the field work. This site was selected because the pit house had been the least investigated of Gallina architectural types, and also because it was in the as yet unworked southwestern periphery of the Gallina complex. Furthermore, surface indications showed this particular site to be a Gallina pit house of unusual size.

In the recent discussion of finds of paleo-Indian type at El Jobo, Venezuela, comparisons were made with other material in the Caribbean region and in North America (Cruxent and Rouse 1956). Turning in the opposite direction, to the rest of South America, we find that the El Jobo projectile points show a rather marked resemblance to those of the Ayampitín site in central Argentina, if we may judge from the drawings published by Rex González (1952, Pl. 13). The Ayampitín points, like those of El Jobo, are predominantly leaf shaped, but with a minority of stemmed forms. The two are relatively crudely rechipped on both surfaces, finely retouched along the edges, and in some cases serrated. The Ayampitín points are of quartz; the El Jobo specimens, of quartzite.