An understanding of the mechanics involved in flake formation provides an opportunity for deriving more behavioral information from flake and flake scar morphology. The mechanics of flake formation are directly relevant to the identification of prehistoric flaking techniques and stone tool use. In this paper we provide a model of flake formation that accounts for much of the variation in flake morphology. Flakes can form in a number of ways and despite popular belief they are not all of the conchoidal variety. The bending flake is common in use wear though it is often misidentified as a conchoidal flake. A third major type of flake, the compression flake, is a common product of bipolar impact. To account for the wide variation in flake morphology we follow a tripartite scheme of flake formation comprising initiation, propagation, and termination phases, within which different mechanisms can operate.

The extensive use of native copper by historic Copper Inuit has been felt to be a fairly recent development, inspired in one way or another by indirect European contact. This conclusion seems to be based on the comparison of ethnographic historic collections and archaeological prehistoric ones. However, an examination of archaeological collections dating from the historic period suggests that copper and other metals are much less frequent in archaeological samples than in functioning, ethnographically-described assemblages. The difference appears to be due to curation, which in turn is a product of the high value and durability of metal. Archaeological collections from the prehistoric Thule culture in the area show a frequency of copper tools that is actually higher than the frequency of all metals at late nineteenth-century sites. This study illustrates some of the difficulties inherent in uncritical use of ethnographic data to solve archaeological problems.

Carneiro (1970) asserts that social and environmental "circumscription" were primary stimuli for the emergence of the archaic state. He presents the environment as an essentially fixed set of natural conditions which impose constraints upon society. However, paleoenvironmental research and contemporary experience indicate that desertification, deforestation, salinization, and other salient environmental conditions confronting early states were neither fixed nor natural, but apparently dynamic products of direct human ecological intervention. This paper reviews evidence from southern Mesopotamia and suggests that Carneiro's thesis be amended to include changing patterns of "artificial" circumscription brought about by anthropogenic environmental destruction.

The New York Iroquois were horticulturists characterized by a relatively low population density, perhaps not unlike other early farming populations. Using ethnohistorical information, I suggest factors that negatively affected both critical resources and Iroquois fertility. The relation of Iroquois warfare to population density is also explored.

Nation states, or partisans thereof, control and allocate symbolic resources as one means of legitimizing power and authority, and in pursuit of their perceived nationalistic goals and ideologies. A major symbolic resource is the past. In this paper I review three cases in which the past and, in particular, relevant archaeological resources were "used" for such purposes, and I refer to several other well-known instances. The three cases discussed are Mexico from ca. A.D. 900 to the present, Britain from ca. A.D. 1500 to the present, and the People’s Republic of China since 1949. The implications of such uses in relation to archaeological theories and interpretations are discussed.

Probability sampling, controlled surface collecting, and explicit research designs are standard working procedures for a large portion of the archaeological profession. The need for adopting these approaches and their utility in the field have been persuasively argued in the literature for 20 years. Despite their agreed-upon utility, these approaches are often poorly understood. Field strategies of four projects and their rationales are presented to provide examples of specific approaches that have had positive results. Based on these case studies and a review of the literature, I propose six basic principles as guides to the formulation of future field strategies. The researcher must define interpretive objectives, specify minimal data requirements, understand the problems of data recognition, structure the flow of research and evaluation, choose appropriate tools for each stage of research, and maintain cost effectiveness.

Ceramic vessels with goblet-like stems have been identified in late sixteenth and early seventeenth century Iroquoian sites in southern Ontario. Material and technology indicate local origin for these wares. It is suggested that they were modeled on the French Catholic chalice and used by the Iroquoians for magical or healing rituals. This constitutes a rare example of European-Indian religious syncretism demonstrable in the archaeological record.

The Early Central California assemblage was described on the basis of four sites in the delta region of California's central valley. The original reports interpret the sites as residential villages with associated cemeteries. In this discussion I argue that the evidence for residential occupation is very weak and that the sites are specialized mortuary mounds. The implications for California archaeology are discussed.

A recent archaeological survey was conducted of a highland Peruvian valley in order to evaluate the effect on a local culture of the expansion of empires. The strategy employed in the consolidation of a region under an imperial administrative structure is the result of two general factors: the needs of the empire, and the level of extant local political organization. Evidence of Wari and Inka imperial facilities in the Carahuarazo Valley is interpreted in light of changes in the local culture during each occupation to provide a more complete picture of this process. A relatively greater Wari presence and lesser Inka presence are interpreted as the result of differing administrative needs on the part of the respective empires, as well as differing local systems at the time of each conquest. Similarities in goods and services extracted by each empire serve to indicate that although imperial strategies differed, the end result of consolidation of the area into each empire was roughly similar.

Although behavioralists who deal with plow zone sites have a need to discriminate between cultural and non-cultural effects on artifact distributions, relatively little is known about the influences of agricultural equipment. A series of experiments was conducted to answer questions concerning the parameters of recovery, lateral artifact displacement, spatial patterning, duration of tillage, and the effects of tillage patterning. Results indicate an average recovery rate of 5-6 percent; support for the "size effect"; relatively constant recovery of small and large pieces; dominant displacement in the direction of plowing; lack of relationship between displacement and artifact size; basically random distribution of objects; and possible spurious clustering, depending upon the analytical methods employed.

I examine the problems and potentials of correlating diachronic archaeological and ethnohistorical data through the case of the Aztec (Triple Alliance) conquest of western Morelos, Mexico. To date, nearly all of our knowledge of the Triple Alliance empire is derived from ethnohistorical sources with little contribution from archaeological data. Two methodological problems account for this disparity. First, current archaeological chronologies for Postclassic central Mexico are not precise enough to document the structure and growth of this relatively short-lived empire. Second, the issue of diachronic correlation of archaeological data with the native historical record has not been approached with a consistent methodology. I address these problems, demonstrating that Postclassic chronologies can be refined when the appropriate methods (in this case, nontypological ceramic analysis and quantitative seriation) are applied. The resulting chronological sequence for western Morelos is correlated with the diachronic native historical record for the area. Because of these procedures, the archaeological record can for the first time make a significant contribution to the study of the Triple Alliance empire.

Analysis of Middle Woodland paleoethnobotanical assemblages from south-central Tennessee yielded evidence of variation and change in human and plant niche expression. A coevolutionary framework for understanding the mutually effective relations between human behavior and plant ecology and genetics is applied in an effort to explain why the Middle Woodland paleoethnobotanical record is expressed as it is. Focus upon a limited suite of taxa associated with secondary succession, cultivation, and domestication make clear the need to understand the ecology and morphology of taxa being considered, as well as the occupational history of the sites in question.

While investigating the archaeological background of early maize on the coast of Peru, I realized that several factors affect interpretation. The estimated date for the start of common use of maize there is close to the apparent dates of a large tsunami, the abandonment of many coastal sites, and the start of occupation at Chavin de Huantar in the highlands. While investigating the possible relations between the principal pre-tsunami coastal culture and Chavin, I discovered that depictions of a monstrous head link the two cultures. Dating of first millennium B.C. materials is complicated by changes in the atmospheric 14C level, so iconographic, stylistic, and material linkages are even more important in thinking about cultural development in this period. Inconsistencies between older inferences and newer observations can be resolved by a new model.

The degree of development of specialist positions associated with large-scale construction at the Maya site of Copan, Honduras, is evaluated. The methodology used involves the quantification of energy, in human labor, which was expended in the construction of Str. 10L-22, a major palace in the Main Center of Copan. The results suggest that few specialists were required, and that the vast majority of construction personnel were unspecialized conscripts. Moreover, the absolute energetic investment was low, suggesting that energetic expenditures in largescale architecture could not have been a major source of stress on the Late Classic Maya socioeconomic system.

Tarascan metallurgy was not only a complex technology, but a significant marker of elite social status and a major source of wealth for the ruling dynasty. Reanalysis of ethnohistoric material, when coupled with new cartographic and archaeological data, provides insight into the structure and role of copper, silver, and gold production in the Protohistoric Tarascan State. The increasing political centralization of the Tarascan State in the last century before European contact resulted in the emergence of new forms of exploitation of mineral resources, tempered by the technological and transport constraints of a prehispanic civilization.

Radiocarbon dates can provide an effective overview of regional trends in non-complex societies when treated in a quantitative manner. In spite of intervening biases, numbers of radiocarbon dates should reflect the patterns of occupation across time. Using the date record of preceramic Perú, I illustrate very different radiocarbon trends for highland and coastal zones. These suggest exponential growth, equilibrium, and altitude shift for the occupations of coastal, puna, and highland valley regions. Biases caused by variation in temporal and geographic investigation, and the effects of sea-level rise are considered, but I argue that general occupational patterns overshadow distortions of the date record.