To permit the entire six Dresden codex pages 24, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 to be seen within the purview of a single page, the Gates restoration is here photographed together with a partial translation (Fig. 7). This facilitates following the procedure detailed on pages 94–8 of “Maya Astronomy“ by Dr. John E. Teeple1 and on pages 209–13 of “Astronomical Tables of the Maya” by Dr. Maud W. Makemsen, for predicting the four Venus phase limits; and is intended to supplement the writer's discussion on pages 35–8 of American Antiquity (Vol. XII, July, 1946).

The English rendering of Maya day names and month names may assist the student unfamiliar with these particular hieroglyphs in the original manuscript.

On May 23,1947, Messrs. Olcott, Augden, and Caywood of the Columbia River Basin Recreational Survey, National Park Service, were making a survey of the proposed Johnson Park Reservoir site in western Idaho. The site is about 18 miles east of Brownlee on the Snake River at an elevation of 5,900 feet. In the course of the survey a projectile point was found by Mr. Caywood in the immediate vicinity of the reservoir area. This point undoubtedly belongs to the Yuma category.

The geological associations of the point, as well as its characteristics of oblique flaking, shape, and size, are consistent with its identification as Yuma. Johnson Park was apparently a normal erosional canyon which has been partially filled with glacial detritus. The point was found in one of the small stream beds above what is thought to be the shoreline of an old lake.

In presenting the accompanying sketches and observations, it must be stated that they were taken from a layman's viewpoint, and some significant details may have been omitted in one or two instances. Data were not collected with the thought of scientific publication, but since it is believed there has been no previous recording of Indian pictographs from a locality as far north in Manitoba as the occurrence here described, the following brief observations are presented at the suggestion of Dr. Douglas Leechman of the National Museum of Canada, Ottawa.

The pictographs occur on the west side of the north arm of Tramping Lake, Manitoba (Fig. 36). They are about one mile north of the wide part of Tramping Lake, at approximately 54°43’ N. latitude and 100°05′ W. longitude. Tramping Lake lies between Wekusko (Herb) Lake on the east and Reed Lake on the west and is a portion of the Grass River system, one of the early canoe routes of the area. Peter Pond has referred to this canoe route on his map, dated 1785, as the “middle road to Hudson's Bay.“

In 1944, the present writer, in collaboration with Philip Phillips, published a short analytical article upon a newly discovered (or recognized) style of negative-painted pottery from Crystal River, Florida. The ceramics in question, numbering three vessels in all, were excavated many years before by Clarence B. Moore and illustrated by him. They were taken from a sand burial mound in association with a number of other artifacts and with human burials. In our 1944 analysis it was pointed out that these Crystal River specimens exhibited the same technical processes of decoration— a negative or resist-dye application of a dark design background over a lighter-colored surface—as that seen on numerous Middle Mississippian pottery bottles; nevertheless, it was also made clear that the style of the painting, the forms of the vessels, and the quality of the ware were distinctly non-Mississippian.

Attention is invited to a unique flaked pyrite object from the ancient village of Miyowaghameet, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. While specimens of unworked pyrite and certain pyrite-studded artifacts1 have been found at this and other Arctic sites, the specimen illustrated (Fig. 40) is, to the best of our knowledge, the only object of pressure-flaked iron pyrite reported from St. Lawrence Island and possibly from the Arctic coastal sites.

Miyowaghameet lies in a gravelly plain at the foot of Cape Chibukak, approximately one mile east of the Eskimo village of Gambell. Collins gives the average diameter for the site as one hundred yards; however the long axis runs roughly NE/SW, and the specimen herein described, while located within the eastern half of the midden, was found approximately sixty-five yards from the eastern edge.

In an issue of El Palacio, Mr. Edwin N. Ferdon presents an interesting discussion of a group of pottery figurines from the province of Esmeraldas on the coast of Ecuador. Most of these figurines were made entirely, or partially, with the use of the mold, and they are quite representative of the region. In attempting the assign approximate dates to the figurines Ferdon states (p. 225):

“Mould-made figurines made their appearance in the Valley of Mexico in Teotihuacan 3 times and in the Peten region of the Mayas in the Tepeu phase of Uaxactun Late 3 period, or about 900 A.D. Assuming that the mould-making technique spread southward from the Maya area, its arrival on the Ecuadorean coast must have been after 900 A.D. and possibly around 1000 or 1100 A.D. With the advent of the mould in Esmeraldas, new figurine types appeared, or else the earlier hand-modeled counterparts have not yet been found.“

Eastern archaeologists are familiar with the phenomena which have, in recent years, been interpreted as the Southern Cult. Although there is some dispute concerning the functional nature of the Cult, its exact position in the prehistoric time scale, and the sources which inspired it, there is common recognition of its elements and widespread occurrences. These component elements are artistic motifs and certain specialized, non-utilitarian artifact types which are bound together by a unity of style and technical treatment. The geographic occurrences are predominantly Southeastern but extend from the Atlantic to the western periphery of the Mound Area. The intrinsic qualities of the elements easily lend them to interpretation as ritualistic symbols and paraphernalia, and their frequent appearance in large mound sites adds to the implications of ceremonial import.

Like good wholesome gossip, one of the things that adds spice to the archaeologist's life is to find something that just isn't supposed to be. This is apparently what happened to me, although I did not realize the import of it until Joe Caldwell of the National Museum looked at the pottery excavated at the historic site of Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. In the preliminary exploratory trenches excavated there last spring, a considerable amount of Indian pottery was found. With the exception of a few plain sherds, all of it is simple-stamped decoration, and most of it is shell tempered (Fig. 52). The shell is largely leached out, but there is little doubt that this is the tempering medium. Sherds were found near the bottom of the ditch types is not apparent from the excavating thus far, although Caldwell is of the opinion that on the basis of the decorating they may very well be contemporaneous wares.

In a recent issue of American Antiquity John M. Goggin has described certain materials from a site in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Wakulla County, Florida. The present note is a continuation of Goggin's remarks, based on certain materials not available to him at the time of his writing, and on a more recent surface collection of sherds from the site.

Goggin mentions a copper plate ornamented by incision, having human and animal figures depicted on the surface, which he had not seen. When this object was originally found in 1938 by Bill Kary of Tallahassee, it was examined by J. Clarence Simpson of the Florida Geological Survey. Simpson made a cast of the object, as well as a detailed drawing. The drawing reproduced in this note (Fig. 41, b) was made from Simpson's sketch and a copy of the cast in the possession of Dr. Mark F. Boyd of Tallahassee. The writer is grateful to both of these gentlemen for the use of their material.