Point Conception, California, has long been recognized as an environmental transition zone for both terrestrial and marine life forms occupying central and southern California. Recent archaeological investigations above and below Point Conception have revealed a number of differences in the archaeological records of the respective regions. Late Period coastal middens north of Point Conception contain higher densities of shellfish remains and smaller quantities of fish and sea mammal remains than coastal midden deposits along the Santa Barbara Channel to the east, where Late Period sites contain substantial quantities of fish and sea mammal remains. These differences in the archaeological records appear to be determined, in large part, by differences in the relative resource abundances in the two regions. However, to understand more completely the variability in subsistence strategies, one must go beyond simply documenting differences in food resource abundance in the environment. It is proposed that the economics of resource exploitation must be considered in the formulation of any adequate explanation of resource variability.

Assemblage diversity is an important part of the structure of the archaeological record, but measuring this parameter often is difficult if samples of assemblages differ in size. Two methods, here called the sampling approach and regression approach, currently are used to assess the sample-size effect. The approaches differ in method and in results. The sampling approach is better suited to analysis of assemblage diversity among samples when the underlying population structure is well known, while the regression approach is more useful for examination of the sample-size effect when the underlying population structure is known poorly.

Recent key federal and tribal legislation often has proved inadequate for dealing with human remains. Because of this the Navajo Nation, in cooperation with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has developed a policy establishing a working set of procedures for cultural resource managers and developers to follow in the identification, verification, and ultimate disposition of human remains on Navajo Tribal Trust land. These procedures attempt to address legal and human concerns of next of kin, local residents, the Navajo Tribe as a whole, and the federal government. The policy does not expressly advocate the scientific study of human remains prior to or instead of reburial, but this alternative is allowable under the policy, given the acquisition of appropriate consent. This paper discusses the procedures (formally adopted by Navajo Tribal Resolution) along with suggestions for their modification for use elsewhere and under other circumstances.

The question of spatial and temporal origins for Plumbate ware is addressed with archaeological evidence from the eastern Soconusco region of the Pacific slope, and evidence from a recent stylistic and compositional study (the latter by neutron-activation analysis). This evidence confirms the Pacific coastal-origins hypothesis proposed by Shepard (1948), suggesting specifically that the first Plumbate, designated "Guayabal Plumbate," was produced in or near the littoral zone of southwest Guatemala. The development of Early Postclassic Tohil Plumbate out of Late Classic San Juan Plumbate is found not to involve a hypothesized intermediate stage (designated "Robles" in previous literature). The fancy abstract-incised and effigy style associated with Tohil Plumbate is argued to represent a stylistic departure of a small group of ceramic artisans who previously had worked in a long-lived "background" tradition.

Three different sorts of bifacial tools-by-products of the shaping process, cores, and long use-life tools-are used to consider the role mobility plays in producing variability in hunter-gatherer lithic technologies. The relations among tool roles, raw-material distribution, and mobility as well as the archaeological consequences of the different roles are key factors. An examination of temporal trends in the use of bifacial implements in the Carson Sink of western Nevada shows how the proposed perspective on lithic technology can help to elucidate change in mobility strategies. A shift from the use of bifaces as cores to an infrequent use of bifaces as tools suggests a shift from logistical to short-term residential use of the raw-material-poor Carson Sink; a later shift to the use of small, frequently unifacial, nonresharpenable points may indicate a shift to target-specific hunting strategies.

Previous studies have demonstrated that stable carbon- and nitrogen-isotope ratios of bone collagen can be used to distinguish marine and terrestrial components of prehistoric human diet. However, when this method was first applied to prehistoric Bahamians, their bone-collagen nitrogen-isotope ratios were found to be outside the ranges observed for other coastal populations that ate substantial quantities of marine foods. This study examines in detail the distributions of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in Bahamian food chains. Our results indicate that the unique isotopic signature in bone collagen of prehistoric Bahamians reflects the enrichment of 13C and the depletion of 15N in seagrass and coral-reef communities relative to other oceanic environments. The results also demonstrate that bone-collagen 13C/12C ratios can be used to distinguish marine from terrestrial contributions in the prehistoric Lucayan Taino diet, and that 15N/14N ratios serve to identify the use of certain marine food groups. This approach should prove useful for the study of consumption practices in other tropical coral-reef environments and as a method for evaluating theoretically predicted optimal diets.

Research conducted since the 1976 publication of Society for American Archaeology Memoir 31, Paleoeskimo Problems (Maxwell 1976a) indicates that variability in the early Arctic Small-Tool tradition (ASTt) is greater than described previously. Three questions dominate the interpretation of early ASTt remains in the central Canadian Arctic: Are the remains affiliated with the Independence I or the Pre-Dorset variants? What are the affects of seasonal mobility on the Paleoeskimo archaeological record? Does the core-area model have any remaining utility? Evidence from six Arctic Island locations indicates that Pre-Dorset and Independence I are not clearly separated temporally and stylistically. Functional analyses that consider the meaning of relevant attributes are required. Sources of variability include seasonality, local physiography and climate, and postabandonment processes. The complexity of the early ASTt record is not explained through pure historical particularism.

Several classes of data collected from Northern Black Mesa, Arizona, are used to identify seasonality among nineteenth- and twentieth-century Navajo sites. The data include informant accounts, site layout and composition, hogan doorway orientations, and terminal tree-ring condition from dendrochronological samples. While each class of data yields information regarding an aspect of site seasonality, analysis reveals that more than one kind of information is represented by the various data sources. Specifically, hogan doorway orientation and tree-ring seasonality provide mutually reinforcing evidence regarding season of site construction; other data relate to the season of site use. These results suggest refinements in the assessment of Navajo site seasonality, as well as providing more general information regarding the identification of site season in archaeological contexts. In addition, the recognition of the alternative seasonal information provided by the different kinds of data, suggests new approaches to analysis of mobility and activity patterns.

This paper explores the applicability of the segmentary construction-labor tax model of marked adobe distribution proposed for the solid adobe Mochica pyramids in the Moche Valley on the Peruvian North Coast for Middle Sican monumental architecture in Batan Grande farther north. The model is found inadequate to account for the Middle Sican brick-marking pattern characterized by, among other things, a very high frequency of marking and lack of a one-to-one correspondence between brick size/shape and mark. The difference seems due in part to the chamber-fill building technique of the Middle Sican pyramids which required large scale, unitary construction. Cluster analysis was carried out to assess the relative merits of various alternative models. The most plausible models are those that posit a relatively complex labor organization and specify the role of local, lower-level administrators.

The Codex Vergara and the Codice de Santa Maria Asuncion are the most comprehensive census-cadastral native pictorial manuscripts that have survived from Central Mexico. Research reported here establishes that the documents record the household composition and landholdings of 17 localities in an area presently corresponding to identifiable barrios in and around the village of Tepetlaoztoc, located northeast of Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico. Drawn within a generation of the Conquest, probably A.D. 1539-1543, these codices present a virtually unique quantitative record for the period and provide a firm basis for interpretation of Late Horizon archaeological remains in the zone. Decipherment has revealed the first examples from Central Mexico of the use of positional notation in numerical expression, the use of the "zero" concept, and derivation and recording of field areas as well as perimeter measurements. The archaeological and ethnohistorical importance of the codices is enhanced greatly now that their spatial context is known.

In recent investigations of plantation society, Otto and Moore use a model that incorporates status and caste. I argue that these concepts are too vague for plantation studies and must be replaced with a more relevant formulation that includes economics and power. A reconsideration of the data presented by Moore indicates that these last concepts have greater strength in the archaeological analysis of plantation society.

Species of wood used for fuel changed significantly through time at a large Anasazi village in southwestern Colorado occupied from about A.D. 750 to 900. Changes also occurred in other records of plant use from this site, in the fauna utilized, and in the proportional representation of hafted tools. These and corroborating data from nearby sites suggest that the Anasazi occupation of the Dolores River valley and vicinity resulted in significant local deforestation. Anasazi settlement and mobility practices were affected by climate, human impact on the environment, and regional population densities.

Civic-ceremonial plaza planning is analyzed at Tenam Rosario, the capital center of a small Late/Terminal Classic period (A.D. 700-950) Maya polity, to shed light on political organization. When the capital's civic-ceremonial layout is compared with settlement patterns in its hinterland, the polity's hierarchical and territorial political arrangements appear to be reproduced in microcosm within the capital"s civic-ceremonial zone. Possible political microcosms of this kind at other mesoamerican capital sites are discussed, along with correlates of this variant of political organization.

Comprehensive geochemical studies of archaeological obsidian sources in the Southwest typically have lagged behind other regions of North American and Mesoamerica. Current archaeological and petrological research indicates four previously unreported sources in Arizona, Sonora, and western New Mexico. This initial semiquantitative X-ray fluorescence (XRF) examination of archaeological silicic-glass sources in this region focuses on current technical problems in southwestern obsidian studies. The chemical variability within some regional obsidian sources appears to be relatively extensive and new data from the San Francisco volcanic field in northern Arizona modifies the results of earlier researchers.

In many prehistoric economies where plant foods supplied a majority of caloric requirements, shellfish may have served as a protein staple, at least on a seasonal basis. This hypothesis is supported with an archaeological example from coastal California, experimental data on shellfish protein yields in southeast Alaska, and review of two previous studies of the economics of shellfish exploitation (Osborn 1977; Parmalee and Klippel 1974). Evaluating the dietary role of shellfish from a protein perspective may have a profound effect on the reconstruction of settlement and subsistence strategies for coastal, riverine, or lacustrine economies, including both hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists.

During the Middle Woodland period in eastern North America, modified human skulls are interjected into a broader pattern of "trophy"-artifact manufacture. Interpretations of these human trophies have resulted in a polarity of opinion-that they are the remains of (1) revered ancestors, or (2) defeated enemies. Both previous investigations of the problem support exclusively the "revered-ancestor" interpretation. Results of the present study, which makes use of a six-site Ohio Hopewell sample and stylistic and biological analyses, do not support this position, and are seen as reflecting a competitive component in Hopewell society.

The Holly Oak pendant is a shaped piece of marine whelk (Busycon sinistrum) shell with two holes drilled in one end that bears an incised depiction of an extinct proboscidean (woolly mammoth or mastodon). It allegedly was recovered in 1864 from an archaeological site in Delaware. There was speculation in the 1970s as to its age and significance, and it was illustrated and cited as a Paleoindian artifact of Pleistocene age. Subsequent analyses indicated the artifact was fraudulent: The engraving probably was done in the 1880s on a shell recovered from an archaeological site. This has been confirmed by a recently obtained AMS radiocarbon date. The Holly Oak pendant is a modern forgery.

The role of the theoretical limit of resolution of optical microscopes is discussed in relation to obsidian rim age-date determinations. The resolution of the optics is shown to contribute an error of ± 20 percent. The error analysis identified the determination of the activation energy as the single step in the dating process that introduces the largest error.

Charlie Lake Cave (HbRf 39) is a stratified site in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, containing a fluted-point component at the base of the excavated deposits. The small artifact assemblage includes a fluted point, stone bead, core tool, and retouched flake. A diverse associated fauna includes fish, birds, and mammals, indicating a more open environment than exists today. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the artifact assemblage was deposited about 10,500 years ago.

In spite of considerable fluctuations in the likelihood of agricultural success from place to place and from time to time, the southern Colorado Plateaus show a smooth increase in farming populations between A.D. 1 and 1150. At the local level, however, population curves in this region often register a pattern of short-lived occupations and abandonments that are tied to specific patterns of short-term and long-term climatic conditions. The prehistoric population record from the Dolores area, in the southwestern corner of Colorado, demonstrates how localized population adjustments to climatically sensitive environments can result in long-term population increases. Here, a 600-year history of population increase was maintained primarily through population movements between environmentally complementary places. When that strategy failed, due to a combination of adverse short-term and long-term climatic conditions, agricultural methods shifted from rainfall farming to intensified agriculture supported by water-control facilities.