This paper explores the potential contribution of civil engineering theory to archaeology. Given certain basic data we can ask specific questions about prehistoric concepts of construction, design, measurement, etc. An example of a method of analysis of structures and geometrics is given utilizing the limited information from the Adena and Hopewell cultures. Conclusions are drawn as to what certain structures looked like, how they were built, and their efficiency in serving their apparent purposes.

Mortality frequencies of domestic and wild species from prehistoric settlements are becoming increasingly important in reconstructing economic patterns, and in certain areas, for isolating stages in animal domestication. The methods whereby such mortality frequencies have been estimated, however, are considered to be unreliable and, in some cases, misleading.

This paper presents a new and considerably more accurate method for estimating the mortality frequencies of domestic animals than those currently in use, and it suggests fields where its application will prove of value as a research tool for the economic prehistorian.

The cambered rim jar is stylistically unique and should be especially useful as a time indicator if its place in Cahokia's ceramic history can be ascertained. On the basis of the broken-down interlocking scroll motif, a parallel line motif, and the scalloped rim found on some of these vessels, it is suggested that this vessel form occurs in periods III and IV of the basic ceramic sequence established for the Powell Tract section of the Cahokia site. It is further suggested that at Powell, late in period III and early in period IV, we have approximately the same time range as at the Mitchell site, whose radiocarbon dates cluster about A.D. 1000-1200.

Finally, the similarities between the cambered rim jar at Cahokia and the S-shaped rim types in the Cambria and Mill Creek manifestations to the northwest of Cahokia suggest not only a sharing of ceramic ideas, but also contemporaneity between these three cultural groups during late period III and early period IV times as reflected in the Powell Tract sequence. These relationships would date in calendric years ca. A.D. 1000-1200. Furthermore, this vessel form probably represents a borrowing of ceramic notions on the part of the potters of Cahokia because the form (the S-shaped rim) is both old and widespread in the Central Plains and Middle Missouri regions, while it is rare or missing in the widespread Middle Mississippian manifestations in the Southeast.

Aerial techniques have been proven effective for archaeological reconnaissance in several parts of the world.

This paper describes photoarchaeological techniques which were used in a survey of a section of the Potomac River, near Washington, D.C. Thirty-six stone structures and one major Indian village site were discovered. The stone structures were primarily stone fish traps and fish weirs. One of the structures was found to be a navigation weir, constructed by the Potowmack Company, founded by George Washington in his efforts to open up the American "Western Frontier," regions in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Physical descriptions and locations of the structures are listed on the following pages, together with a comparative analysis of the structures. A recommendation is made for a site designation system which strengthens the standard Smithsonian system by adding Universal Transverse Mercator coordinates to them, thus simplifying location designation.

The naturally pantropical genus Canavalia is the source of four domesticated species, of which C. plagiosperma and C. ensiformis evidently evolved under aboriginal New World cultivation. Their exact origins are uncertain because the archaeological record is concentrated in dry regions where they arrived as irrigated crops. Prehistoric cultivation of C. plagiosperma is known only from coastal Peru where it has been grown continuously for at least 4,000 years. The earliest secure record of C. ensiformis is from about A.D. 900 in Oaxaca, but charred seeds from about 300 B.C. in Yucatan probably belong to this species. Later archaeological records of C. ensiformis are available from a few Arizona sites and from Peruvian sites occupied in the early Colonial period. Canavalia and Phaseolus beans are generally associated in prehistoric cultures. Since the latter are rated as superior food, the role of Canavalia is puzzling. Meager historical and ethnographic evidence offers few clues.

Sunken gardens are a response to a situation in which ground water is near the surface of a desert but does not reach it. Since the 19th century this situation has generally been met in Peru by raising water from wells for canal irrigation. No mechanical means of raising water was known in ancient Peru, however, and sunken gardens provided the most economical solution to the problem. Ground water occurs near the surface on the Peruvian coast in some valleys where there is not enough water to maintain a river on the surface, and at the lower ends of better watered valleys where surplus irrigation water accumulates but does not reach the surface. The problem of salinization appears to have been more serious in sunken gardens than in irrigated fields. Since sunken gardens are effective only under rather rare combinations of circumstances, it seems unlikely that they played a major role in the development of Peruvian agriculture.

Human bones, found by the writer's geological field party in 1961, came from a cliff (Woodpecker Island Bluff) on the east side of Oldman River about 3 mi. north of Taber, Alberta. This paper discusses stratigraphy of the bluff and age of the bones, which have been described by Langston and Oschinsky (1963). The bones cannot be dated directly; however, they were found about 60 ft. below prairie level, in a sand unit lying beneath a till sheet. As the till was deposited by a Classical Wisconsin ice sheet that spread over the area more than 22,000 years ago, the bones are at least that old. Correlation with other bluffs along Oldman River indicates they are more than 32,000 years, and probably more than 37,000 years, old.

An examination of the data used to support Nunley’s hypothesis (1967) that Texcoco Fabric-marked pottery vessels functioned as flowerpots to adapt chinampa agriculture to saline Lake Texcoco does not confirm his conclusions. The distribution of the ware and tlateles coincides not with chinampa agriculture but with salt-producing communities of the 16th century. Aboriginal salt-making produced large mounds of washed or leached soils which are the tlateles. Texcoco Fabric-marked ware is suited for the rapid heating of saline solutions. It is concluded that the sherds and the tlateles are the archaeological remains of Aztec salt-making activities.

Little is known of the post-Folsom sequence at Blackwater Draw, Locality No. 1, in spite of over 30 years of intermittent excavation by major institutions at this site location. Until recently it has been lumped under the name of the "Portales complex" under which several culture complexes were grouped as a single entity. This paper makes an initial attempt to separate these cultures in chronological sequence.

An examination of archaeological materials from the lower Texas coast has revealed the presence of a number of deliberately altered human bones. Modified sections of human long-bone shafts, severed proximal and distal ends of long bones, and sections of ribs have been found with burials in Kleberg, Nueces, and Cameron counties. Single examples of altered human bones have also been found in the interior of southern Texas and on the northern coast of Tamaulipas, Mexico. These unusual bone artifacts are described, and their provenience is noted.

An examination of reports by Tylor (1861), Holmes (1900, 1919), and Spence and Parsons (1967) describing obsidian mines near Cerro de las Navajas in southern Hidalgo indicates that not one but three mine groups have been visited and described.

Aerial reconnaissance and photography have established the existence of extensive tracts of ridged fields and planting platforms (bancos), apparently of pre-Columbian origin, in the overflow lands behind the natural levees of the Rio Guayas immediately north and east of Guayaquil, Ecuador. These vestiges of an ancient, labor-intensive agricultural system are similar in character to others that have been described in Bolivia, Colombia, and Surinam.

In 1965, the author of this paper published a preliminary population estimate of 10,000-11,000 persons for Tikal as then known. Since 1965, mapping and excavation on four radial strips which run up to 12 km. in the four cardinal directions from the center of Tikal have broadened our knowledge of settlement at this site. We now have a good idea of the actual size of Late Classic Tikal, as well as its demographic makeup. This permits a new estimate of its Late Classic population as, conservatively, 49,000 persons. It is suggested that Late Classic Tikal qualifies as an urban center, but of a different sort than the urban centers of Mexico.

Coxcatlán Cave has yielded the earliest records of two domesticated species still grown as minor grain crops in Mexico. Amaranthus cruentus, previously unknown archaeologically, is tentatively identified from a level dated at about 4000 B.C. and positively identified from six levels dated between about 2500 B.C. and the time of the Conquest. Amaranthus hypochondriacus was found at two levels dated about A.D. 500. There is no evidence that either species was domesticated locally.

The plant content of coprolites from the Glen Canyon region of southern Utah, as determined by phosphate analysis, is compared with the pollen analysis of other pieces of the same coprolites. The authors conclude that the pollen analysis definitely supplements the information obtained from the other source, and the material studied revealed the unsuspected presence of Cleome.

The excavation of Structures 384, 385, and 386, and their associated platform in Dzibilchaltún, Yucatán, revealed an occupational sequence from late Phase I or early Phase II of the Early period up to and including the early Colonial period. The ceramic material analyzed pertains primarily to the Copo complex and, when combined with the architectural data and with 16th-century descriptions of Maya culture, made it possible to infer or suggest the use and function of each room within each building associated with the group and its lineage associations from its conception to the present. This analysis indicates that, although the primary function of the group was ceremonial during the early stages of occupation, all but one of the structures were later used more for domestic than ceremonial ends, until the vaults collapsed during the late Pure Florescent subperiod. During the later Decadent period, however, one of the earliest buildings was tunneled into and reused for ceremonial functions, possibly even after the 16th-century Spanish open chapel was erected less than 200 m. away in the central plaza of Dzibilchaltún.

Features which have been interpreted as "fire hearths" and "charcoal" have been recorded in association with mammoth and other Pleistocene faunal remains. Some of these remains have been dated by the radiocarbon method as exceeding 10,000 years; a few are considerably in excess of this time. A review of some of these remains suggests the probability of noncultural origin for the carbonaceous material in question. Recent excavations in Merced and Orange counties, California, have revealed Pleistocene faunal remains in direct association with an abundance of carbonaceous material. It can be demonstrated that these remains are noncultural in origin.