The organic material, especially the wooden objects, from the Key Marco, Florida collection are badly warped and are in an advanced stage of disintegration. An experiment was conducted to preserve a wooden stool from this collection in order to prevent further degradation. The specimen was treated with polyethylene glycol (Carbowax 1000). The loss of the specimens for study from this famous site is lamentable and should cause archaeologists to reflect upon their obligations.

A model consisting of a sequence of 4 interrelated hypotheses is presented as a framework within which exploitation of animal populations by Middle Mississippi groups can be considered. Faunal data recovered from a series of 7 Middle Mississippi sites is presented to facilitate the development of the model. The model proposes that Middle Mississippi exploitation of animal populations was selective, was seasonally oriented, and was concentrated on those sections of the biotic community that would provide a maximum meat yield with a minimum of effort.

Two functions of contemporary bird-form pottery from Oaxaca, Mexico are described. It is suggested that comparable functions may have existed elsewhere for similar vessels, whose effigy forms are simply elaborations of utilitarian shapes.

A compound is described which has been used in the field for consolidation of bone, shell, stone, pottery, fabric, and so forth. It has also been used in the laboratory with satisfactory results. This preparation can be applied to damp materials in the ground and allows for the preservation of otherwise nonrecoverable items. The ease of preparation and application makes it useful without requiring special training. The compound is water soluble and, importantly, the treatment is reversible, so that if different treatment is desired in the future the compound can be removed.

Pollen recovered from the sediments of Guila Naquitz Cave, Oaxaca, is compared with pollen representing modern ecological patterns in the Valley of Oaxaca. This allows the reconstruction of both vegetational and climatic patterns for the period of preceramic occupancy of the cave: roughly, 6000-8000 B.C. A generally cooler yet more xeric climate apparently prevailed, as had been suggested by faunal analyses at Coxcatlan Cave near Tehuacan, Puebla. However, the floral and faunal resources available near the cave today were available there at the time of occupation. Pollen representing a plant that is closely related to modern maize is recognizable from the pollen record. The distribution of this pollen among the samples, as well as the macrofossil remains associated with the pollen and the reconstructed ecological pattern, indicate that the maize-like plant was being cultivated.

The need to coat obsidian artifacts for photographic purposes can be eliminated through the use of a light polarizing filter attached to the camera lens.

A major difficulty arises in sourcing studies when more than two or three elements are used in the comparison of artifacts with a number of potential sources. Multivariate statistical analysis can be used to define source groups and to allocate artifacts to their most likely sources. In this study of North Island, New Zealand, obsidian sources used in prehistory, the generalized distance measure of Mahalanobis and Rao is applied in three phases: first, to define source groups in terms of their inter- and intrasource variation using characterization data from X-ray fluorescence spectrography of five trace element constituents; second, the five-dimensional array was reduced to a three-dimensional figure for visual presentation; and finally, the highest probability of the association of an artifact data-set with that of a source group is used to allocate archaeologically derived material to its most likely source of raw material.

Seeds, fiber samples, and boll parts recovered from 4 pre-ceramic sites in the Ancon-Chillon area of Peru were compared with those of living forms, both wild and cultivated, collected from the coastal areas of Ecuador and Peru. All the living forms belong to the species, Gossypium barbadense L., and it was concluded that the archaeological cotton belonged to this same species. Chocolate and reddish-brown colored fibers recovered from 4 sites (Tank, Punta Grande, Pampa, and Camino) and encompassing a time sequence from approximately 2500 B.C. to approximately 1750 B.C. resembled closely those still to be found in present-day cultivars in coastal Peru and Ecuador. On the other hand, certain characteristics exhibited by the archaeological material (small beaked bolls, fuzzy seeds, narrow fiber diameter) resemble more closely those of present-day wild forms. Seed size and fiber diameter show progressive increases from the older to the more recent levels. The finding of (1) chocolate colored fibers and (2) a single boll with a fringeless nectary (both characteristic of G. barbadense) among the archaeological samples suggests that they represent a very early stage in the domestication of that species.

The identification of the original paste and temper minerals present in ceramicware fragments can often be useful in determining if the fragments are indigenous to the area or whether they represent tradeware. To date, it has generally been believed that no certain means existed to identify the mineral constitutents once they were destroyed in the original kiln-firing operation. A new technique is described that permits the investigator to often identify both temper and the fine-grained paste materials as well. This method involves: (1) crushing the fragment to a fine powder; (2) heating the powder in a high temperature furnace to sufficient temperatures to cause the constituent ions present to recombine to form new, high temperature minerals; and (3) X-ray diffraction analysis to identify the new minerals. In many cases, identification of the resulting high temperature minerals will clearly indicate the composition of the original clay paste and temper. Examples are shown for the clay minerals kaolinite, montmorillonite and palygorskite. Diffractograms are also presented for comparison of ceramic fragments from Mexico and Alabama that contain the above minerals as original constituents.

Dietary and paleoecological data from the Clydes Cavern site has provided information concerning man's adaptations in a desert environment. Moreover, this information reveals certain of the processes involved in the Archaic-Fremont transition in Utah, especially as this transition relates to the utilization of wild grass seeds and the introduction and development of maize horticulture. Although horticulture and wild plant collecting were practiced during the Archaic inhabitation of the site, the coprolite sequence and the alluvial chronology suggest that a greater dependence upon these subsystems developed in a Fremont context, possibly in association with a period of improving alluvial conditions. During the Fremont occupation, the site seems to have functioned as a farming and collecting station within a larger system of regional adaptation.

The economic basis of the Cantabrian Upper Palaeolithic as reported by L. G. Freeman is compared with the coeval parietal art, and a motivational basis for the latter suggested.

An archeological chronology for the region of Mobile Bay, Alabama was first worked out by Trickey in 1958 (Trickey 1958). Systematic excavations and radiocarbon dating now suggest that Indian sites, marked by shell middens and artifacts, were periodically overwhelmed by rise in water level and then re-occupied during each succeeding state of low sea level. Middens are dated at 4100, 3090, 2040 and 1080 B.P.

Nearest neighbor analysis, a method which quantifies the deviation of a body of data from a random toward either a clustered or an anticlustered distribution, was utilized to study aspects of a settlement system. Data from a surface survey of 241 Pueblo I-III sites on the middle Rio Puerco of the East, New Mexico, corroborated the hypothesis of a direct correlation between house location and presence of arable land, assuming use of akchin farming methods. A smooth curve of population growth and decline was correlated with a decrease, then increase, in site agglomeration. Presumably these changes reflected adjustment of site locations to a deteriorating environment resulting from the shift to a summer rainfall cycle. Statistical tests corroborated the validity of these observations. Arrangement of the ceramic types according to their corresponding degree of aggregation produced a tentative local ceramic chronology.

It is proposed that archaeologists can apply their method and theory to the study of material culture in modern industrial societies for the purpose of deriving explanatory statements of modern human behavior.

Weymouth's X-ray diffraction analysis of prehistoric pottery necessitates a reevaluation of what diffraction peaks and "groupings" of peaks mean culturally. Specifically, archaeologists need to clarify what they mean by "temper" and what "temper" means behaviorally. X-ray diffraction will not screen out naturally occurring inclusions in the clay from those added by potters; consequently, X-ray data based on mineral ratios cannot necessarily be interpreted culturally as "temper" added by potters.

Shepard has described several principal types of temper used in pre-Hispanic ceramics in northern Yucatan. One of these, identified as “volcanic ash,” has long been a mineralogical problem because no unequivocal deposits of volcanic materials are known to exist in the area.

The possible indigenous materials that could have been identified as “volcanic ash” have been examined and the conclusion reached that the material in question is the mineral palygorskite. This mineral is widespread in the peninsula and is often associated with the mineral sepiolite. Palygorskite (also known as “attapulgite”) was known to the Maya as sak lu'um (white earth) and has been identified by high temperature studies as a constituent of Mayan ceramicware. Its origin, in Yucatan, is attributed to direct precipitation in shallow marine waters and in hypersaline, fringing lagoons. It is suggested that, unless ceramicware from Yucatan is found that actually contains true volcanic detritus (glass shards, grains of feldspar, amphibole, pyroxene, rutile, zircon, and so forth), reference to “ash temper” be avoided.

In a recent report, J. D. Nance, on the basis of a microwear analysis, proposed that serrated Stockton points were not projectile points but were used as sawing and whittling implements. The present note suggests that the microwear traces upon which Nance based his conclusions were the result of manufacturing techniques rather than utilization, and that his conclusions must, in any case, be regarded as doubtful since his approach was not firmly based on hypothesis testing and did not use adequate experimental controls. The writer stresses that these omissions by Nance are only too common in many recent microwear studies, and until a proper experimental approach has been developed the potential of microwear studies will not be realized.

Whallon's introduction of dimensions of variance to instrasite spatial analysis is applauded. Constraints, stemming from the technique and from the nature of archaeological data-gathering techniques, are discussed.

The differential longevity of ceramic vessel forms affects the frequencies of these forms in an archaeological midden. The observed frequencies of modern Conibo vessel forms in use are projected into the archaeological record and the results are compared to the frequencies of antecedent forms from archaeological sites on the Upper Ucayali. Some of the variables, other than differential longevity, needed to account for the differing frequencies are discussed. The utility of longevity data for estimating the population needed to produce an archaeological midden is also explored.