In recent years, there has been much interest in the use of ethnographic data derived from modern Maya groups for the interpretation of Classic Maya civilization. It has been suggested by some that civil and religious positions in Classic Maya society were filled by a system of rotation such as exists today among some Maya groups. Such a system would have served as a powerful force for the integration of both priest and peasant in Classic Maya society. This proposition is examined here in the light of recent data which show a relation between such existing "cargo" systems and population size. On the basis of settlement data from Tikal, Guatemala, it is concluded that such a system of rotation would not have been an effective force for social integration at large sites of the Classic period, and that other possible factors must be considered in this respect.

Ethnohistorical, archaeological, and ethnological data are combined in a discussion of Inca bridges in the Huanuco area. A colonial document provides the details of how a major bridge on the Inca highway was constructed by placing a series of logs over projecting canes. The division of labor in providing the logs was described as being divided among neighboring communities, with the river itself as a significant dividing line. The section of the Inca highway in question is still in use today and the bridge still exists, apparently much the same as it was in the Colonial Period and probably in the Inca Period. Other bridges in the area are discussed from the point of view of function and maintenance and as an example of the persistence of an ancient tradition of bridge building.

This paper reports a series of obsidian hydration dates from Temesco, a small Terminal Late Preclassic ceremonial site in the Valley of Mexico. Temesco is located in the Texcoco Plains, an area which may have played a key role in the emergence of the elaborate Classic Period Teotihuacan civilization. Analysis of ceramics and cross-dating with radiocarbon dates from Cuicuilco suggest that Temesco was a short-span site of the first century B.C. Confidence in this conclusion is reinforced by obsidian dates as an independent line of evidence giving approximately the same result.

Surface collecting in 1960 and excavations in 1961 have produced a large sample of chipped obsidian tools from El Inga, a site in Highland Ecuador. From a total surface collection sample of 83 projectile points, 25 complete and 3 nearly complete specimens have been examined intensively. They are described here by precise line drawings and narrative statements about the presence or absence and quantity or quality of morphological and technological attributes within the five attribute systems of material, form, dimension, chipping, and grinding. The three major projectile point styles derived here — “Fell's Cave Stemmed,” “Ayampitin,” and “Paijan” — are interpreted as representing horizon markers in South American preceramic times. The “Fell's Cave Stemmed” style is earliest and shows some technological relationships to the "fluted" points of North America.

A class of pressure-flaked stone objects of crescentic shape made to an easily recognizable pattern is usually associated with surface sites adjacent to continuous or discontinuous bodies of water or playas. The crescent has a distribution from the Southern California Channel Islands to western Utah and the Columbia Basin in Washington. Even though its function is not yet known, it nevertheless is — because of a unique and consistent association of attributes — a useful material culture trait that may serve as a marker for a particular cultural complex. The trait is not known to be associated with the small-game hunting and food-gathering based cultures of the Archaic stage. Archaeological evidence indicates that the crescent is contemporaneous with big-game hunting cultures of the techno-economic level associated with the upper Lithic stage.

Twin Angels Pueblo In Northern New Mexico Is An Example Of A Small Pueblo Hi Structure With Chacoan Architectural Affinities. It Was Built Close To A.D. 1100 And Was Abandoned Before A.D. 1300.

The introduction of the Colonial period culture of the Hohokam of southern Arizona derived from northern Mexico, and its diffusion in one form or another is traced north and east through Arizona. On the basis of changes in settlement patterns, architectural structures, and other material traits, a tentative reconstruction of sociological, ceremonial, and other intangible aspects of the early cultural developments in southern Arizona is attempted.

This was an intensive study of a single mountain range rich in petroglyph sites. One hundred nineteen sites with over 2,000 designs were recorded. Unsuccessful attempts were made to find significant positive correlations between such factors as design associations, site locations and concentrations, and environmental influences. The study produced some evidence that the probable originators of the petroglyphs were the Hohokam farmers who occupied the area for approximately the first 1500 years A.D.

Relative chronology is found in the paintings in twelve Texas rock shelters which have Pecos Style pictographs. Three periods are defined within the Pecos Style. The earliest period comprises large-scale polychrome paintings emphasizing fishing subjects, suggesting a rivercentered life. The second period comprises slightly smaller-scale polychrome paintings in which deer first appear and become progressively more common. Fishermen still appear but tend to be smaller and more geometrically elaborate. The last period shows fewer paintings. They are very small, monochrome, and concentrate on deer and new figure types. These periods merge into each other. They appear to reflect an Archaic Desert Culture whose art began as the expression of a riverine ceremonial cult and changed toward a personal expression centered on deerhunting.

The representation in the prehistoric and the early historic art of North America of circular shields or human figures whose torsos are depicted in the form of a shield provide a revealing indication of how widespread and complex was the diffusion of objects, ideas, and forms on the continent. Drawings of the shields and of shield figures are found in rock paintings and engravings, on paintings and skins, and on incised bark scattered throughout the continent. The origin of the motif is still in question, although present evidence would seem to point to central Mexico. The earliest examples north of the Rio Grande would appear to be in the rock paintings of the lower Pecos area of Texas. It next appears as an important form in the rock art of Utah which has been attributed to the Fremont Culture. From this latter area in late Prehistoric times, it apparently spread to the northern Plains, and thence into the central and southern Plains where it briefly became an element in the rock art and the mural paintings of the late Pueblo cultures. During this late period it also entered into the art of the region east of the Mississippi and into the rock art of the far western part of the continent.

Early man lived in eastern United States 11,000 years ago when most of the now-submerged continental shelf was exposed. The shelf almost certainly was ranged by nomadic hunters and possibly by marine fish- and mollusk- eaters. As the sea level rose at the end of the latest glacial epoch, the advancing water disrupted and submerged any habitation sites.

The oldest radiocarbon dates for kitchen middens of marine refuse along the present shore appear to be younger than the oldest dates for kitchen middens of non-marine content. Older marine middens may be deeply submerged far out on the continental shelf. Greatest success in future exploration for these sites is likely in areas of the shelf which have received little or no cover of postglacial sediment and where rivers formerly crossed the shelf.

A series of radiocarbon dates from Younge Tradition sites in southwestern Michigan indicates that previous age estimates for the four suggested phases were too conservative. Corn agriculture was practiced throughout the Younge Tradition time range as indicated by an A.D. 700 date for the Sissung site (20 MR 5).

A 1962 survey of Mani revealed the existence of the pre-Columbian mounds last reported by John Lloyd Stephens in 1843. There is good reason to believe that the refuse deposits associated with these structures can provide the ceramic information essential for a better understanding of the time period after the fall of Mayapan and the ascendency of the Xius.

Three artifacts found in a cache in Marin County, California, are suggested as having functioned in a "musical" capacity. Information on the distribution of such artifacts is solicited.

A barbed projectile point of antler found at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, is an unusual archaeological specimen for the Great Basin. The point is thought to have been hafted for use as a fish or bird spear and is possibly Eskimo in design.

A unique, miniature horseshoe-shaped stone yoke from Papantla, near Tajin in Mexico, is described and illustrated. The undoubtedly ceremonial character of this and other miniature yokes seems to strengthen the hypothesis that the larger-sized stone yokes were used primarily as p r o t e c t i v e gear by pre-Columbian ball players.

A cylinder seal, apparently from the Olmec occupation at Tlatilco, is inscribed with what may be the oldest writing known from Mesoamerica. The writing system is unlike any previously known and is typologically more advanced than other Mesoamerican systems.

Recently, four burins have been found at three sites near Catahoula Lake in southern LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. Burin types present include the polyhedral-dihedral burin, dihedral-angle burin, and a burin on a break. These burins are different in form and in associations from burins from Texas. They appear to be associated with Archaic Period material.

The marks of Dutch pipemakers, unlike those of their English counterparts, could be passed from maker to maker in a variety of ways and thus occur or recur over a considerable length of time. Here the author describes a mark at present being used by a Dutch firm of pipemakers which has recently also been found in a mideighteenth century context in a colonial French site in Nova Scotia, Canada.