Archaeologists increasingly have become aware of the effects of bias and have made strides to identify and correct for error introduced in such areas as sampling and recovery techniques. Much less attention has been paid to the significance of bias introduced during artifact analysis. The potential for analyst-induced error is discussed in terms of: (1) the explicitness of class definitions, (2) differences in perception among analysts, and (3) changes in a single analyst's perception over time. Using a regression-based approach, sources of possible analytic error are detected in an archaeological data set recovered from Steens Mountain, Oregon.

Ongoing research in the Nenana Valley is uncovering a complex record of Late Glacial settlement in the foothills of the Alaska Range. A local eolian sequence provides relatively precise stratigraphic and chronological control, permitting integration with regional paleoclimatic history. Initial occupation seems to have occurred approximately 12,000 years ago, and is represented by several assemblages containing bifacial points. Microblade technology did not appear until ca. 10,500 B.P. The valley probably was exploited on a seasonal basis for large mammal procurement.

Occupation spans of small late prehistoric sites in the American Bottom of southwestern Illinois are estimated through consideration of the formation of ceramic refuse. Archaeological and ethnographic data inform a model which takes the form of both a computer simulation and a quantitative transform. Critical variables include a behavioral assemblage, a disposal assemblage, vessel use life, and breakage and replacement rates. A number of factors may have influenced settlement duration, but a preliminary examination does not reveal a significant correlation between environmental features and occupation span. The relation of these lower-order settlements to higher-order centers in the American Bottom settlement hierarchy may not have necessitated maximizing the economic potential of a given rural catchment.

An extremely important institution among the Indians of the Southeast in the historic period, the calumet ceremony was first recognized by French adventurers in the Upper Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes region in the mid-seventeenth century. By the end of the century the ceremony was universal among Lower Mississippi Valley groups. A major focus of calumet literature in recent years has been on the timing of and the mechanism for the introduction of this ceremony in the Eastern Woodlands. Some have argued for prehistoric roots, while others have supported a historic development. A study of the spatiotemporal distribution of catlinite pipes is one way to address these issues, because such pipes are the principal archaeological expression of the ceremony. This paper focuses on the two most common catlinite pipe forms: disk pipes and elbow pipes. Overall, both forms are rare in the Southeast, but relatively they are widespread. The disk type has the greatest range and is also the earlier of the two forms, primarily being found during the protohistoric period. It is proposed here, however, that calumet introduction was coincident with the elbow catlinite form that first appeared in the Southeast in the mid-to-late seventeenth century. It is believed that calumet ceremonialism was spreading into the southern portion of the Lower Mississippi Valley at about the same time as the first French explorers were entering the area from the north.

Ongoing controversy over the identification of mesoamerican centers as the locus for specialized production of stone tools is addressed by reference to a consumer locality in the eastern Maya Lowlands. Lithic data from Pulltrouser Swamp are used to shed light on the production intensity and scale of a distribution system centered at Colha, Belize. Debitage analyses of technological attributes, use wear, and metric dimensions contrast two contexts of lithic procurement at Pulltrouser Swamp: direct procurement of raw material and indirect procurement of finished tools. Each procurement context results in debitage with different variable states. Characterization of the Colha chert lithic material at Pulltrouser Swamp as a consumer assemblage is supported further by the results of a discriminant analysis in which an experimental "consumer" assemblage is classified with the Colha chert. Such characterizations of lithic assemblages are more robust methodologically and more informative substantively than attempts at the quantification of production or usage rates. The implications of scalar differences in production systems are discussed.

The appearance of pithouse settlements in the American Southwest that have multihabitation structures has been considered evidence for the emergence of "village" social organization. The interpretation that village systems are reflected in pithouse architecture rests in great part on the assumption that large sites correspond to large, temporally stable social groups. In this article we examine one of the best known pithouse settlements in the Southwest—Shabik’eschee Village in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico—and argue that the site may represent episodic aggregation of local groups rather than a sedentary occupation by a single coherent social unit.

A prominent subsurface zone (layer) of large stones with diameters greater than 6-7 cm occurs in gravelly soil on colluvial aprons in the Lompoc area of California. The soil is mounded and churned by botta pocket gophers (Thomomys bottae). Sedimentological analyses show that the soil within and above the stone zone—and within the gopher mounds—is relatively homogeneous in fine fraction and forms a biomantle. None of the mounds contained stones with long-axis diameters greater than the maximum diameter of gopher burrows, about 6-7 cm. Larger stones gradually subside and form a stone zone. Both field observations and laboratory tests confirm that gopher bioturbation produces stone zones in coarse gravelly soil. This finding, and similar findings in two other recent studies, have important implications for interpreting archaeological site formation, and for interpreting geologic-pedologic processes inasmuch as artifact layers (and nonartifact layers) in some sites entirely may be due to nonanthropic, nongeologic, postdepositional biological agents.

Accelerator radiocarbon dates on shell, charcoal, and human bone samples are an indication that human activity at the Del Mar site dates to 5000 B.P. and possibly from 7000 B.P. The shell and charcoal fragments were dislocated stratigraphically by extensive bioturbation and provide evidence that accelerator dates on extremely small samples should be used with caution. Certain depositional environments will require multiple dating within a site because single-sample dating will not yield definitive ages. Dating of individual amino acids from the Del Mar sphenoid yielded an average age of 4900 ± 40 B.P. and conclusively establishes the age for the Del Mar skull. The previously dated tibia was found to be contaminated with exogenous amino acids, thereby making its age uncertain.

Shovel-test sampling is the most common site-discovery technique used in vegetated areas, but its effectiveness is questionable. Recent papers in American Antiquity by Nance and Ball and by Lightfoot discuss the technique at length. The papers are welcome additions to the literature, but both contain deficiences that require comment and clarification.

Shott's comments on Nance and Ball's article on test-pit sampling are off the mark. His comments reveal that Shott has misread the authors, that he generally has misinterpreted their intent, that he does not understand their research design and therefore does not know how to apply their findings, that he overlooks or avoids numerous important points made by the authors, and that he has his own unique view of archaeological data and survey methods.

Shott raises pertinent issues on the limitations of shovel-test sampling. I agree that alternative methods with more efficient discovery rates should be developed and tested. I argue, however, that shovel testing is the most efficient discovery technique now available for detecting buried cultural remains on a regional scale. In survey contexts where the probability of buried remains is high, shovel testing should remain a primary option.