The numerous theories that have been proposed to explain the abandonment of the San Juan and other areas by the Anasazi at the end of Pueblo III times are discussed.

The theory of the Great Drought of A.D. 1276-1299 is rejected as a total cause because the Chaco Canyon center was abandoned long before this “drought.” Drought in general is questioned because climatic data indicate that in some cases inhabitants of more favored areas migrated to less favored areas.

The theory of disastrous arroyo-cutting suffers from insufficient evidence. In addition, it does not seem to have taken place at Canyon de Chelly, and it would not have been able to affect the mesa-top farms at Mesa Verde.

The theory of Athapaskan raiders is favored by the defensive trend of Pueblo architecture. Although probably weaker militarily, the nomads could have caused abandonments by use of guerrilla tactics. Despite a lack of positive archaeological evidence, the possibility of a sufficiently early arrival of the Athapaskans is suggested by legend, glottochronology, and indirect archaeological evidence in the Largo-Gallina area.

Inter- and intra-village feuds would not cause large areas to be deserted, especially if land shortages were the cause of conflict, and the hypothesis of devastating disease fails to account for the population increases of Pueblo IV times and is not supported by historical data.

It is concluded that multiple causes will have to be cited to explain all the Pueblo abandonments but that nomadic raiders appear to be the best general explanation, given the available data.

A heretofore little-known aspect of Tzotzil religion centers around belief in sacred mountains, the mythological origin places of patrilineal groups. The companion animals of the corresponding kin groups are distributed throughout the 13 levels of the sacred mountain according to age and status. Ceremonial relations are maintained with the “spirit world” by means of periodic pilgrimages to the tops of these mountains. There are many suggestive analogies between these contemporary Tzotzil practices and those of the ancient Maya as recorded in the Popul Vuh and The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel and as inferred from archaeological studies. The sacred mountains of the Tzotzil are suggested as functional counterparts of some of the smaller pyramids in Classic Maya archaeological sites. These ancient pyramids may have been the centers of rule of patrilineal groups which, as progressive layers were added with lineage successions, may have become centers for ancestor worship where priest-rulers were buried.

The sequence of three phases (Anathermal, Altithermal, Medithermal) of the Postglacial or Neothermal temperature curve, although demonstrably a reality, has been used improperly to determine absolute dates and past climatic conditions from archaeological deposits. A review of the historic development of the concept of the three sequent Neothermal temperature phases reveals the assumptions on which absolute dating of these phases has been based. Analysis of the variable radio-carbon dates now available for deposits attributed to these phases in a number of different localities in North America indicates that these phases cannot be considered as universal time periods bracketed by definite absolute dates; and consideration of the ecological diversity within North America at any particular time, especially in the West, indicates that climatic conditions inferred for a given span of Neothermal time in one area cannot be projected into another area without direct independent evidence of the actual climatic conditions which existed in the second area at that time. It is suggested that Anathermal, Altithermal, and Medithermal be used not as time periods with fixed absolute dates or climatic periods with defined characteristics, but rather be considered as phases of the Neothermal temperature curve which in different ecological areas resulted in locally varying climatic conditions which must be determined by direct evidence, dated by independent means, and designated by local terms.

Until land claims made the usefulness of data on their history important, excavations at modern New Mexican pueblos were prohibited by their people, whose conservatism varies only in degree from tribe to tribe. In 1961, the Taos Council agreed to permit brief trenching of their oldest refuse mound and of their ancestral ruin 200 yards to the east of the present site. Comparisons of sherd complexes indicated that the lowest levels of the Taos refuse mound picked up the types of the upper levels of the older site, which dated between A.D. 1325 or 1350 and 1450. Surface survey in the valley, checked against Taos legend, provided a history that covers an earlier period.

Complex I (Taos Black-on-white and associated types: A.D. 900-1300) saw Taos ancestors, not all of the same language, moving into the valley from the north and west in small religious society or kiva groups. Some settled north of the present Taos pueblo and others concentrated in the Ranchos de Taos-Pot Creek area. Later, they all moved together to the present area of Taos, settling on the site just east of the modern pueblo. Here they were joined by a group which came up from the Santa Fe area, introducing a variant of the Mesa Verde-derived pottery being made there. This produced Complex II, which dates after A.D. 1300. By 1450 the amalgamated tribe abandoned the site after a legendary battle and fire, sometimes erroneously attributed to Spanish incursions. They moved a few hundred feet westward to the present location of Taos Pueblo. In the succession of pottery types here, heavy-designed Tewa Polychrome is found in varying amounts from bottom to top of the refuse mound. Black-on-white ware disappeared and Taos Micaceous ware, developed between A.D. 1550 and 1600 (earlier than hitherto thought), became the dominant type. Polished Black ware, closely resembling that from the Santa Fe-Tewa area, but probably made locally, appears in Taos about 1400 and was at least as common as Taos Micaceous there during the 17th century. Taos Micaceous is the only type made today.

In view of the demonstrated value of small-scale site replicas to archaeological field training, a full-scale experimental site was constructed and shown to be of value in training personnel in archaeological techniques and in investigating various problems of archaeological field procedure. This site, built on the Santa Barbara campus of the University of California, was excavated by student groups ranging from junior high school through college who had differing amounts of previous field experience. The effect of age and experience on recovery efficiency and depth of interpretation was studied, as well as the reactions of students to excavation of an artificial construct, and in the case of those with no previous experience, to archaeological field work in general.

In addition to that section of the site devoted to problems connected with instruction, a section was designed to investigate a series of relatively simple methodological problems. Problems of stratigraphy, seriation, and relationship between size of artifact, soil color and texture, and excavation technique were investigated, with successful results. Such a site has great utility in field instruction, where its superiority over certain natural sites can be demonstrated, and in controlled investigation of various excavation and interpretive techniques. Such a site is relatively easy to construct, and the Santa Barbara laboratory site is now a continuing project.

Two sites, Kogruk (at the summit of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska) and Engigstciak (at the head of the Firth River delta, Yukon Territory, Canada), have recently yielded flake-tool assemblages which show striking resemblances to a Eurasiatic flake-blade tradition based on a Levallois-Mousterian stone-chipping technique, and to the Clovis flake-blade tradition of America which appears to be based on a similar chipping technique. It is suggested that these traditions are historically related and that the Arctic sites provide a possible link between the two. The presence of incipient fluting in Siberia and at Engigstciak may prove significant. Dating is discussed in terms of the ecology and geology of the sites and is correlated with the probable periods of availability of the Bering land bridge. An upland-foothills zone is seen to be essentially continuous from central Asia to central North America. It is suggested that this zone provided the only environmentally compatible link between the two continents, and that it was therefore the most probable route of early hunting peoples into the New World.

A detailed map of Teotihuacán is being prepared through the use of photogrammetry and ground survey. The city's maximum limits have been circumscribed, and it appears that they surround an area of more than 10 square miles. Part of this area was occupied only during the first phase of the occupation of Teotihuacán (Tzacualli) in the Pre-Classic period; Tzacualli phase Teotihuacán appears to have covered an area of approximately 3 square miles. The maximum area reached by the city during its later phases appears to be close to 9 square miles, but how much of this area was actually occupied during any one period of time remains to be determined. The central 4.5 square miles of the city seem to have been subject to extensive planning (grid pattern, streets, and blocks of uniform size). Teotihuacán appeared as a settlement of great size in the Pre-Classic period and grew to mammoth proportions during the Classic period. No population estimates are yet possible. The Ciudadela now appears to have occupied a central rather than a southerly position in the city. Several Early Classic period Maya pottery fragments were found near the city's eastern border in the immediate vicinity of Tlamimilolpa where similar fragments had previously been found by Linné.

The effect which differing assumptions about ceramic analysis can have on the chronological ordering of ceramic materials is demonstrated with reference to the internal chronology of the Mabaruma phase in northwestern British Guiana. As a by-product of this demonstration, it is suggested that Evans and Meggers may have underestimated the time depth of Tropical Forest culture in this area by a factor of 100%.

Horned Owl Cave in the northern Laramie Mountains of Wyoming has provided a wide array of normally perishable artifacts in association with pictographs. Material objects recovered from the cave include fragments of atlatls, darts, shaft feathers, arrowshafts, blunt arrows, bark, weaving, bone tools, pottery, and lithic objects. The disturbed condition of the fill of the cave prevented a controlled stratigraphy, but typologically the material falls within the Late Middle culture and the Late Prehistoric culture phases of the northern Great Plains. The pictographs have been divided into three styles: an early red-figure style, a shield-figure style, and a final and probably late series of black-figure drawings. It is suggested that the red-figure drawings were a product of the last phases of the Late Middle culture, or perhaps the early phase of the Late Prehistoric culture. The shield style and the black-figure style would seem to belong to the Late Prehistoric period.

Through the use of the direct historical method and analysis of materials from more than 250 sites that indicate Southern Paiute occupation, a reconstruction of the culture history of this ethnic group is attempted. The data permit the following hypotheses: that the Southern Paiute were essentially a Desert culture people with the addition of agriculture in the south; that they entered the Southwest and the southern Great Basin about A.D. 1150 or slightly earlier from the north; that they did not develop from any of the Pueblo groups in the area; and that they maintained their maximum range until disrupted by European incursions between A.D. 1800 and 1860.

Worked deer jaws have been found in a large number of sites in the Plains and Midwest, and a variety of functions have been attributed to them. This paper singles out a typologically well-defined group of deer jaws from Mississippian sites and argues for their identification as sickles. The argument is confirmed by the pattern of wear that appeared on an experimental deer-jaw sickle made by the author. The striations that appeared on the buccal surface constitute the most conclusive evidence linking the experimental tool with the archaeological specimens.

The exposed surfaces of stone artifacts from the Security Cove site, Alaska, were altered by the mechanical-chemical activity of crustose lichens. This factor should be considered in patination studies carried out in regions where lichens are known to occur. The activity of lichens and the resultant effect on artifact surfaces is discussed and illustrated in two figures.

A process known in biochemistry as column chromatography suggests how, under certain conditions, carbon lenses can migrate downward to new levels in the soil of archaeological sites. A radiocarbon date from a carbon lens may not correspond to the date of objects found associated with it.

Cast-pewter civilian and military buttons are commonly recovered from Colonial habitation sites, but little has been recorded regarding the manufacture of these necessary items of apparel. A Colonial brass-button mold and its use is described and figured.

Late survival of the Shasta ground sloth, Nothrotherium shastense, an assumption partially based on excellent preservation of a specimen from the Aden Crater, New Mexico, can no longer be supported, at least on the basis of this specimen. Two radiocarbon dates, one derived from desiccated tissues and the other from an associated coprolite (9840 ± 160 and 11,080 ± 200 B.P.), place the specimen within the temporal span of other dated ground-sloth finds. The discrepancy of over 1000 years in these two dates can be explained by alcohol contamination of the tissue sample.

Public Law 87-543 passed by Congress in 1962 provides a five-year program called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). This is very similar to the PWA-WPA programs of the 1930's. Since 1961, when this was a pilot program, small AFDC crews have been used in West Virginia to excavate archaeological sites. Other archaeologists with a labor problem may want to investigate this potential source of manpower.

McKusick and Warren defined culture complexes on San Clemente Island as distinct collections of artifacts, spatially isolated, and representative of a local cultural adaptation. In doing so, they were reticent about interpreting each of their three culture complexes as culturally distinct and gave several alternative interpretations. Townsend misinterpreted this definition of culture complexes and considered the alternative interpretations as contradictory statements and the qualifying statement as disclaimers. Furthermore, Townsend overemphasized the importance of disturbance in the sites tested by McKusick and Warren and the importance of steatite on San Clemente Island. A more studied analysis by Townsend could have resulted in more constructive criticism.