The Ghosts of “round” pit houses in Alaska were dispelled by Henry B. Collins 2 decades ago (Collins 1937: 282–6). They had emanated from the casual remarks of early explorers and the later hasty glances at house depressions. Up to now, 300 or more of the floors of old pit houses in Alaska have been exposed, and they overwhelmingly show that the winter house of the western American Arctic is some variation of a square plan. Even so, exceptions have just turned up — perhaps not merely to prove the rule. They are large oval pits on Choris Peninsula, the remains of early dwellings apparently without corners or entrance passages, or even the means of side entry.

The use of lime mortar in the New World appears to be confined to the area of Mesoamerica. It is, in fact, one of the most important of the several traits charatceristic of this area which have given rise to the concept of Mesoamerica as a distinct cultural unit. The extensive use of lime mortar within Mesoamerica probably played a significant role in the development of more advanced forms of architecture within this area than in other parts of the New World, especially since it was employed ornamentally as well as functionally.

Although the site of Palenque, Chiapas, has long been one of the most famous of Maya ruins, its pottery has until recently remained virtually unknown. Aided by a grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and with the cooperation of the Institute of Andean Research, the writers conducted ceramic excavations at Palenque in the summer of 1951. With the assistance of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the senior author in 1956 made additional stratigraphic excavations at Palenque, as well as conducting a brief ceramic survey at nearby sites in Chiapas and Tabasco.

The Ikat technique, that of producing designs in a fabric by means of a resistdyeing process in which the yarns of the warp, of the weft, or of both the warp and the weft, are pattern-dyed prior to weaving, was believed, until recently, to have been unknown in pre-Columbian Peru (Crawford 1916: 154; Dixon 1928: 201–9; Means 1931: 490). To date only a few examples of archaeological Peruvian textiles patterned by this method have been reported. Dressen (1930: 67) and Bird (1947: 73–4; 1952: 359; Bennett and Bird 1949: 285) mention some of these and Kroeber has spoken of ikats from Supe being present in the University of California Museum of Anthropology (personal communication, September, 1949).

Several excavations have recently been completed in the Maravilla system, a small abandoned irrigation system in the Valley of Teotihuacan, discovered by Armillas on an aerial photograph in 1954 and reported on by Armillas, Palerm, and Wolf (1956). For a recent summary of irrigation studies in Mesoamerica, see Wittfogel (1957: 19–20). For an earlier summary of climatic conditions in the Valley, see Millon (1954). The present paper is a preliminary report on two of these excavations with additional data on other abandoned and existing systems of irrigation in the Valley.

In the Handbook of Texas Archeology by Suhm, Krieger, and Jelks, 4 major time periods are defined under the terms, “Paleo-American,” “Archaic,” “Neo-American,” and “Historic.”

I can see no reason to use the element “American” in the names of time periods in Indian prehistory. Strictly speaking, “American” can be applied to any inhabitant of North, Central, or South America, past or present. But popular usage restricts the term “American” to the people of the United States, and unless qualified, often further restricts it to the whites only.

In the October, 1956, issue of American Antiquity (pp. 180–3) an article appeared by Edward B. Danson and Roberts M. Wallace entitled “A Petrographic Study of Gila Polychrome.” The authors imply that up to the time of their publication Southwesternists assumed that Gila Polychrome was traded from one small area (Roosevelt- Tonto Basin) to all other regions. As far as I know this idea was restricted to those who adhered to Gladwin’s hypothesis of the Salado culture. They even quote a statement of mine (1952: 330) out of context to support their point.

Carlyle Smith, on pages 159–62 of The Archaeology of Coastal New York, groups 2 historic sites, Pantigo and Fort Corchaug, on eastern Long Island with 2 historic Connecticut sites, Shantok and Noank, in what he calls the “Shantok” aspect, following the taxonomic scheme of McKern (1939). After some deliberation, I find myself believing that, while on the face of it, the connections between Fort Corchaug and Pantigo may seem plausible, actually a substantive basis for the connection is relatively meager.

In the January issue of American Antiquity (Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 310–5) Alex D. Krieger, Dee Ann Suhm, and Edward B. Jelks have replied to my critical review of their publication, “An Introductory Handbook of Texas Archaeology” (Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological Society, Vol. 25, Austin, 1954) in very strong and highly personal terms. It is a temptation to reply in similar terms but it is probable that no useful purpose would be served by such action.

Detailed medical surveys recently concluded have shown Guatemala, and particularly the Guatemalan highlands, to have one of the highest incidence rates for endemic goiter in the world (Muñoz, Pérez, and Scrimshaw 1955a: 36–43; 1955b: 963–9). At the present time only the tropical and sparsely populated northern Department of Peten is without goiter as a serious public health problem. The incidence in the other departments varies from 21% to 68%.

During the 1956 Pecos Conference at the Museum of Northern Arizona at Flagstaff, a group active in the study of archaeological remains in the western Southwest met to perform one of the original functions of the Conference. Participants agreed upon some standard concepts with which to order existing knowledge of this western area and to clarify the tasks of future research there. Agreement was reached on the basic cultural content of a prehistoric cultural unit and its geographic distribution and name.

Since publication in 1955 of a comment by R. F. Heizer and the present author concerning fired clay figurines in California (Heizer and Pendergast 1955), some additional data have come to light which are suggestive of a need for revision of views on the distributional pattern of this trait on the Pacific Coast.

In March of 1956 Roscoe Barkhurst of Tulelake, California, submitted to the author for analysis 2 fragmentary figurines which had been collected at a site near Sara, Washington, in 1932.

During the summer of 1956 an excavation was conducted by the Lower Susquehanna Chapter of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology in cooperation with the Pennsylvania State Museum. The work was done on the Oscar Leibhart farm, 6 miles south of Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, at Long Level, on a hill top overlooking the Susquehanna River. From a preliminary study of the trade goods recovered from this excavation, and an analysis of the grave materials previously uncovered by the Leibharts, it is evident that this is the site of a Susquehannock village of about 1650 to 1675.

In the summer of 1955, Nuclear Science and Engineering Corporation, as a basis for determining the demand and desired specifications for radiocarbon dating, carried out a survey of people and institutions believed to have some interest or potential interest in such dating. Polled were archaeologists and geologists in universities, museums, and oil companies. A total of 223 questionnaires was sent to these scientists, requesting information about their interest in having available a commercial laboratory for radiocarbon dating and the specifications that they would require in the analysis of the samples that were available.

In the April, 1956, issue of American Antiquity (Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 420–1) Ronald L. Ives discusses the possible beginnings of the theory of the Asiatic origins of the American Indian. In this connection he cites the recent translation of the Description of the Province of Sonora by Father Ignaz Pfefferkorn, S. J., published originally in German in 1794–95.

At the present time there are nearly 1200 radiocarbon dates published from 11 different laboratories. These dates appear in a total of 6 books, monographs, mimeographed lists, and journals. While most of the dates appear in the publication Science, it is nonetheless difficult to sort through the various numbers of this journal in order to compile dates for any one time period, area, or topic. Realizing that the dates could not be utilized efficiently under these circumstances, J. B. Griffin of the University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, suggested that an expandable file system be devised for all published radiocarbon dates.

In the July number of this journal Albert C. Spaulding delivered himself of a most penetrating review of the first of the authors’ 2 Anthropologist papers on method and theory in American archaeology. This note is in no sense a reply to his review but it seems to us that additional information about our paper and its subsequent history might prevent misunderstanding. Shortly after its publication in December, 1953, we received a long letter from Spaulding in which this paper and its authors were subjected to similar but even stronger criticism than in the review under discussion.