Archaeologists have treated American native peoples in a detached and somewhat pejorative fashion. In an attempt to explain this treatment, the development of American archaeology is examined in relation to changing views of native peoples that archaeologists have held. In the nineteenth century, native peoples were regarded as unprogressive savages, a view reflected in the "Mound Builder" myth, which held that the spectacular earthworks which were then the object of considerable antiquarian interest were the work of non-Indians. In the first half of the twentieth century, given a declining interest in the functional interpretation of archaeological data and a loosening of ties with ethnography, there was even less concern with native peoples. The New Archaeology continues to treat native peoples as objects rather than subjects of research. It is suggested that greater concern with Indian and Eskimo history might help to correct this.

Systems of human settlement serve as primary sources of evidence for investigating variability in the evolution of complex societies. In particular, the existence of and nature of cities reveals much about the nature and direction of sociopolitical changes characteristic of prehistoric states. The present study places the analysis of prehistoric urbanism within the context of settlement system analyses and applies this approach to the protohistoric Tarascan state of western Mexico. This first synthesis of our knowledge of major Tarascan settlements evaluates the protohistoric communities at Tzintzuntzan, Ihuatzio, Pátzcuaro, and Erongarícuaro (within the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin) and considers those outside the Tarascan core, especially Zacapu. This study suggests that the Tarascan state did not participate in the Central Mexican urban tradition, and that the historic capital, Tzintzuntzan, may have been unique in its urban status. Rather, the state was characterized by a complex and overlapping network of central places and specialized places. To the extent that this pattern diverges from other prehistoric systems it constitutes one source for understanding the diversity in the protohistoric Mesoamerican world.

Population estimated for the Late Classic period at the Lowland Maya site of Tikal, Guatemala, is reviewed. Linear programming is described and suggested as a method for simulating the agricultural carrying capacity of the sustaining area of the site, thereby inferring its potential population. Archaeological data on the estimated size of the Tikal sustaining area is presented along with modern agricultural production and caloric output figures for maize, root crops, and ramon seeds. These data are used in the computation of a linear program. The results of the computer runs calculating the maximum population supportable by different combinations of milpa, intensive farming, and aboriculture are discussed. These results suggest that a mixed subsistence strategy in which ramon seed aboriculture and intensive root cropping were combined and were supplemented by kitchen gardening, hunting, gathering, and trade might have supported a population as high as 69,705 to 76,699 people within the boundaries of the site of Tikal during the Late Classic period.

The widely applied concentric zonation model for Classic period Maya centers, which specifies that high-ranking persons lived closer to the central civic-ceremonial precinct than low-ranking persons, is tested for the site of Tikal. Our method is to identify residential units from the Carr and Hazard (1961) Tikal maps and to compute labor investment costs of construction of residential units from variables derived exclusively from the cartographic data. Our finding is that the Tikal data do not substantiate the concentric zonation model.

Four-part figures equal cyclic completion in ancient Mesoamerica, but they do not necessarily correspond to the cardinal directions; they refer, rather, to four-place cycles within the apparent annual path of the sun. The earliest excavated Maya example of such a quadripartite diagram in architectural form is Structure E-VII Sub at Uaxactun, which was part of a solar observatory. Later this E Group at Uaxactun was used for katun celebration. It is suggested that in Early Classic times Mexicans introduced to central Peten a type of celebration of solar cycles observed at Teotihuacan. This new ritual was rapidly Mayanized and institutionalized as the celebration of katuns or 20-year periods. The iconography of katun celebration emphasizes quadripartition and the rainy, stormy sky symbolism of the agricultural year as expressed in Tlaloc ritual at Teotihuacan. Katun celebration probably also served to undermine the original dynastic significance of the ancient Maya Long Count and thus enhanced the public ritual role of the new Mexican elite.

An ecological approach to religion is utilized to examine crocodilians represented in highland and lowland Mesoamerican art from the Early Formative to European contact. It is suggested for certain Formative New World religions, the Olmec in particular, that the crocodilian may have attained religious importance because it served as a major food source, is a predator of humans, and is an anomalous and striking animal. It is further proposed that crocodilian products (meat, skins, etc.) may have been lowland items used in an exchange network with highland groups, that the crocodilian motif and crocodilian products became elements of elite status regalia, and that Olmec ideology thereby gained a foothold in central Mexico. Subsequently, a decline in the supply of crocodilians due to overhunting or other causes may have undermined one basis of Olmec strength and hastened their downfall in the Middle Formative. Crocodilians remain in the art up to European contact, but their role seems to change as they transcend the secular-mundane, as the elite establish other status regalia, and as a greater variety of religious expressions develops.

In the second annual review of Old World archaeology, the authors have restructured their attention to three topics: (1) some issues of a theoretical and philosophical nature, involving differing stances on contemporary theoretical trends and the nature of the differences between the social scientist and humanist approaches to archaeology; (2) the wealth of recent work that has altered the conceptual framework of Paleolithic and Mesolithic archaeology in Africa and western Europe; and (3) recent developments in late Mediterranean antiquity, predominantly humanist in focus, involving detailed empirical studies, trends in fieldwork design, and analytical studies of organic and inorganic materials.

Many archaeologists have ignored the complexities of preservation treatments and have proceeded alone, often with unsatisfactory results. Now that new legislation can provide conservation funding, archaeologists involved in federally funded research should have little reason to ignore professional standards in the areas of conservation, preservation, and collection interpretation and maintenance. Specific advantages of professional conservation input for the archaeologist are cited with reference to a case study in Maine.

The dating of Casas Grandes is re-evaluated, and new relevant dates for southwestern New Mexico are presented. It is suggested that Casas Grandes dates from ca. A.D. 1150-A.D. 1300. This would make the site's florescence postdate the Bonito phase of Chaco Canyon and the Mimbres phase. Furthermore, it appears that Casas Grandes did not overlap the Civano phase of the Hohokam.

Excavations conducted since Chomko's initial discovery in 1974 of Cucurbita pepo seeds have clarified their stratigraphic and radiometric context as well as delineated an earlier archaeological unit, the Squash and Gourd Zone, where a second cucurbit, Lagenaria siceraria, was found. The two units are Late Archaic with dates (weighted averages of radiocarbon assays) of 4257 ± 39 and 3928 ± 41 radiocarbon years B.P., respectively, and are beneath stratigraphically superior Late Archaic and Woodland units also containing cucurbits. A comparison of the early Cucurbita pepo with others from later contexts demonstrates an increasing size with time and morphology similar between the early seeds and the historic cultivar "Mandan." Nutritional value of the cucurbits, both cultigens, may have been comparable to that of other wild plant foods consumed. In any event, the cucurbits are artifacts of regional exchange mechanisms operating some 4000 years ago; the most plausible mechanism being down-the-line exchange.

Excavation of the workshop of an ancient rhyolite quarry yielded three classes of artifacts. One class consists of worn and broken tools made of exotic stones. It is argued that these tools represent a "curated" assemblage and one that is highly revealing of the duration and distance of population movements.

Prehistoric boundary walls are associated with the three walled northern Maya sites of Chacchob, Cuca, and Dzonot Aké. All were probably built for defensive purposes, but have wider implications concerning the delimitation and use of space in Maya centers. Each center represents a fortified elite enclave, but each has experienced a very different pattern of growth resulting in distinctive settlement configurations.

Plumbate, a distinctive ceramic of the Early Postclassic, has been thought to have been manufactured in the Pacific region of Guatemala and traded throughout Mesoamerica and Central America. Two aberrant types of Plumbate found in Late Classic contexts in Veracruz and Early Postclassic contexts in central El Salvador suggest that the origins and spread of Plumbate or Plumbate techniques may be more complex.

One type of evidence which Sanders has used to show the excessive nature of the population estimates proposed for central Mexico by Borah, Cook, and Simpson is an estimation of the agricultural productivity of the Teotihuacan Valley. This estimation assumes an equivalence of contemporary with preconquest agricultural productivity, but such an assumption may be too optimistic since sixteenth-century crop yields from tribute fields in five towns in the Valley of Mexico indicate a curiously low level of maize productivity. These yields are presented and discussed, and Sanders’ population estimates are seen to be more accurate than those of Borah, Cook, and Simpson.

Four methods of edge angle measurements, including one developed by the authors, are applied to a sample of unretouched flakes in order to determine their relative accuracy, reliability, and economy. The authors discuss various statistical analyses which are available and essential in evaluating the significance of variability between and within the different measuring techniques, applying them to the results obtained from this study.

In a recent report, Michael Smith proposes that the primary determinant of the settlement pattern of the southeastern Basin of Mexico during the Late Horizon (A.D. 1350-1520) was marketplace exchange. This assumption, and the use of the central place market model in analyzing the pattern, are critically evaluated and found to be unwarranted. A review of data and theory leads to the conclusion that environmental and political factors outweigh commerce in shaping the settlement pattern in this area.