An analysis of the archaeology of two coastal areas of Central California gives strong support to the sequence of three culture periods proposed in 1939 for the prehistoric archaeology of the lower and middle Sacramento River Valley. For one area, the ocean coast of Marin County just north of San Francisco Bay, the first intensive excavations were made by archaeological field parties from the University of California during the summers of 1940 and 1941 ;.the data and conclusions have not been published previously. For the second area, around the shores of San Francisco Bay, few additions have been made to the artifact collections and field data since the latest full site report was made in 1926.3 However, the interpretation presented here comes from reappraisal of the original artifacts and notes from the limited number of published sites, and from study of museum collections from a greater number of smaller sites which have not yet been described in print.

Twenty-Six years of periodic reconnaissance along the Missouri River bluffs in western Missouri have revealed numerous archaeological sites on which repeated finds of long well-made blades, lanceolate in form, have occurred. These typical blades are not found in the artifact inventories of the reported manifestations of the region, but do seem to bear striking similarities to artifacts of the lithic cultures of the Great Plains. Brief mention of this complex has appeared (Shippee, 1940, p. 12; Wedel, 1943, p. 102) but it has not been fully characterized. Data now available will be presented here; they are tentative until supplemented by excavation.

The four sites which will be described are located in Clay County, Missouri, within a few miles of Kansas City (Fig. 4), in which area the Kansas River joins the Missouri. The prairies of eastern Kansas are relatively close by. The topographical locations and artifact inventories of these sites are practically identical.

In 1932 and 1933 the Laboratory of Anthropology and the University of New Mexico started independently on research projects which involved certain provocative cultural manifestations in north central New Mexico. Dr. H. P. Mera published the results of his investigations in 1938 under the title, “Some Aspects of the Largo Cultural Phase, Northern New Mexico.” In the same year, the author reported on some preliminary work in the same area in an article entitled “The Gallina Phase.“ As the university has continued its work in the more easterly section of this area, the name “Gallina” is retained in this connection, although the two types of material are obviously referable to the same cultural horizon.

In the excavating seasons just prior to the war, sporadic excavations were carried on in this area and a survey of the whole cultural province was continued.

Sufficient work has been done in eastern Massachusetts to permit the formulation of working hypotheses regarding temporal changes in certain traits of the material culture of the aborigines. While the present data seem to show reliable trends, modifications in interpretation will undoubtedly be necessary upon additional excavation.

The chronological framework of the scheme presented here has been built on the basis of variations in shape of the projectile points found in various stratigraphic zones in the ground. Although the number of specimens from any one zone of a site is small, repetition of the phenomena is significant. Larger artifacts have been used when available to supplement and check the chronology based upon projectile points. Unfortunately, such major artifacts are extremely rare. Pottery has been correlated with projectile points by formulating ceramic periods. The author alone is responsible for classification of specimens and for any conclusions and suggestions presented.

On November 15, 1947, Dr. George Grant MacCurdy was killed by an automobile while on his way to Florida. Although he was in his eighty-fifth year, his death came as a distinct shock to all who knew him. He had grown a little frail, perhaps, but he still had full possession of all his faculties and he retained to the full his enthusiasm for and his preoccupation with his chosen field of prehistory. There was a certain changeless quality about him which makes his loss all the more keenly felt.

Although originally a student of geology and biology, Dr. MacCurdy was so stimulated by the exhibit of the bones of Pithecanthropus at the International Zoological Congress held at Leyden in 1896 that he decided to devote himself exclusively to anthropology and prehistoric archaeology. During the following years his student days in the capitals of Europe channeled his major interests into the field of Old World archaeology, of which he became the leading exponent and authority outside of Europe.

Julio César Tello, outstanding Peruvian archaeologist, was born on April 11, 1880, under humble circumstances in the Indian village of Huarochirí, Department of Lima, in the high Andes. He died on June 3, 1947, in the city of Lima and was buried with the pomp and pageantry accorded to a Minister of State. Tello was of almost pure Indian blood, of which he was proud. His father, Julian Tello, evidently was a man of local importance as he became alcalde, but the family was poor and Julio Tello's first memory was of playing on an adobe floor. His mother was María Asunción Rojas de Tello, a descerident of the last Inca curaca who governed Huarochirí. During his childhood, Julio's father made periodic journeys to the coast where he visited relatives in the small fishing villages south of Lima. He often took his son with him on these trips.

In the summer of 1937, a new paleo-Indian site was discovered at the south end of Odell Lake in Oregon. Odell Lake (PI. VI), lies in a glacial trough just east of the divide in the Cascade Mountains, in T 23 S, R 6½ E, Willamette Meridian. The elevation of the lake is 4,792 feet (Deschutes National Forest Map, Willamette Meridian, 1947).

In the summer of 1946, the proprietors, Wilson J. Wade and Charles A. Porter, were excavating for the foundations and basement of a lodge on the south side of the outlet of Odell Lake on a bench or terrace at the east end, about 25 feet above the lake. Richard P. Bottcher, Engineer of the U. S. Forest Service, Deschutes National Forest, was present. The excavation went through a bed of pumice and into the glacial moraine on which it rests. Bottcher picked up points which he thought came from under the pumice. He showed these to Mr. Phil Brogan of Bend, Oregon, Managing Editor of the Bend Bulletin, who was aware of the previous finds under Crater Lake pumice. Brogan shortly afterward called my attention to the site.

Harold S. Gladwin in a recent publication voiced a question of vital importance to Southwestern archaeology. Can dendrochronology tell us anything concerning the effects of climate on aboriginal agriculture?

Both Douglass and Schulman have claimed that correlations can be established between tree-growth and winter precipitation, but each of them has been explicit in saying that summer rainfall has little, if any effect upon the growth of trees. Since it would seem that summer rainfall, during the crop-growing months, is the only season of moisture which could effect the agricultural well being of Pueblo peoples, I do not see how narrow tree-rings can be regarded as providing any indications of economic disaster in ancient times.

In the January issue Robert Merrill reviews a study of mine called Concepts and Structures of Maya Calendrical Arithmetics. Considering the flinty nature of the material I wish he had noted that there is a section devoted to “Summary.” Two “Appendices” also failed to get mentioned, but the other sections are characterized briefly. Section XV was mistakenly grouped with others as dealing with “analysis of various moon formulae.” In it, a moon formula is simply assumed, and the subject is a theory, admittedly incomplete, as to how the Maya computer of the Eclipse Table on pp. 51-8 of the Dresden Codex may have been able to do as well as he did without understanding the celestial mechanics involved. Thus, this short section has a bearing on just how “gifted” the much-praised ancient Maya astronomer-priests really were.

Early in May 1947, a United States Geological Survey field party of five was flown by ski plane to the headwaters of the Utukok River in northwestern Alaska, about 200 miles southwest of Barrow. Three 18–foot canvas boats of a special folding design were taken in along with enough equipment for four months. Food caches had been flown in to six localities on the 200–mile–long river a short time before the group landed. When the “break–up” came late in May the party started down the river working out the geology of the area from a series of 18 camps which were established before reaching the Arctic Ocean in August.

During the season 17 archaeological sites were discovered. It is believed that most of these sites are of Eskimo origin and are probably fairly recent. However, an important exception is a well–made Folsom point, announcement of which has been made.