Fifty-five pieces of cordage and 13 textile fragments, probably dating from the ninth through sixth millennium B.C., are described from this dry multi-component site. Wood and bone tools may also be associated with the textile and basketry industries. It appears that twining in South America as well as North America is the basic textile technique from which most of the others are derived, and that it has a similar antiquity in both continents. Spiral interlinking and cross-knit looping are also represented in the early deposits, and there is a possibility that simple loom weaving may have a longer history in Peru than previously supposed.

Two hitherto unrelated Teotihuacan mural paintings, no longer in situ, probably are companion pieces from upper and lower walls in the same portico or room or in related porticos or rooms of the same compound. The tassel headdresses worn by the figures in the paintings appear to be insignia of "Rain God"-related social units or institutions, signifying leadership and authority, with military associations. The contexts in which the tassel headdresses occur, both within the ancient city and outside its borders, suggest that persons with rights to the headdress may have been members of or attached to the ruling establishment or the bureaucracy of the Teotihuacan state. The unique two-part notation on the upper wall painting appears to be hierarchically ordered, corresponding to a ranking either of the social units to which the figures belong, or of institutions which they represent, or of places associated with them.

Recent archaeological research in the western Venezuelan llanos has provided very old dates related to maize cultivation. The evidence obtained at Mound I, at the site Hato de la Calzada, indicates that these seasonally flooded savannas were occupied from 920 B.C. to A.D. 500 by the Caño del Oso people who practiced hunting, fishing, and maize farming. Around A.D. 500 manioc cultivation and artificial earthworks were introduced in this area. Both elements were probably obtained from the Arauquinoid people who inhabited the Orinoco riverbanks. The available data regarding the antiquity of manioc, based on agricultural systems in seasonally flooded savannas of South America, suggests that such systems developed in the Amazon Basin.

The use of a hypothesis of conflict between Tula and Cholula by Parsons (1970) to account for settlement patterns and ceramics of the Toltec periods in the Texcoco region has resulted in the introduction of inconsistencies in the settlement interpretations of the preconquest Texcoco sequence. The Tula-Cholula Conflict Hypothesis is based on inadequate data and not supported. However, it is possible to interpret the settlement and ceramic changes of the Texcoco sequence using ecological and cultural factors suggested by Parsons for periods earlier than the Early Toltec. The correlations suggested by Parsons (1970) between the Codex Xolotl and the Early Toltec period rested in part on the use of the Tula-Cholula Conflict Hypothesis. With the elimination of this hypothesis, it is possible to correlate the 2 basic culture patterns of the Codex, as defined by Parsons, with terminal Late Toltec and Early Aztec. These correlations support Dibble"s original thirteenth century date for the early events depicted in the Codex Xolotl.

Sanders (1970) has recently attempted to analyze settlement pattern and demography at the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, on the assumption that an early map called the Maguey plan represents a part of the city. A careful analysis of the physical layout of the community shown on the map, and of several written and pictographic glosses added sometime after the original map was completed, supports the view that the Maguey plan actually shows an island settlement located in a region which had been expropriated by Tenochtitlan following that city's conquest of Azcapotzalco in the early fifteenth century.

Parsons (1970) has attempted to prove that the first part of the Codex Xolotl (Dibble 1951, Planchas I-IV) is based on “folk tradition” rather than actual history. He notes that the codice's claim that the northern and eastern sectors of the Valley of Mexico were depopulated in the early thirteenth century A.D. is contradicted by the archaeological evidence. He believes that this fact, in itself, is sufficient to invalidate the entire text of this important pictographic manuscript. This paper summarizes historical evidence which confirms the general validity of the Codice’s references to persons, places, dates, and events; illustrates the kinds of errors and misrepresentations which characterize early Mesoamerican historical sources of this type; and suggests that the contradiction between historical and archaeological evidence, which is a central issue in Parsons’ “folk tradition” hypothesis, is more easily explained in terms of the political and ideological objectives of prehispanic historians, and by the conventions and standards of historical relevance which they employed in the composition of their narratives.

A series of "Clear Fork" tools from the Rio Grande Plain of southern Texas have been subjected to a functional analysis. Macroscopic, microscopic, and edge angle studies were conducted. A high frequency of nibbling wear was recorded on steeply-angled working edges. Comparisons of these data with several published studies indicate that this tool form was used in the working of wood or other tough materials.

Small quantities of Early Woodland ceramics and knives were identified in a collection excavated from a predominantly Middle Woodland (Havana-Hopewell phase) occupation site in the lower Illinois Valley. Using simple statistical significance tests, hypotheses generated by the vertical and horizontal distribution of these items are tested. The results confirm an earlier observation that Black Sand phase sites tend to be located on a particular soil type, and that the Dickson knife co-occurs with Black Sand ceramics.

The pillaging of archaeological sites throughout the world for salable items is increasing at an alarming rate. Recent information on looting in Mesoamerica, North America, and the Mediterranean area is summarized, and the weaknesses of the UNESCO and U.S.-Mexico treaties are outlined. Also described is a new and extremely destructive form of looting in Mesoamerica. It involves amassing many thousands of dollars from private investors for a project to decimate a chosen site, using explosives and power equipment, and then subdividing the loot among the sponsors. It is time for the SAA to act to stop the wanton destruction of the prehistoric record.

M-shaped eccentrics at Teotihuacan and Tula are interpreted as being the trilobal element, a symbol for water and blood. This element, represented in chipped stone, mural art, and low relief carving at both sites, argues for considerable cultural continuity between Teotihuacan and Tula. Not only the symbol, but to some degree its socio-ideological context, must have persisted from Teotihuacan times into the late Toltec period.

Archaeological site surveying and locational analysis of anthropological data depend in part on discrete subdivisions of geographic space. This fact is amplified in a recent proposal by Plog and Hill (1971) that outlines a numerical system for ordering stream channels and drainage basins as part of the statistical basis for correlation of site data. As proposed, however, their system is unworkable when used in conjunction with available geomorphic and hydrologic data. It is more convenient to use an established and standardized method of ranking drainage networks that allows correlation of comparable geomorphic data between and within basins of all sizes.

Invited by José García Payón of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia to map the central part of El Tajin and to excavate stratigraphic pits for a ceramic sequence, the authors were able also to make considerable progress toward understanding the settlement pattern of this large site. Based on surface survey, intimate knowledge of the mapped area, and the excavations, it is proposed that El Tajin was a city as well as a religious center, with a large stratified population that included skilled artisans, merchants, priests, and administrators. Judging by sherd cover and stratigraphy, the city occupied at least 5 km2 during its maximum period, probably between A.D. 600-900.

The Old Fort (23SA104), an earthwork enclosure and mound complex on a high ridge near the Missouri River in central Missouri, has long been considered a Middle Woodland or Hopewell construction. Excavations in 1970 cross-trenched prehistoric ditches and embankments on the north end of the enclosure. A well-developed soil profile containing predominantly Middle Woodland pottery was exposed, into which aboriginal ditches had been cut. Oneota pottery lay on the floors of these ditches, embedded in a thin laminated horizon of alluvium. Oneota and Middle Woodland pottery are mixed in ditch fills. Field data, although limited, thus support the identification of the enclosure as Oneota, aboriginally constructed on a Middle Woodland habitation site.

Although faunal analysis has a long history in archaeological studies, little emphasis has been placed upon the development of methodologies which would allow the valid and reliable analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites. The most crucial decision which a faunal analyst must make as regards the statistical manipulation of his data concerns the proper unit to use in that manipulation. The 2 units which seem to have gained most popularity in faunal studies are discussed, as are the generally non-comparable results which stem from the various ways in which 1 of these units—the minimum number of individuals—has been applied. Finally, suggestions for the standardization of the use of minimum numbers in faunal analysis are made.

Maps showing the locations of end-scrapers, carinated scrapers, and burins at the Sde Divshon site of the Avdat area are examined by statistical tests for evidence of spatial association in the co-occurrences of pairs of tool types. Contingency table and contiguity ratio tests do not detect the presence of spatial association. Substantial detail is provided on the application of these tests.

A simple and inexpensive qualitative chemical field method, or spot test, is described for ascertaining the presence of enriched soil phosphate. The spot test is an efficient technique for rapid archaeological site surveying, for elimination of guesswork in establishing trench lines, and for creating phosphate maps depicting type, extent, and relative duration of abandoned settlement features.

Iron fragments located during 1969 by the Northwest Hudson Bay Thule Project at the Thuleage site of Silumiut have been subjected to spectrographic, microscopic, microprobe, and neutron activation analyses to determine their origin. Both meteoritic and terrestrial iron are represented and are presumed to have been traded from north-western Greenland. Meteoritic iron is widely spread around Melville Bay, and Norse iron was available from the same area by at least the twelfth century A.D. Norse iron from the Silumiut site is the most southerly known and the earliest radiocarbon dated in the central area. This iron and that from Naujan, Repulse Bay, indicate that native and European metal was an integral, albeit low frequency, part of the central Eskimo tool kit at least 400 yr before Hudson"s discovery of his bay.

X-ray diffraction analysis of red, yellow, white, and black pigments from pictographs in Toquima Cave in central Nevada reveals that gypsum was used as a binder in all colors; ocher (hematite and goethite) and carbon (charcoal) formed the coloring agents. Gypsum and ocher are not found in or near the cave, so the paint mixtures were made from ingredients found elsewhere and then transported to the site of the paintings.

This study concentrates upon the distribution and possible developmental sequence of maize agriculture in the northern Southwest, and its significance for Fremont cultural dynamics. Attention is focused upon the corn known as Fremont Dent, which was one of the main forms of maize raised by the peoples of the Fremont culture. Of particular interest is maize material from the Evans Mound, Grantsville, and Nine Mile Canyon Fremont sites, which demonstrates a pattern of regional distribution within the Fremont culture area. Also of importance is the corn from Clydes Cavern, a well-stratified dry cave in east-central Utah. A large collection of corn was recovered from this site which broadens our knowledge of the forms, origins, and economic relations of the Fremont corn complex.