In the Summer of 1953, archaeological investigations were again carried out by the National Museum of Canada on the early Sheguiandah site, Manitoulin Island. Previous work (Lee 1954a) showed that the hilltop had been occupied by at least 4 successive cultures. These were represented by: (1) a thin surface scattering of what is probably Point Peninsula; (2) a prolific level of materials closely related to George Lake 1 (Greenman 1943); (3) a thin level producing early projectile points; (4) a level of large blades not identified culturally. A number of problems demanded further examination. Insufficient charcoal had been found for radiocarbon dating. Professional archaeological and geological opinions on the dates had ranged so widely as to be almost useless. Two of the 4 cultural levels remained unexplained and the presence of another was suspected. The level of projectile points was too thinly represented. No bones had been found, although part of the site was regarded as a habitation area.

This, the third article of the series, describes sites visited, or on which test excavations were made, during the fall of 1949 and spring of 1950. No extensive excavations were undertaken due to the press of other duties. The sites at Satohama and Daigi (Miyagi Prefecture) have been partially excavated by Japanese archaeologists, but no English language data are available. The remainder of the sites reported herein have not previously been reported.

Can Flecks of charcoal in soils and hearths be concentrated into a usable sample for radiocarbon dating? It is impracticable to ship large volumes of soil with low carbon content from distant sites, yet dating them may be most important. This question was informally discussed following the Wenner-Gren Conference on African Prehistory held at the University of Chicago in February, 1953, and as a result Robert J. Braidwood proposed that an experimental field laboratory be established that summer at an excavation where water and electricity were available if needed. The Department of Anthropology of the University of Chicago and the Illinois State Museum were sponsoring the excavation of a rock shelter near Modoc, Illinois, and I was invited to conduct experiments there, trying out any technics that I wished. It was hoped that these experiments would result in establishing a simple procedure that could be used in many parts of the world for procuring radiocarbon samples.

In the fall of 1954 the undersigned had occasion to investigate the discovery of an eastern fluted projectile point in an excavation being made for the erection of a flagpole memorial to the man who originated the Tadpole Club. In preparation for this expedition to a Boy Scout camp near the Delaware Water Gap we decided to build a motor-driven sifter. This machine has operated so well on this and succeeding trips that it seems to warrant a brief description.

The accompaning sketch (Fig. 128) shows the basic principles. The screen, mounted at a slant on 1/4-inch thick plywood legs, is free to move back and forth due to the flexibility of the plywood. A little experimentation demonstrated that about 150 strokes was right for most sifting operations.

Many archaeological sites in the Missouri Valley have produced large quantities of unworked animal bones. Most of these “food” bones are mammalian, with some bird, turtle, and fish. Recent studies by Lehmer (1952; 1954) and the series of studies by the author in American Antiquity (Vols. 17, 19, and 21) indicate that this material has important cultural implications which should not be overlooked. First of all, it is desirable to review briefly some of the questions which can be answered by study of the unworked bone.

1. Did the people exercise any choice in the age of the animals they killed? This question can be determined with a fair degree of probability only with the mammals. An estimate of the age can be determined from the teeth (whether they are deciduous or permanent, and by the amount of wear) and from the relation of the epiphyses to the diaphyses. Criteria for these estimates, applicable to the larger game animals, are given in standard textbooks of the anatomy of the domestic animals.

The Following 3 papers continue a series of brief articles on this subject appearing from time to time in American Antiquity (Vols. 17, 19). Each paper presents a group of raw data with some brief suggestions for their interpretation. All but one are the result of the study of materials recovered from archaeological sites excavated by the River Basin Surveys program of archaeological salvage in the Missouri Basin. That one (No. 6) dealt with an elk specimen from Michigan. Paper Number 1 was concerned with the analysis of the antelope bone from 2 sites in the Angostura Reservoir, South Dakota. Number 2 dealt with the bison bone from 2 earth-lodge villages sites in the Oahe Reservoir near Pierre, South Dakota. Number 3 compared the use of small and large animals as food in one site in the Garrison Reservoir, North Dakota. Number 4 was a comparison of the treatment of bison bone from 3 earth-lodge villages, 2 in Oahe Reservoir and one in Garrison Reservoir.

In recent years the Okhotsk Sea region has become of increasing interest to students of New World cultural origins and relationships, particularly with regard to the problem of the Aleutians as a diffusion channel. But any real attack on this problem has been hampered by the gross inadequacy of the data. The few available sources in western languages are far from satisfactory; and attempts to augment these by utilizing illustrations from Japanese publications, divorced from the explanatory text, are fraught with danger.

The writer has therefore undertaken a systematic survey of the rather considerable field work done in this region by Japanese archaeologists in prewar years. Reports on this have been published exclusively in the Japanese language, which has placed them effectively beyond the reach of American archaeologists, although certain ones have been cited in American works for their illustrations.

If a man who merely amuses himself by flaking flints ventures to offer advice to professional archaeologists, he may be set down as loutish or impertinent. But I will take the chance. I should like to ask the professional brethren to restudy some of the North American sites and look carefully for blades or lamellar flakes. For I am persuaded that blades will be found wherever long, thin, and shapely projectile points are found.

In spite of Holmes (1919, Chapters 13 and 19), it is extremely difficult to make a pretty projectile point by nibbling down a core, whereas it is easy to make one by trimming a blade. The circumstantial evidence indcates that any workman, early or late, who wished to make a long, thin, and delicate point would begin with a blade rather than with a core. The most successful of the contemporary fakers, indeed, have simplified the process by sawing out flat blades with a lapidary saw.

The use of jade by the ancient indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica was widespread and endured for a long time. The earliest jade objects from this region have been found in pre-Classic sites at Tlatilco, Zacatenco (Vaillant 1930), Ticoman (Vaillant 1930), Gualupita (Vaillant 1934), and El Arbollilo (Vaillant 1935) in Mexico; and Finca Arizona (Shook 1945) and Kaminaljuyii (Shook and Kidder 1952) in Guatemala. Radiocarbon dating of the Tlatilco site gave an age about 1500 B.C. (Libby 1952). The use of jade continued in Mexico until the early days of the Spanish colonial period when its use as a piedra de ijada or amulet for alleviating pain in the loins and for curing diseases of the kidney had a wide vogue. Fifty years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, jade had become rare, largely because the supply obtainable from the nobles and chiefs was by then depleted (Monardes 1569), and very soon after the use and all knowledge of jade disappeared from Mesoamerica where but a short time before it was looked upon as the most precious of substances.

The first season's excavations of the University of New Mexico at the site called Pottery Mound, near Los Lunas, New Mexico, have revealed a painted kiva with interesting differences when compared with those heretofore discovered. The excavations were carried on as part of the 1954 Archaeological Field Session of the University of New Mexico. Work was continued at the site for a period of 6 weeks. It is contemplated that excavations will be resumed in the season of 1955.

Pottery Mound is a large site covering approximately 2 acres. It has been known for the last 2 decades to archaeologists and laymen alike as a place prolific in many kinds of pottery. It is this circumstance which has given the place its name.

Excavations of the 1954 season were carried on in the northeast portion of the mound. Also a very extensive refuse pile on the south periphery of the site was trenched for stratigraphical purposes.

The following survey is intended to cover that portion of Asia lying nearest to the New World and hence presumably most closely related thereto historically and culturally — that is, the lower Lena basin and the region lying east of it, forming the northeastern extension of the continent. For the sake of precision we will set as limits the 110th meridian on the west and latitude 62°, roughly that of Yakutsk, on the south.

As in comparable regions of our own continent, vast portions of this area still remain archaeologically unknown. However, significant work has been done in recent years which merits the attention of Americanists, in particular that by A. P. Okladnikov along the Lena River.

In the spring of 1948 during an archaeological survey of the headwaters of the Lake Norfork Reservoir Area on the North Fork of White River in Ozark County, Missouri, an unusual flint object was found. This artifact, illustrated as Figure 35A, was picked up on the surface of a prehistoric Indian village on the left bank of the North Fork of the White River about 1/4 mile below Tecumseh, Missouri. The only other object found on this site, other than flint chips, flakes, and spalls, was what appears to be a long slender projectile point, B in Figure 35. The owner of the land, since deceased, had picked up a fragment of a full-grooved limestone ax while cultivating the field many years before.

The problematical form appears to have been made from a short, stubby projectile point of quartzite, a stone commonly utilized by the prehistoric Indians of Ozark County.

Since the analysis by R. F. Heizer and R. K. Beardsley (1943) of 7 fired clay figurines from 3 localities in California, archaeological investigations in the central and northern areas of the state have produced more knowledge of the types and occurrence of this form.

The 25 figurines discussed here include 3 from site 4-Son-299, 4 from site 4-Mrn-168, sites excavated by the University of California Archaeological Survey, and 18 from Gunther Island, site 4-Hum-67, of which 10 are in the private collection of H. H. Stuart of Eureka, California, and the remainder in the State Indian Museum at Sacramento.

The specimens here reported on, which represent more than 3 times the number available for analysis in 1943, provide additional data on design motifs and distribution, and in addition possess much more clearly definable cultural associations than do the original 7 specimens.

The writer recently observed in a private collection an artifact that is of interest because it has been identified as a kiva bell, an object occasionally found archseologically and still used by the modern Pueblo Indians.

The artifact was found many years ago on the site of Rainbow House, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. It resembles a blade, being tapered and rounded on one end, squared on the other, with 2 notches set toward the squared end. It was apparently first percussion chipped and then polished on both sides, without any attempt being made to eliminate all traces of the chipping around the edges. The material is a finegrained black basalt. It is broken across the middle, but this is reported to have occurred after it was found. The dimensions are: length 24.5 cm., width 8.8 cm., and thickness about 1.3 cm.

The identification was made by a Cochiti Indian who said that there are others similar to it in use at Cochiti today.

In this day when, according to perhaps too sanguine recent reports, physical anthropology, ethnology, linguistics, folklore, and archaeology are happily converging, it was a shock to hear that a relatively well-known archaeological site on the north side of the Grand Dalles of the Columbia River in the state of Washington is commonly referred to as Wakemáp (rhymes with “lakemap”). According to John M. Corbett of the U.S. National Park Service who has recently visited this old site, originally described in 1805 by Lewis and Clark, such a completely anglicized pronunciation is now common currency among the various archaeological field parties who have been working at or near the site during the last few years, and he never heard of or thought of it as being pronounced otherwise.

Actually, the near-correct pronunciation is Wakemap (rhymes with “knock ‘em up”). (For a phonetic rendering see Spier and Sapir 1930: 164.) The name is Wishram in derivation, as given by Sapir (1909:201), and the traditional site was so identified and designated by Schenck and myself in 1924 (Strong, Schenck, and Steward 1930: 6, 8), and by the Indians in that vicinity.