The nature of Early Paleoindian economies in late Pleistocene eastern North America has been extensively debated by archaeologists. To better understand paleoeconomies we need to examine intraregional and interregional diversity in the production, consumption, distribution, and exchange of materials that sustained or reproduced early Paleoindian livelihoods. Coarse-grained comparisons drawn on the composition of flaked-stone tool assemblages from early Paleoindian sites in the Northeast (western New York State) and the western Midwest (the confluence area of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois rivers) show varying degrees of homogeneity and heterogeneity in the use of tool stone. Statistically significant patterns from stone procurement and tool manufacturing sites, base camps, and food procurement and processing sites are presented in support of a pancontinental model of flexible economies during a period of rapid and dramatic environmental change.

Blood residues have been microscopically and chemically detected on fluted projectile points from eastern Beringia. From these residues a variety of large mammal species, including mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), have been identified using biochemical and molecular-biological methods. This is the first time a direct association has been made between the use of fluted projectile points and human predation of extinct fauna and other large Pleistocene mammals in arctic and subarctic North America. This suggests the northern fluted-point assemblages are part of the Paleoindian big-game hunting tradition that was widespread in North America at the close of the Pleistocene.

Recent studies of Middle Paleolithic lithic assemblages have focused on questions of interest to lithic analysts everywhere, including the effect of raw material availability, occupation span, and tool maintenance on assemblage characteristics. In this paper, we add to the growing database on Middle Paleolithic assemblages using material recently excavated at Combe-Capelle Bas in the Dordogne region of southern France. The site provides a unique opportunity for addressing questions concerning lithic assemblage variability because it is located on a high quality flint source. We present data on core reduction, blank selection, raw material procurement, and lithic transport that provide information on lithic use pertinent for both Old World and New World archaeologists. Our data show that raw material availability and group mobility influenced blank selection, production, and transport at Combe-Capelle.

Archaeometric methods such as provenance studies must be predicated on understanding the processes that underlie the production of this information. This study focuses on element-based provenance studies of Mississippian-period pottery, which are complicated by the fact that this pottery generally was tempered with crushed shell in different amounts and of unknown species composition. Experiments conducted at the Missouri University Research Reactor (MURR) have documented elemental dilution and enhancement effects of adding shell temper to clay. Mathematical corrections previously have been employed to correct for shell-temper effects. Results of physical, chemical, and mathematical approaches to eliminating the effects of shell tempering indicate that mathematical methods, based on a firm knowledge of shell composition, provide the most efficient correction.

The jackknife technique is applied here to measures of diversity in an archaeological context. As described, the technique requires no assumptions about the underlying structure of the data being analyzed and, thus, is offered as an alternative to simulation and regression approaches. Most important, with jackknifing it is possible to attach statistical significance to differences in diversity, allowing for more meaningful comparisons between archaeological assemblages.

Data from human paleofecal samples can be used to address a variety of questions, primarily the reconstruction of diet, but also the analysis of nutrition, health, technology, and behavior Statistical analyses of constituents can be used to broaden the potential of paleofecal data, as well as to detail cuisine and to address larger issues of settlement/subsistence models. This potential is illustrated with a cluster analysis of paleofecal constituents from three late prehistoric period sites along the northern shore of ancient Lake Cahuilla, located in the Coachella Valley of southern California. These data were used to test competing settlement/subsistence models: one of large permanent lakeside villages dependent on lacustrine resources, and the other of seasonal, rather than permanent, lakeshore occupation. In addition, the analysis revealed additional details of diet and cuisine in the late prehistoric period.

A series of eight replication experiments tests the proposition that human trampling of stone flakes can produce edge damage that mimics deliberate retouch. Retouchlike edge damage, breakage, and other forms of macroscopic mechanical damage were observed on large numbers of pieces in all trampled sets. Experiments measured the relative contributions of three variables-raw material, artifact density, and substrate-in generating damage. Results indicate that while all three factors contribute to some degree, substrate plays the most decisive role, and that artifacts are more likely to exhibit damage if trampled on an impenetrable substrate. It was further found that trampling transforms flakes into pseudo-tools that can be classified as formal tools using a standard typology. Many of these are notched and denticulate pieces, indicating that special caution is needed in behavioral interpretations based on these tool types, and that the European Paleolithic Denticulate Mousterian industry requires critical reassessment.

An artifact ascribed to the Anasazi culture (dated here to 920 ± 35 B.P.) is unique in its integrity, construction technique, style, and materials, including multiple yucca ropes with attached adult scarlet macaw feathers joined to a Sciurus aberti (tassel-eared squirrel) pelt and hide straps. We applied methods from anthropology and molecular biology to ascertain the origins of materials and manufacturing technique. The cytochrome b gene from the ancient DNA of the pelt was sequenced in its entirety. This gene was unique as defined by new nucleotide substitutions that distinguished it from the other S. aberti alleles. Phylogenetic trees constructed by both neighbor-joining and maximum parsimony methods are consistent with this unique allele being most closely related to genes from two extant American Southwest S. aberti subspecies and more distantly related to Mexican S. aberti genes. Our observations support the conclusion that the entire artifact was constructed in the American Southwest using native materials, including the squirrel pelt and scarlet macaw feathers. This contradicts a prior hypothesis that the feather rope component was assembled before being traded north from Mexico.

Recently, the Flote-Tech machine-assisted flotation system was introduced as a new technique for processing soil samples in arid environments and areas with limited or no access to water resources. This system uses water recirculation in a closed loop between a water reservoir and a flotation tank, aided by diffused air, to extract archaeological botanical remains from soil samples. The paper presents two experiments conducted to assess macroremain recovery rate, flotation rate, and the potential for cross-contamination between soil samples. In addition, Flote-Tech recovery and flotation rates are compared with rates achieved using IDOT manual and SMAP machine-assisted systems. The first set of experiments using the original 1-mm screen in the flotation box received high ratings for large, medium, and small seeds, but rated poorly for very small seeds. After installing a .5-mm screen, a higher percentage of small and very small seeds was recovered. Flotation rates for the customized Flote-Tech system ranked high, matching flotation rates for SMAP systems and out-performing manual IDOT systems by a factor of four to eight. In addition, a distinct advantage of the Flote-Tech system over other machine-assisted and manual systems is the elimination of cross-contamination between samples.

Experiments in which recently excavated artifacts were soaked for at least four hours in 40 g/liter aqueous solutions of CalgonTM (sodium [hexa]metaphosphate), then rinsed off in a colander under tap water, show this method to be 1.5 to 6.4 times more thorough than traditional scrubbing while taking only two-thirds the time. This method, particularly effective in cleaning large batches of small or intricately surfaced objects, is a practical cost-saving procedure in both public and private-sector research.

Howell and Kintigh (1996) argue for ascribed leadership at Hawikku based on biological kinship within cemetery areas and nonrandom distribution of higher-diversity burials. Their statistical evidence could be questioned based on principles of two-tailed null hypotheses, the Bonferroni principle, and other aspects. Especially when taking the bioanthropological literature more adequately into account, alternate conclusions somewhat at variance with Howell and Kintigh's concerning biological and social patterning according to gender could be envisioned.

Corruccini questions our identification of kin group-based cemeteries and our inference of an ascriptive component of leadership at Hawikku based on the presumed use of flawed sex determinations, statistical problems, and inattention to potential gender-based differences in morphological similarity. We address each of these topics and present new evidence to support our contention that cemeteries at Hawikku were kin based.