Like any scientific technique, radiocarbon dating has limitations, and its results cannot be interpreted uncritically. The archaeological record of Childers, a Late Woodland site in eastern North America, and inferences concerning its occupational history are evaluated here against radiocarbon dates from the site. The record suggests a single, relatively brief, occupation, but radiocarbon-dating results suggest either a much longer continuous occupation or a long series of shorter ones. The apparent conflict between the archaeological record and radiocarbon results is resolved by considering context and integrity of radiocarbon samples, as well as the probabilistic character of the radiocarbon method itself. Considerable dispersion in dating results can occur even in relatively brief occupations, casting doubt on the uncritical interpretation of raw radiocarbon results. Childers's occupational history and chronological placement have important implications for regional culture process during the early Late Woodland interval, and suggest a time lag in the acceptance of cultural innovations.

Parasitological studies of archaeological sites can be used to interpret past behavior and living conditions. During the 1980s problem-oriented research into prehistoric- and historical-period parasitism developed and resulted in the field of archaeoparasitology. Archaeoparasitology attempts to integrate parasite data into archaeological theory and interpretation. Within the last decade, four major archaeoparasitological laboratories emerged. They developed interpretive frameworks that apply parasitological data to a remarkable variety of prehistoric behaviors. Parasite remains can be used to reconstruct aspects of diet, health, and other behaviors such as transhumance and trade. Finally, analysis of the distribution of parasite remains can be used to interpret aspects of site-formation processes.

Ethnoarchaeological data indicate that various factors, including size of prey, influence both transport of animal parts and how animals are reduced to humanly usable or consumable portions. Remains of two taxa of pinnipeds of markedly different body size from two sites of similar age on the southern Northwest Coast of North America do not vary significantly in skeletal parts represented, which suggests similar transport histories. Butchering marks on bones of both taxa indicate that the butchery procedure was intertaxonomically similar for joint disarticulation and limb filleting. Bones of the larger taxon display significantly more butchery marks than bones of the smaller one, indicating the larger taxon was subjected to much more intensive butchery than the smaller one due to differences in body size.

Previous research about rodent disturbance has led to various predictions about the effects of burrowing rodents on site stratigraphy and the relation between material sizes and the degree of displacement by rodents. This brief report describes the reexcavation in 1988 of a 1-x-2-m unit originally excavated and backfilled with clean sifted sediment in 1981. New materials introduced by gophers during the seven-year hiatus help to refine earlier predictions about rodent stratigraphy and also indicate the rate at which small-sized materials may be transported by burrowing activity.

The Calaveras skull, first reported in 1866, represents the earliest purported fossil human discovery in California and one of the earliest in the New World. The specimen is in the possession of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University. The validity of the original "Tertiary" age assignment was rejected by the first generation of professional American archaeologists early in the twentieth century. Radiocarbon analyses using both conventional decay counting and accelerator mass spectrometry indicate a late Holocene age for the Calaveras skull.

Archaeologists have devised various methods to estimate the number of past site occupants. These techniques fall into a number of categories, but I will focus on two common approaches based on (1) the amount of roofed space each individual needs, and (2) the total site area and the number of persons per hectare. This report suggests that neither of these methods is fully appropriate for ancient military installations. Population estimates derived by the traditional techniques for the Byzantine fortress at Isthmia, Greece, are compared with numbers obtained by factors specific to a military camp. Through the examination of historical sources and contemporary military regulations, this paper presents a more appropriate coefficient for ancient fortresses, which had much denser populations than habitation sites. The use of such analogies, which are specific to the problem at hand, greatly increase the reliability of inferences.

An attempt to replicate results of a previous dietary trace-element study of northwestern Alaska (Connor and Slaughter 1984) was made with human- and animal-bone samples from the Naknek region, southwest Alaska. Trace elements of special interest are strontium and zinc because of previously postulated relation of abundances of these elements to marine and terrestrial dietary foci in human remains from archaeological sites (i.e., Nelson et al. 1986; Schoeninger and Peebles 1981). Related objectives were to develop evidence supporting Harritt's (1988) proposal for the existence of separate late prehistoric inland and coastal social and territorial entities in the region, which would be reflected as a dichotomy of trace levels in human bone; differences in abundances of strontium and zinc trace elements in bones representing each group should reflect diets based on either terrestrial fauna and plants or largely of marine sea mammals and shellfish. We find that there are no characteristic trace-element patterns for differentiating historic and late prehistoric coastal or interior inhabitants of the Alaska Peninsula, in spite of historic and archaeological evidence that indicates that such patterns should be present. This lack of patterning is traced to an erroneous assumption made initially by the present authors, and by Connor and Slaughter (1984): Because 99 percent of all digested Sr is deposited in the skeleton of vertebrates (including marine), there is no direct correlation between Sr content of human bones and the proportion of sea-mammal or teleost consumption in the prehistoric human diet.

Stable-isotopic studies of prehistoric diet have usually confined discussions of isotopic variability within populations to sex-related differences in diet and have rarely considered other social or cultural sources of dietary variation. Extant data from eastern North America suggest that isotopic variation (and hence dietary variation) may have been greatest within the relatively complex Middle Mississippian societies of the late prehistoric period. Correlations between isotopic variability and mortuary variability (an indication of social position) were identified in a sample of burials from the Angel site, a Middle Mississippian (A.D. 1200-1450) civic-ceremonial center in southwestern Indiana. These correlations demonstrate how contextually informed isotopic studies can be used to examine the relations between social position and diet. This approach may be especially useful for studies of social interactions between different populations.

Early 14C dates from Meadowcroft Rockshelter have engendered debate on the antiquity of human occupation in North America. Although the investigators of this important site conclude that particulate and nonparticulate contamination have not affected the radiocarbon dates, several points of confusion remain in regard to the question of coal contamination. We clarify these issues, provide comparative data from other sites, and recommend specific tests that are necessary to negate or support the issue of "dead carbon" contamination of radiocarbon samples.

Tankersley and Munson (1992) reiterate that the early and, perhaps, some of the later Meadowcroft Rockshelter radiocarbon dates may be contaminated by anthropogenically derived coal or dissolved coal by-products. Their allegations are assessed in light of available data and rejected. Presently, there is no evidence whatsoever for particulate or nonparticulate contamination of any part of the Meadowcroft Rockshelter radiocarbon chronology.

A section of worked mammoth tusk reported to have been recovered but unrecognized as an artifact in January 1964 was actually discovered in November 1963 and recognized by several people at that time. The provenience for the tusk segment is given as unit B, which is declared to be pre-Clovis in age and more than 12,000 years old. The postulated translocation of the tusk, as well as other faunal remains and Clovis artifacts, is attributed to the influence of spring discharge and saturation of sediments. My salvage excavations in December 1963 and January 1964 are outlined, and my conclusions are not compatible with the concept of large-scale intrusion of artifacts and bones. The stratum designated as unit B in the north bank is entirely of Clovis age, and the mammoth-tusk artifact was coeval with its enclosing sediments.

F. E. Green has corrected errors regarding the provenience and prior determination of the artifactual nature of the ivory semifabricate reported by Saunders et al. (1990) and has brought forth new information regarding the spring deposits of the north bank of the gravel pit at the Clovis site. This statement addresses the contemporaneity of Clovis occupation with deposition of the gray sand and the relation of the gray sand to spring deposits. We offer it in expectation that a better understanding of north-bank stratigraphy and geochronology might result regardless of which of two views of the archaeology of the gray sand eventually prevails.

Despite the much briefer period of research and many fewer archaeologists involved, there is now clear and incontrovertible evidence of human occupation in Australia at a period significantly earlier than can be documented with comparable evidence from the New World. An explanation of the differences in the present record between these two regions that relies on an insufficient study of situations favorable to the preservation of earlier material in the New World seems inadequate in light of the total accumulated evidence.