It has become increasingly apparent that mathematical models may play a significant role in anthropological methodology. Less apparent is the fact that such models have an important place in formulation of theory as well. At the same time, many errors appear in attempts to use mathematical models. This paper attempts to indicate the nature of such errors and a methodology by which they can be avoided. A case study is presented showing the relationship of mathematical models to anthropological theory.

The statistical method of nearest neighbor analysis is presented for the study of distributional patterns of artifacts over occupation floors. It is compared with the previously presented method of dimensional analysis of variance. Nearest neighbor analysis is found to be much more sensitive in its detection of non-random spatial clustering. It has the advantage of not being particularly limited in application by problems of size or shape of the area under study, although it does require coordinates for each artifact and cannot be applied when only counts per grid unit are known. On the other hand, nearest neighbor analysis encounters considerable problems in defining the artifact clusters on an area and in comparing the distributions of several artifact types. These problems severely limit the utility of nearest neighbor analysis at the moment. Dimensional analysis of variance handles them better.

The study of trash, although long in the forefront of actual archaeological research, has seldom been conducted in such a way as to emphasize the social and cultural context of the rules governing trash disposal. Evidence from the Early Dynastic town site of Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt is used to support the contention that a knowledge of human patterns of trash disposal can be a valuable tool in the study of the composition and functioning of "urban" centers, as well as of general use in interpreting archaeological remains.

This study is a comparison of the results of a variety of clustering methods and 2 multidimensional scaling techniques on data from sites in northern Chile. While differences do occur, the similarities among the results are strong in spite of differing inputs. In general, results of relative frequency analysis appear to be superior to those of presence/absence, and the techniques used seem to be viable additions to existing archaeological tools.

The Navaho Reservoir District is an arbitrarily defined unit of salvage archaeological research located in northwestern New Mexico and adjacent portions of Colorado. As such, it is used here as a data source for the study of ninth and tenth century population dislocations due to climatic change and river erosion. The affected Pueblo farming peoples migrated by means of slow, steady upstream drift. Violent land competition between the agrarian communities is offered as an explanation for the use of the leap-frog rather than wave strategy in population relocation.

Despite almost 100 yr of research on the Yucatan peninsula, including several major archaeological and ethnohistoric projects, an organized synthesis of the pre-Late Postclassic culture history of this region has yet to appear. In the present paper, a trial coordination of the accumulated archaeological and ethnohistoric materials dealing with the eighth through twelfth centuries A.D. is presented, and a culture historic framework for this period is suggested.

This paper presents a quantitative method for estimating the total live weight of fish based upon linear measurement of various skeletal elements. The method has the advantage of being both highly accurate and indicating the confidence limits of the estimates. The method is based upon Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's concept of “… weigh[ing] the animal with a measuring-rod…” (Thompson 1917, in Bonner 1966:16).

In recent years, the importance of seasonal dating in archaeology has been widely acknowledged. To this end, relatively sophisticated methods of determining the season of death of cockles (Chione stutchbury) from coastal midden sites in New Zealand, have been developed. These methods can only be applied when the midden deposits contain cockles and those middens are normally found in the vicinity of lagoons, sandy beaches, or estuaries. However, the Echinodermata are endemic to the rocky shore sub-tidal zone, and recent research in New Zealand on one species of echinoid (Evechinus chloroticus) has defined growth patterns which are seasonally dependant. This research has provided the basis for exploring a method of determining seasonal dates for midden deposits containing Echinoidea. This method, when fully developed, should prove useful for extracting seasonal data from middens which do not have any cockles, and will provide a further means of cross-checking seasonal dates.

Popular misconceptions relative to atlatl functions are identified. The manner in which an atlatl functions to increase spear impetus is explained and illustrated. Its performance is tested by experiments and resulting data are provided. These data indicate that the atlatl provides approximately 60% increased spear thrust. Experiments fail to indicate any benefit derived from the use of atlatl "weights."

The organic material, especially the wooden objects, from the Key Marco, Florida collection are badly warped and are in an advanced stage of disintegration. An experiment was conducted to preserve a wooden stool from this collection in order to prevent further degradation. The specimen was treated with polyethylene glycol (Carbowax 1000). The loss of the specimens for study from this famous site is lamentable and should cause archaeologists to reflect upon their obligations.

Seeds, fiber samples, and boll parts recovered from 4 pre-ceramic sites in the Ancon-Chillon area of Peru were compared with those of living forms, both wild and cultivated, collected from the coastal areas of Ecuador and Peru. All the living forms belong to the species, Gossypium barbadense L., and it was concluded that the archaeological cotton belonged to this same species. Chocolate and reddish-brown colored fibers recovered from 4 sites (Tank, Punta Grande, Pampa, and Camino) and encompassing a time sequence from approximately 2500 B.C. to approximately 1750 B.C. resembled closely those still to be found in present-day cultivars in coastal Peru and Ecuador. On the other hand, certain characteristics exhibited by the archaeological material (small beaked bolls, fuzzy seeds, narrow fiber diameter) resemble more closely those of present-day wild forms. Seed size and fiber diameter show progressive increases from the older to the more recent levels. The finding of (1) chocolate colored fibers and (2) a single boll with a fringeless nectary (both characteristic of G. barbadense) among the archaeological samples suggests that they represent a very early stage in the domestication of that species.

An archeological chronology for the region of Mobile Bay, Alabama was first worked out by Trickey in 1958 (Trickey 1958). Systematic excavations and radiocarbon dating now suggest that Indian sites, marked by shell middens and artifacts, were periodically overwhelmed by rise in water level and then re-occupied during each succeeding state of low sea level. Middens are dated at 4100, 3090, 2040 and 1080 B.P.

It is proposed that archaeologists can apply their method and theory to the study of material culture in modern industrial societies for the purpose of deriving explanatory statements of modern human behavior.

In a recent report, J. D. Nance, on the basis of a microwear analysis, proposed that serrated Stockton points were not projectile points but were used as sawing and whittling implements. The present note suggests that the microwear traces upon which Nance based his conclusions were the result of manufacturing techniques rather than utilization, and that his conclusions must, in any case, be regarded as doubtful since his approach was not firmly based on hypothesis testing and did not use adequate experimental controls. The writer stresses that these omissions by Nance are only too common in many recent microwear studies, and until a proper experimental approach has been developed the potential of microwear studies will not be realized.

Some unwarranted conclusions drawn by Speth in a recent article in American Antiquity are pointed out, and clarification of some other concepts referred to in that paper is suggested. The validity of an equation used by Speth is questioned and cautious application of some other equations is suggested.

Larson's hypothesis that southeastern warfare was instituted to increase the agricultural territories of demographically expanding Mississippian groups is not demonstrable for similar protohistoric chiefdoms in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Ethnohistorical data support an alternative perspective of warfare as a principal equilibrium-regulating institution through which cancellation of status deterioration, common in the peculiar ranked social structures of lower valley groups, might have been achieved.

Casteel's contention that fish remains can yield information on territorial exploitation can be expanded to include inferences about the necessary technology.

The beginning of the end of the dominance of stone tools, in Europe, began with the spread of the use of metallic axes. A suggestion is made that in Mesoamerica, as in Europe, the metallic axe was replacing those of stone, while other stone tools remained in common use.

Snow's thesis that shellfish were not eaten by archaic peoples of North America until A.D. 1 is questioned.