The Past Decade has witnessed a phenomenal development of historical archaeology in America; concomitantly, there is an upsurge of interest in the European artifacts found on the sites which have been excavated. On sites which were exclusively European in occupancy, these goods had served domestic purposes only; on Indian sites, they represented the new needs of the aborigines, the policies of colonial administration, and numerous other facts which it is not necessary to detail here. These European artifacts, and particularly the ones found on sites occupied by Indians, have aroused the interest of archaeologists, partly for their own sake, and partly because they seem to offer a new means of dating. It is with the last-named possibility that this article is concerned.

Indian sites of historic vintage frequently yield European artifacts, especially along the coastal areas. Many of these villages, however, are otherwise unknown to history. If some means of accurately dating them could be devised, they would at least be assignable to some specific period.

Arecent Paper by Sears (1952) calls attention to an overall time trend in the design changes of various complicated stamped pottery styles in the southeastern United States. His analysis raises the question as to whether certain principles implied might not have more general application for the understanding of historical phenomena.

A number of years ago I ventured a definition of what seemed to be a kind of entity in the history of aboriginal Peruvian ceramics. This was termed a “pottery tradition.”

The Classification of pottery types has apparently already reached a satisfactory degree of descriptive accuracy. Although problems remain, numerous site comparisons and important cultural connections have been based upon pottery. Classification of stone artifacts is not in so happy a state. Wheat has also recently called attention to this fact (1953, p. 196): “If cultures predominantly lithic in complexion are to be correlated satisfactorily with each other … we must pay the same attention to artifacts of stone, bone, shell, etc., that has yielded such valuable results in the study of pottery.” Considerable difficulties are inherent in the classification of stone implements but close inspection shows that these are further increased by a terminology which occasionally serves as much to confuse the picture as to clarify it.

Such phrases as “leaf-shaped” or “triangular” blades are common in archaeological literature. Yet the descriptive accuracy of these terms rests upon a meaningful and generally accepted contrast between leaf-shaped and triangular which is not substantiated by the inquiry into their use as presented below.

Anangula is an island 1.6 miles long and .5 mile wide, lying on the north side of Nikolski Bay about 4.5 miles northwest of Nikolski village, Umnak Island, in the eastern Aleutians. The designation of this island on United States Coast and Geodetic Survey charts is Ananiuliak, a transliteration of the Russianized form “Ananyulyakh” of the original Aleut name “Anangulagh” (from which we have subtracted the ending -gh to give “Anangula”). In current Umnak usage this island is called in Aleut “Anagulagh,” and in English “Rabbit Island” from the numerous rabbits there, descendants of two pairs of domestic Belgian hares introduced onto the island in 1936 by one of the Aleuts as food for foxes which have since been removed, when the island became a bird sanctuary. The change in the Aleut form of the name for this island from “Anangulagh” to “Anagulagh” undoubtedly accompanied the shift in the dialect spoken on Umnak subsequent to the first arrival of Russians in the Fox Islands in the early 1750's.

Lake Nipissing is situated 230 miles north of Lake Ontario and roughly 140 miles within the igneous rock territory. Some 30 by 8 miles in size, it is drained westerly by the French River into Lake Huron. Frank Bay, enclosing an area of one half square mile, is situated on the south shore at the entrance to the French River.

Historically the area was occupied by an Algonkian group called “Nipisinieries” or “Nipissings” by the 17th century Jesuits; Galinee's map of 1665 depicts a bay on the south shore of Lake Nipissing at the head of the French River: “In a bay at this place the Nipissings usually locate their village” (Coyne, 1903).

The site described here, probably the one figured by Galinee, is a level tract of about one half acre constructed by wave deposition of coarse sand upon a low area at the bottom of the bay.

Abasic Question that must be answered for any archaeological site is, how old is it? Although some archaeological sites can be dated on the basis of archaeological correlations alone and although dendrochronological (Giddings, 1952, pp. 105-110) and radiocarbon methods give absolute ages for other sites, many sites can be dated only by methods based on the geologists’ knowledge of geographic and climatic changes during the last few tens of thousands of years. The dates of these changes are established in part by radiocarbon and related methods. Study of archaeological sites accurately dated by radiocarbon methods will amplify the geologists’ understanding of late Quaternary events.

The well known techniques of dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating need no discussion. The interrelations of methods that depend ultimately on our knowledge of Quaternary climatic and geographic changes are not always well understood, however, by archaeologists. The present paper is intended to clarify some of these interrelations.

This report outlines the discovery, in 1953, of ruins in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. In ground plan, architecture and construction these ruins, so far as I can determine, show no obvious relationship to old empire Maya ruins some 100 miles to the east. Neither do they exhibit easily identified similarities with the Valley of Mexico sites.

The ruin most thoroughly studied consists of a 200 by 680 foot integrated rock complex of very squat structures inclosed by a low wall or rampart. No structures exceed 15 feet in height. The commanding elevation of the complex was obtained by building in on top of a great, field-rock mound, which in turn was built on an elongated natural hill. At the base the mound is approximately 700 feet long, with a varying width between 300 and 400 feet. In one place, on the south side where the hill was indented, the mound is approximately 70 feet high. Its average height is probably about 25 feet.

The usually accepted earliest date for metal objects in Mesoamerica is the 8th century A.D. (Copan and Tazumal). There are, however, two occurrences reported in the literature which seem to have been ignored despite apparent ages much before this.

One is reported found by Cummings at Cuicuilco in 1924-25. In part his account reads, “… resting upon the top of the horseshoe-shaped walls were the fragments of a copper wand that had been made of thin copper plate hammered around a wooden core and held together by copper nails. Some of the charred remains of the wooden core still clung to the copper plate.” The stratigraphy is somewhat difficult to follow in the account, but it appears that the find dates between the last stone construction and the volcanic action which partly covered the site. The spot was overlain by a uniform layer of yellow sand and clay and above this, “surface loam with traces of ashes and carbonized material at the bottom,” a total of at least 7 feet of soil. Cummings speaks of the copper as “crude.” It is uncertain whether the term was used in a metallurgical sense. If the object can now be located, a metallographic examination should be made.

It is time to consider some recent trends in thought on the paleo-Indian and certain inferences which may be derived from trait evidence so. far discovered. Recently, some specialists on the problem have begun to realize that, although a good number of flaked blade types from the “early man” horizon have been found scattered over North America, there are also certain associated artifacts which bear significant similarities over a continental area. Thus, the idea is taking shape that the paleo-Indian here was not represented by many culturally diverse groups, but was, on the other hand, living perforce in a relatively culturally homogeneous manner since he existed on much the same economic base for several thousand years. Although different techniques and fashions of artifact manufacture were developed, these changes did not necessarily indicate change in a mode of living.

In discussing the western area with reference to Danger Cave, Jennings (1953) proposes that many of these “early man” manifestations could be lumped together as the Desert culture.

Prior to 1950 Fort Massapeag was a well preserved earthwork covered by a dense growth of trees, bushes and trailing vines. In August 1953 I learned that the site had been virtually obliterated by the action of bulldozers making way for the extension of Harbor Green, a real estate development adjacent to the village of Massapequa, Long Island. George Peters of the De Department of Public Works, Nassau County, showed me a map on which traces of the earthwork had been plotted before the bulldozers had scraped and furrowed the area, but after the north wall and ditch had been dug away. A visit to the site was unrewarding. A heavy growth of weeds along with a pile of uprooted trees completely masked the area where the fort had stood. At this writing negotiations are in progress for the acquisition of the site by Nassau County in order to preserve what remains. Figure 28 is based on maps made in 1937 and 1938.

The San Luis Rey River flows westward across northern San Diego County, California. The area from Henshaw dam down to and including the Bonsall post office can be described as the central San Luis Rey River basin. It includes a little less than half of the total watershed area but contains many tributary streams and probably accounts for more than half of the total runoff. The area is mountainous and wooded or brush covered and is dissected by numerous small streams, many of which originate in the higher elevations of the Agua Tibia and Palomar mountain ranges.

Ample water supplies and favorable thermal zones which belt the area, coupled with a heavy growth of forest cover along the streams, provided both vegetal and animal food supplies which in turn resulted in more than average aboriginal population. The heaviest concentrations of population were in the areas now known as Pauma Valley, Rincon, The Potrero, and the La Jolla area, all of which still have sizable Indian populations living on reservations. In historic times, the region was occupied by Indians of the Luisefio stock (Kroeber, 1925, p. 648).

In a previous communication (American Antiquity 19-3, January 1953, pp. 290-91), I noted significant items in this field during the period 1948-1951, with probably incomplete coverage for the first half of 1952. Additions to that bibliography and this one will be appreciated by the present writer and by the management.

First of all, in supplementation for 1952, must be mentioned the valuable compilation, with year-by-year general trend statements (taken from the Handbook of Latin American Studies) and a subject index: T. D. Stewart, A Bibliography of Physical Anthropology in Latin America: 1937-1948, published by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York, 1952.

The reason for the following is an article by Henry B. Collins: “Radiocarbon Dating in the Arctic” which appeared in the January, 1953 issue of American Antiquity. This is the third article in four years in which Collins comments on the interpretation of the Ipiutak culture advanced by Froelich Rainey and me in our publications on the excavations at Point Hope, Alaska, 1939-41 (Larsen and Rainey, 1948). Although critical regarding certain points in our theory on the development of Eskimo culture, his comments in the first two articles are on the whole objective and justifiable (Collins 1950a and 1951). His latest article, however, is written in a surprisingly sharp, polemic form which is entirely unprovoked and it contains statements which disclose that he has misunderstood certain important points in the Ipiutak report and misinterprets archaeological evidence. My aim is not to begin a polemic because experience shows that polemics are merely a waste of valuable time and print; they often foster ill feelings and seldom give positive results.

The greater part of Larsen's paper is a restatement of the Ipiutak theory rather than a reply to my two specific criticisms. I feel that this theory is based on a series of questionable assumptions rather than facts, but as Larsen properly insists on “sound scientific documentation and not mere statements” I will not attempt to discuss the theory as a whole in the space available here but refer to a recent publication which gives my views (Collins, 1954, pp. 78-85). The second half of Larsen's paper deals for the most part with the second of the two points I raised, the relationship of the Ipiutak and Old Bering Sea cultures. This is a crucial point for the Ipiutak theory, for if I am correct the type culture of the “palae-Eskimo” complex, from the evidence of both archaeology and radiocarbon dating, is later than cultures assigned to the “neo-Eskimo” complex and also more closely related to them than to other “palae-Eskimo” cultures.

Photographic emulsions sensitized to wave-lengths of radiation in the infrared region of the spectrum have been used in technical studies for a number of years. During excavation of the Barbeau Creek Rock Shelter, in Randolph County, southern Illinois, in 1952 and 1953, I experimented with infrared films, taking pictures of profiles in the site. The midden in this shelter consisted largely of a light, dun-colored loess which came from the tops of the bluffs in the area. Ordinary photographs of the profiles in the midden are dull and without sufficient contrast between features to be useful for analytical purposes. The possibility of making dramatic, high contrast prints from infrared negatives is well known. For this reason photographs of the profiles were made with infrared film. The results the first season were promising. Not only did features in the profiles show up clearly on the prints, but some appeared which were not visible in prints made with panchromatic film and which were not apparent to the eye.