A series of hypotheses concerning the subsistence role of prehistoric sunken field agriculture are developed and evaluated in light of distributional studies of sunken fields along the entire Peruvian coast and excavations at one sunken field locality in the Chilca Valley. Our data suggest that (1) sunken fields occupy distinctive natural topographic lows; (2) sunken field agriculture developed late in the prehispanic sequence; (3) sunken field cultivation was a minor field system which, except at Chilca, was never extended to anywhere near the limits of its small potential; and (4) the factors which stimulated the initial construction of sunken fields at Chilca remain poorly understood.

A temporal framework for the Kansas City Hopewell complex has been created by seriating rim sherds from four sites, within a 20-mile radius, in the Missouri River Valley to the north of Kansas City. Data used in the sedation are formal and decorative attributes of the rims. The k-means clustering technique, and an option which allows sherd locations in n-dimensional space to be plotted two-dimensionally, was used to generate the seriation. Tests of the seriation, as an essentially temporal ordering, are by means of stratigraphy, radiocarbon dates, and comparison with the ceramic sequence of the Illinois River Valley.

A new technique involving microscopy distinguishes wild from domestic camelids in collections from archaeological deposits in the Atacama Desert. Results of the faunal analysis provide additional critical data which allow a more complete reconstruction of the changes in economic and settlement patterns and of the cultural processes these changes may have involved.

This archaeological and botanical study of maize (Zea mays) represented on Zapotec funerary urns is relevant to studies of the development and spread of prehistoric cultures, and of the evolution of maize agriculture. In the Valley of Oaxaca, circa A.D. 600-1200, the Zapotecs attached models of actual ears of maize to their ceramic funerary urns. The high frequency of the depiction of Nal Tel on the urns suggests that Nal Tel had important symbolic associations for the Zapotecs. It was found that the races Chapalote, Harinoso de Ocho, and a type of dent com had a much wider geographical distribution in Precolumbian times than they do today.

An unusual Maya stela in the St. Louis Art Museum has a number of distinguishing characteristics: (1) The cylindrical shape is comparatively rare for a free-standing Maya monument. (2) Thegtyphic inscription contains four previously unnoted glyph groups. (3) The inscription includes a rare glyph group of which only a very few examples are known. (4) The shape of the glyphs and the placement of the numbers seem to be governed by aesthetic considerations, although the variations of the tun glyph may have semantic implications.

Many Mesoamericanists today accept the fact that much Mesoamerican art, in various media, depicts historical events and persons. Much of this evidence has come from hieroglyphic texts. This paper attempts to demonstrate the value of using non-glyphic attributes of depictions of personages and of interaction scenes to investigate the same problems. Non-glyphic attributes of scenes and individual dress and ornamentation are treated as coded cultural information that reflects patterned sociocultural phenomena. This approach is applied to Cotzumalhuapan sculpture from Coastal Guatemala. It is demonstrated that there are two distinctive facial types in interaction which seem to represent two different socio-political groups.

A Long-Nosed God mask from the surface of a Mill Creek site in northwest Iowa is described and discussed in the light of previous discoveries. It is found that the Iowa mask (I) expands the distribution of this already widespread artistic expression, (2) underscores the degree and intensity of Mississippian-Mitt Creek connections, (3) tends to confirm the long-held supposition that Mill Creek exchanges with the Mississippian heartlands involved ideology as well as technology and material goods, and (4) supports the hypothesis that there are distinct Long-Nosed God and Southern Cult “horizons” on the northern portion of the Prairie Peninsula.

A ground truth check confirmed the utility of color aerial photography for predicting and mapping archaeological sites in an estuarine mangrove swamp zone and for serving as a basis for settlement pattern studies. Accuracy of prediction was extremely high due to the sharp response of vegetation to slight differences in elevation.

A Fortran computer program is presented which converts Lowland Maya Long Count dates into their equivalent Gregorian dates, and the reverse, for the period post-A.D. 100. The program uses the Modified Thompson 2 Correlation Constant, but other Correlation Constants can also be employed. This program does not offer a new correlation hypothesis.

A new hydration rate is presented for the Government Mountain-Sitgreaves Peak obsidian source in Arizona. It is based on an analysis of hydration measurements from a series of independently dated obsidian artifacts from that source. Since obsidian obtained from Government Mountain-Sitgreaves Peak was widely traded in the prehistoric Southwest, the new hydration rate should provide archaeologists working in many parts of the Southwest with a reliable and inexpensive absolute dating technique.

It is often very difficult to distinguish organic paint from inorganic paint (iron oxides) on Black-on-white Anasazi pottery. However, the paints can be distinguished by testing for iron using potassium ferrocyanide in the presence of hydrochloric acid. If iron is present a dark blue precipitate forms immediately.

Semi-micro methods have been devised for the identification of the metallic components comprising the pigments used in mesoamerican mural paintings. These methods are based upon samples of 10-15 mgfor each of the colors to be studied and include the reds, greens, blues, blacks and browns. The analyses are performed on individual samples for each color, thereby eliminating the need for long and tedious analytical procedures which are difficult to apply to the small amounts of material often available.

The data contained in the paper by Munson, Parmalee, and Yamell (1971) concerning the Scovill site in Illinois have been employed for the purpose of examining the demographic and dietary status of the inhabitants. It is calculated from the meat residues found by the authors that this source of food would have supplied 181,800 g of animal protein, and from the residues of nuts that this type of plant supplied 1,588,000 Calories. The nutritional requirement in these substances for the probable population of the site was very much greater than the residues found. Hence the residues do not approach the probable consumption. On the other hand it is shown that the environment could provide much more meat and nuts than are represented by the human consumption.

The erroneous identification of a fluted projectile point associated with the earliest radiocarbon date at Fort Rock Cave is noted. Contrary to what has been stated in the literature, no fluted or Folsom-like projectile points have been found associated with early radiocarbon dates at Fort Rock Cave.

Robert Whallon uses data from the Abri Pataud to develop and demonstrate methods for the analysis of artifact distributions. There are problems with the data and Whallon's use of it.