Early in the 1930's Gladwin applied the phase concept to Southwestern material. The operational basis of this method of ordering cultural units in time and space was subsequently expanded through Gila Pueblo's research, especially in the Mogollon and Hohokam culture areas. The phase was the minimum unit in the dendritic system of cultural taxonomy which Gladwin developed. Other students whose research has mainly been centered south of the Mogollon rim have refined the definition of the concept, added to its applications, and stripped it of some of its earlier taxonomic connotations. Sophisticated survey, metric stratigraphy, the development of regional sequences, and the refinement of method in general in the Southwest have paralleled the usefulness of the concept. The Southwestern usage of phase is compared with the derivative concept presented by Willey and Phillips and with the several methods of phase correlations discussed by Rouse.

Stratigraphic evidence and radiocarbon dates make possible the extension of the distinctive Archaic-to-Early-Woodland cultural sequence, which has been established in Pennsylvania and the Hudson Valley, to the coastal regions bordering on the Long Island Sound. Stone vessels and associated spearpoint forms are recognized as characterizing a period which succeeded the Lamokan-Laurentian level and slightly antedated the first manifestations of the Early Woodland period, in which cord-marked Vinette 1 pottery was introduced from another source. It is demonstrated that the Orient Point burials on eastern Long Island were constructed mainly during this Transitional period and not, as it has been asserted, during the succeeding Early Woodland period.

A long-term program of intensive excavation and study at the major lowland Maya center of Tikal is described in terms of procedure and results achieved to date. Work has centered on the principal ceremonial area of the site as well as on potential domestic areas. Considerable evidence of Postclassic activity has been encountered throughout a substantial portion of the site in the forms of disturbance of monuments positioned during the Classic, of “abnormal” re-use of monuments, both whole and fragmentary, of excavation for cached offerings and tombs, and of minor constructions for ceremonial purposes that were made probably of “robbed” masonry. The evidence is cited for Tikal having been a sort of pilgrimage center in probably still later times. A theme of “monument obsolescence” throughout much of Classic times is developed to account for the plentiful evidence of shattered, abandoned monuments of those times. Significant new monuments are discussed as to the contributions of their hieroglyphic texts while monuments are dealt with in general as to their changes in time, associations, and positional standards. Important patterns in burial and cache contents are handled as outstanding elements of Classic ceremonialism. The evidence of strong contact with Teotihuacán in late Early Classic times is discussed and in part illustrated. The scope and objectives of the excavations among ceremonial remains are contrasted with those carried out in contexts believed to be domestic. The difficulty of demonstrating residence is emphasized along with the problem of how to deal realistically with “settlement pattern” at a massive, culturally complex site like Tikal. Various other practical questions are cited which relate to the ambiguity of extant terms and concepts as they apply to the Maya area and to Tikal specifically.

Four types of error are commonly associated with the basic problem of the time relationship that exists between the date of a tree-ring specimen and the archaeological manifestation being dated. These errors may sometimes be discovered and amended by using the clustering of dates and the clustering of archaeological traits. A secondary problem arises when lost exterior rings produce non-cutting dates in contrast to cutting dates. Tree-ring data may also be employed in deriving information of a non-chronological nature.

Four north coast Peruvian stirrup-spout jars of the middle Moche period show every indication of having been cast from a single mold. Heretofore no more than two actual duplicates from one mold have been described for pre-Columbian north coast pottery. This mold-made product varies from cast to cast in spout form, hue, paint distribution, polish, general surface texture, quality of mold-impressed lines, diameter measurements, and sharpness of relief. A second series of four similar Moche jars which were not from the same mold indicates that duplicates cannot be posivitely identified without careful firsthand examination of the specimens.

Metal artifacts are discussed as possible indicators of relationships within Mesoamerica and between Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. All known forms of Mesoamerican metal artifacts for which age and provenience data are available are included in a typological classification, presented as a basis for comparisons and distribution studies. Data on spatial and temporal distribution, with indications of centers of manufacture or use of some types, and with suggested maximum temporal range for each type, are included with the typological classification. Based on these data, a series of suggestions is presented regarding time of initial appearance of metals in various subareas of Mesoamerica, the importance of certain subareas as centers from which metals diffused, and patterns and rates of diffusion within Mesoamerica and between Mesoamerica and the American Southwest.

A newly discovered late Neolithic culture of riverine hunters and fishermen becomes the third major culture known in the Chukchi-Koryak region of Northeast Asia. The arctic maritime hunters ancestral to the Eskimo have long been known, and recently evidence for an inland group of hunters in the northern reindeer and fish areas has been encountered. The Neolithic hunters and fishers lived in temporary, probably winter camps of semisubterranean houses near the game-rich mouths of tributaries on the well-drained gravel floodplains of the river valleys of the Anadyr-Penzhina lowlands. Collections from Vakernaia 1 and 2 in the Main River valley are described. Chipped stone artifacts with pressure retouch include some obsidian knives, and trapezoidal and semilunar knives made on pebble flakes. There are grinder picks, polished slate knives of ulo type, and adzes including a form comparable to the splitting adz of the Chugach sequence in southern Alaska. Picks or mattocks were made of walrus tusk and antler. The bulk of the collection consists of pottery. Hemispherical vessels of great size variation are plain, textile-impressed, and stamped. Although house type, the walrus tusk, and the ulo knives suggest some connection with the Bering Sea hunting cultures, the basic traits appear to be of more local origin.

The early peoples of Southern Mexico decorated pottery and painted pictures on walls with a stable blue pigment which is not found elsewhere in the world. Investigation of this blue was started over 30 years ago, but still the true nature of the blue color principle is unknown. Since the blue cannot be destroyed by boiling nitric acid, it does not seem to be vegetable or organic in origin. It is quite unlike azurite or natural ultramarine or other blue minerals which were employed as sources of blue pigment by other ancient peoples. The main obstacle in the investigation is the extreme scarcity of research material. The only samples of the blue available for testing are thinly painted films on potsherds and on wall painting fragments where it is mixed with lime plaster and other impurities. Although attempts to procure lump specimens of the blue, even in gram quantitives, have failed, some progress has been made. It is now known that the inorganic base of the blue pigment is a clay mineral called attapulgite. Ordinary attapulgite is nearly colorless. We still do not know what makes the clay blue; whether it is a special kind of attapulgite or if the Maya produced it artifically. In this paper all the evidence accumulated to date is reviewed.

Although the stability of the pigment, Maya blue, indicates to Gettens that the blue colorant as well as the attapulgite clay base of the pigment is inorganic, the optical properties and thermal behavior of the pigment suggest the alternative hypothesis that Maya blue is a clay-organic complex with an organic colorant in an inorganic base of attapulgite clay.

Paleo-Indian type artifacts of the Manzanillo complex consist of crude tools, such as choppers and scrapers, made of silicified wood. The find is related to the El Jobo chronology and is also compared with other complexes in North and South America.

Although it has been considered possible that certain elements originating in the Olmec culture of Mexico were added to older Peruvian traditions to produce the Chavin civilization, the radiocarbon dates on Olmec and Chavin make them approximately coeval. A black-ware bottle found at Kotosh, in the central Peruvian highlands, bears a design of an ear of maize, a motif of probable Olmec origin. Since this vessel was from a phase immediately preceding the Chavin horizon, it is suggested that the Olmec culture began earlier than did Chavin and, in fact, could have been the progenitor for civilization in the Andean Area.

A brief review of the rise of interest in historic sites preservation and of the use of archaeological techniques in this field, is followed by a discussion of the recent phenomenon of urban renewal as it applies to an increasing necessity for archaeological work in urban areas. Experience gained in the archaeological program at Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, provides the basis for a discussion of some of the specific problems encountered in urban sites: excavation costs, problems of public relations, the necessity for special equipment and specialized artisans, and the archeologists' training.

Radiocarbon dates indicate the beginning of fiber-tempered pottery in Georgia and Florida around 2000 B.C. In discussing the relative antiquity of ceramics in the Southeast and Northeast, Bullen rejects a radiocarbon date of 2448 B.C. for Vinette 1 pottery from the Hunter site, New York, because of dubious association of pottery and burial complex. The association is shown to be secure, but a new gas-method radiocarbon date of 841 B.C. for the same sample, removes the difficulty, and establishes an approximate age of 1000 B.C. for the earliest known Northeastern ceramics.

Chenopodium seeds from Illinois Hopewell and Eastern Woodland contexts are described and discussed in terms of a hypothesis of a separate center of plant domestication in the East. Evidence for the role of plant foods in northern Hopewell subsistence is reviewed. Use of more refined field procedures for recovery of plant remains is recommended.

Total area of the dwelling floors and total population of the largest settlements of eighteen societies show a loglog regression which suggests that the population of a prehistoric settlement can be very roughly estimated as of the order of one-tenth the floor area in square meters.