Analysis of the dissected remains of certain small mammals suggests a consistently high ratio of edible meat to live weight. These figures, together with the great abundance of small mammals in natural and culturally modified settings, are combined to support the argument that they may have been important elements in prehistoric diet. Their dietary status may be consistently underestimated because of a number of biases.

Recently, Hamblin and Pitcher (1980) have attempted to buttress the class conflict explanation of the Classic Maya collapse using a series of mathematical models. However, despite the exceptionally good agreement between these mathematical relations and the empirical data, the same cannot be said for the fit between the conceptual and mathematical models. The relations employed are very general, so much so as to often be isomorphic with very different processes. In one case at least, the same model appears to be consistent with several entirely distinct explanations of the collapse, and other mathematical readings of the monument data are by no means precluded. While these particular mathematical relationships fail to make a very strong case that the Classic Maya collapse was engendered primarily through peasant revolt and class conflict, which was very possibly Hamblin's and Pitcher's underlying aim, the attempt to cast explanations of the collapse into mathematical form points the way for the next generation of collapse models.

The long-eared owl (Asio otus) and short-eared owl (A. flammeus) are indistinguishable by bone morphology alone. Since they inhabit contrasting ecological situations, identification of their bones from prehistoric sites is important for paleoenvironmental interpretations. Measurements on long bones of modern specimens indicate these species can be identified by bone size. Tables are presented for use by the analyst in identifying complete or fragmentary wing and leg bones.

The chronological placement of the Dalton horizon in the southeastern United States has traditionally been between 10,000 and 8,000 B.P. (8000–6000 B.C.). A review of previous dating approaches questions the basis for that assignment and casts serious doubts about the validity of alleged associations between Dalton remains and C-14 dates in caves and shelters. The significance of two Dalton-associated C-14 dates from the alluvial terrace of the Rodgers Shelter site is discussed in regard to their age and contexts. Excavations of Dalton open sites during the 1970s revealed pure Dalton assemblages with no side-notched and corner-notched points present. Radiocarbon dates spanning the period from 9,500 to 9,000 B.P. for side-notched and corner-notched points indicate that the Dalton point had ceased to be made by that time. It is argued that the interval from 10,500 to 9,900 B.P. (8500–7900 B.C.) is the correct temporal position of the Dalton horizon. The importance of correctly estimating the age and duration of the Dalton adaptation is emphasized, particularly for relating technological and settlement strategies to the paleoenvironmental changes of the early Holocene.

The recognition of archaeology as a profession requires a certain amount and kind of commitment on the part of those who would call themselves professional archaeologists. The Society of Professional Archeologists was formed to provide the mechanism for that recognition by both archaeologists and others and to provide the support for professionalism in the practice of archaeology.

The movement toward professionalism in archaeology is reflected in the SAA in many of its present activities. The time has come to redress the balance by reemphasizing that the Society is first and foremost a learned society.

Weather-stranded Norse explorer-refugees are reported in the medieval Icelandic Landnámabók to have dug into an archaeological site in eastern Greenland about A.D. 981. Enough details are given to suggest that they investigated a Dorset Culture site. This 1,000-year-old account must be the oldest known archaeological report for the New World.

A plain stela has been identified at the site of Cuello, Belize. On the basis of stratigraphy and the accompanying cache vessels it has been dated to the latter part of the Late Formative, ca. A.D. 100. This date is approximately 200 years older than the earliest Initial Series dated stela so far known in the Maya lowlands, and comparable with some early dated monuments in the Pacific piedmont zone. Stela erection in the lowlands may antedate the secondary use of such monuments as vehicles for dynastic propaganda.

A blue pigment having the chemical stability of authentic Maya Blue can be prepared from indigo and attapulgite with the raw materials available to the ancient Maya, and by techniques presumably within their knowledge. The procedure possibly used consists of impregnating attapulgite with an extract of indigo plant leaves and stems and subsequently heating the impregnated clay for an extended period of time at the temperature of boiling water. This procedure would obviate the need for transportation of montmorillonite to areas far removed from its source and would account for the existence of the various types of Maya Blue noted in a previous report.

The first New World Conference on Rescue Archaeology was held in Quito, Ecuador in May 1981. The conference was organized in response to the increasing destruction of the archaeological record by industrialization, urbanization, and illegal transportation and sale of artifacts. Various aspects of a system for establishing and maintaining effective rescue archaeological systems were discussed in symposia and workshops. The members of the conference endorsed a number of recommendations addressed to archaeologists, museums, individual governments, and the Organization of American States in order to reduce the damage being done to the cultural resources of the Western Hemisphere.

Exception is taken to two statements in Cordell's review. Eight out of seventeen titles dealing with hunters and gatherers in the case study group might not be considered “overkill” in view of the fact that so many of the world's cultures were and are those of hunters and gatherers. Secondly, the detail and the occasional imperfection in Frison's Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains does not detract from its substantial utility.

Since its inception the Society for American Archaeology has been concerned about "encourag[ing] a rational public appreciation of the aims… of archaeological research," and aiding in the conservation of archaeological data. The Society has acted on these concerns by becoming involved in the development of legislation intending to regulate the management of the archaeological resource base. During the recent campaign to amend the National Historic Preservation Act, a statement of "Basic Principles of Archaeological Resource Management" was drafted and accepted by the SAA Executive Committee. This position paper was useful in developing new congressional guidelines for the National Historic Preservation Act Amendments of 1980 (P.L. 95-515), and will serve as a basis for evaluating future international, federal, state, and local legislation and management programs.

Professional archaeologists in America seem to have reached a consensus that systematic archaeological collections are vital to current and future comparative research. Current repositories are inadequately designed and insufficiently funded. Minimally, a repository must be housed in a safe, sturdy, secure building equipped to handle curation and conservation as well as special storage functions. It must include areas for collections study and have an effective information storage/retrieval system. It must have a qualified professional staff. While initial processing of materials may be accounted for in research budgets, long-term (in perpetuity) curatorial maintenance charges may be best defrayed by interest income from funds invested by the repository.

Controversy exists over the geographic placement of the ethnohistoric Itza capital called "Tayasal." At the heart of this dispute are the differences and limitations inherent in the use of either archaeological or ethnohistoric data to solve the problem. As presently understood, archaeological data do not support the traditional placement of Tayasal in Lake Peten-Itza.

A short-term remedy is proposed in the hope of curtailing the proliferation of statistical and inferential error rife within the published archaeological literature. First, a study by Isbell and Schreiber, one that violates rudimentary quantitative and qualitative analytical precepts, yet nevertheless was published in American Antiquity, is discussed in depth in order to exemplify the extent to which matters have deteriorated within the discipline. Then, this analysis, in conjunction with the various compendia of statistical abuse compiled by numerous professionals within the field, is invoked as support for an argument advocating structural changes in the peer review system. Perhaps such solutions could be implemented until previously proposed long-term solutions, such as David Thomas"s call for compulsory courses and certification examinations to satisfy academic degree requirements, are finally instituted.

The increasing incorporation of economic concepts into archaeological theory has led to an increased potential for misunderstanding through terminological sloppiness. Misuse of such terms as minimax, efficiency, risk, and maximization has already laid a solid foundation for confusion. These comments are intended to provide brief definitions for several key economic terms and to indicate how they can be used so that their meanings are clearly understood.

It is suggested that archaeologists would benefit by conceiving organizational variation in hunter-gatherer societies to be the result of both organization around resources and organization around other persons in social relations of production. This approach allows for predictions to be made about the patterning of material remains which are the products of intergroup and intragroup interaction, such as internal site structure, profiles of exchange, stylistic variation in artifacts, etc. To illustrate this point, I outline a number of social strategies for reducing risk in social and natural resources and derive hypotheses about their material correlates. While I emphasize the importance of understanding these strategies within a framework of adaptation, I question whether it is possible to predict strategies of organization from environmental variables alone.

The Chicama-Moche Intervalley Canal never carried water as a functioning canal due to uplift slope errors made by unsophisticated Chimu engineers. There is no evidence of tectonic uplift directly affecting the Intervalley Canal, either during or after its construction, to create the numerous uphill sections along its entire length. The hydrological calculations of Ortloff et al. (1982) are based on preliminary survey data which do not conform with more detailed excavation and survey data. Thus, in this commentary the Intervalley Canal is reinterpreted as an impressive manifestation of the political and organizational power of the Chimu rulers, but not as a great hydraulic engineering feat.