A polychrome mural in the upper portion of the temple pyramid at Panamarca in the Nepena valley depicts a religious procession before a sacrifice. The main figures are a priest followed by two assistants, three prisoners, and a guard. The mural contains several motifs new to Mochica painting. It is assigned to Larco's fourth phase of Mochica culture, but some elements suggest the possibility of a somewhat later placement.

Because fresh-water dams are flooding areas faster than archaeologists can investigate them, it has become urgent to develop a method of underwater archaeological research. Some technical equipment, such as “scuba” and other devices used by amateur divers, is already available. This, together with specialized techniques, some already developed, makes it possible to carry on archaeological research under water. The action of water is not always destructive. In fact, certain kinds of lakes act to preserve objects, either organic or metallic, which would be destroyed out of water. The objective of underwater research, then, would be twofold: (1) to recover data endangered by too long exposure to the destructive action of water, and (2) to recover data protected by the preservative action of water.

Use of the stratigraphic technique in American archaeology would seem to have been initiated by Manuel Gamio in 1911 at Atzcapotzalco, Mexico.

This cave in the Sierra Madre Occidental was excavated to obtain information from a little-known region which might help clarify problems of Mexican-Southwestern contacts. The excavation produced ten burials with associated mats and blankets, only a few artifacts, and both cultivated and gathered plant remains. Stylistic elements of Mogollon and Casas Grandes pottery and the cultivated plants suggest a beginning date of A.D. 1000; the lack of European artifacts, a terminal date of 1600. The death complex is interpreted by analogy with modern Tarahumara practices. The use of the cave is described in terms of a series of events and episodal analysis is presented as a way of operationalizing the conjunctive approach.

The 32 specimens from Waterfall Cave include apocynum-fiber textiles, cane and palm-frond matting and braids, a yucca-fiber leader on a fishhook, and a girdle or string apron. The matting is twilled; the textiles are plain weave and generally warp face. Technical aspects of these specimens are similar to those of textiles from Chihuahua published by Lila O'Neale in 1948. Pattern weaving is the only major new element found at Waterfall Cave.

Quill flatteners from Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming, which are attributed to Menominee, Sioux, Arikara, Blackfeet, and Arapaho, are described in four groups. Iron, S-shaped flatteners date from the period of European contact and trade, and two types of antler and horn flatteners are believed to have been made during the same time period. The only prehistoric or archaeological specimens are in the fourth group of flatteners made of long, thin pieces of mammal bone with rounded ends.

Measurements of the fluorine, uranium, and nitrogen content of a representative series of bones from Lagow and neighboring terrain show that while the human skeleton from the Lagow Sand Pit is not modern, it cannot be assigned an antiquity equivalent to that of the Lewisville Pleistocene fauna at the site.

This shell study was designed to test and perfect methods of quantitative analysis in addition to providing the usual identification of species. Experiments were performed to determine the optimum size of sample, dimension of screen, number of samples, and the practicability of rapid analysis in the field to guide the progress of excavation. Analysis of variance was used to measure up to five variables at once; differences were shown graphically with direction of change indicated by a least-squares regression line. The analysis of 69 excavation units revealed an overwhelming preference for mud-dwelling species which showed no change in horizontal distribu-give guidance to the excavation team. Used with dry-weight analysis, field sorting would also indicate areas of richer occupation debris in time for this information to be useful. The use of applied mathematics in midden analysis adds a precise tool to the archaeological inventory. The data compiled on screen size, sample size, horizontal and vertical distributions, and such, were subjected to the analysis of variance, and where significant difference was indicated, the statistics were fitted to a regression line by the least-squares method. By using standardized systems and quantitative analysis, the archaeologist may obtain convincing evidence to support his conclusions. These procedures would be equally applicable to the study of skeletal, artifactual, or other ecological remains, and would add authority to the theories derived from such analysis.

Cultivated plants from Waterfall Cave include several varieties of maize, common beans, bottle gourd, and squash. Most of the corn is of the Pima-Papago race, and the whole plant complex is similar to the group of cultivated plants recently grown by the Papago and other Indians of southwestern Arizona and northwestern Mexico.

The results of the F-U-N tests by Oakley and Howells, which show that the Lagow skeleton is not of the same antiquity as the Pleistocene fauna at the site, make possible a reinterpretation of the depositional sequence recorded by Shuler, who reported the apparent association of human remains with Pleistocene fauna. The Lagow human skeleton is now seen as an intrusive into the Upper Shuler yellow sand after the Pemberton Hill-Lewisville (T-2) terrace had been built up and eroded down to near the level of occurrence. Since the age of the overlying red clays is estimated to be about 9500 years, the Lagow skeleton may possibly be early Archaic.

A collection of artifacts found in the lip of a terrace of the Blanchard River in northwestern Ohio comes from 17 presumably ancient sites which had not been used by peoples of Archaic and later stages of culture development. The artifacts are made of fine-grained cherty rock which is not known to occur in the region. The tools consist of fluted and other kinds of points, a wide variety of scrapers, “utilized flakes” with sheared edges or edges made by a high quality pressure retouch, gravers, burinlike tools, and other specialized artifacts. It is suggested that these may represent an occupation of the region by pre-Archaic stage peoples.

The discovery of fluted points at one site in the Andean Highlands near Quito, Ecuador, suggests that the fluted-point tradition extended into South America. The association of scrapers, knives, and gravers with the fluted points indicates a hunting assemblage which may be related to paleo-Indian horizons of western United States.

Lothrop places on record the original study of the “mise en coleur” gilding of Coclé objects which Bergsøe had completed in 1940. The Coclé specimens were made of a copper-gold alloy with low gold content, and were cast in molds. Because such an alloy corrodes easily, the exact composition of the Coclé alloy could not be determined. The Coclé goldsmiths did not use the hammered overlay, mercury gilding, or leaf gilding processes, but rather the “mise en coleur” process in which the copper is removed from the surface of the alloy leaving a blackish-brown, spongy gold deposit as an overlay. This spongy overlay is compressed and returned to a golden color by hammering and burnishing. The surface copper was probably dissolved by ammonium carbonate derived from urine.

In some instances it is very difficult to distinguish between cord-impressed and fabric-impressed surfaces on aboriginal pottery. This problem is discussed with particular reference to a protohistoric Woodland jar from western Michigan. It is suggested that fabric impressing and cord marking are closely related techniques which stem from the same cultural tradition.

A textile recently found undoubtedly relates to an early phase of the Paracas style of the Peruvian south coast. The decorative techniques consist of slit tapestry, brocade, and warp striping. The tapestry design is a complex feline figure with various traits of the Chavin style. The techniques and design are of considerable interest since no Paracas textile of this or earlier date has been previously published.

A specimen from a bundle of rope found at Playa Grande in association with pottery of Playa Grande 1 style and the white-zoned and white-slipped varieties of the Baños de Boza style is dated at A.D. 570 ± 160 (L-384A). Since the Playa Grande ceramic style has good crossties with Late Mochica, Salinar, Puerto Moorin, Maranga, and Nazca styles, this date tends to substantiate the generally accepted but not clearly demonstrated contemporaneity of the Mochica 3, 4, 5 sequence on the North Coast with the Playa Grande, Maranga sequence on the Central Coast and the Nazca A, B, Y development on the South Coast.

A small rectangular house floor at the Gresham site, north of Kansas City is assigned on the basis of associated artifacts to the Steed-Kisker focus of Middle Mississippi. The house differs architecturally from the house at the Steed-Kisker site described by Wedel. These differences and other evidence point to the possibility of major cultural transitions in the area during Middle Mississippi time.

Evidence is supplied that the weights often attached to atlatls do not add to the force of the dart. An experiment was made with a copy of the atlatl with stone weight from Baylor Rock Shelter and cast with and without the weight showed no significant difference. It is proposed that the purpose of the weights was to secure balance on the hand of the atlatl-dart combination. The superiority of the harpoon over the arrow in carrying a line is given as explanation of overlapping of relics of bow and atlatl along water courses.

The Vesignié collection of North American stone artifacts, at the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine in Paris, contains a number of fluted points from Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana. Most of these points seem to fit in the Clovis category, with a few Cumberland and Enterline-like examples.

Four points of Eastern Clovis type, found in Beaufort and Jasper counties at sites which also produce points of the Savannah River Archaic, are the first occurrence of fluted points on the southern Atlantic coast. The flint source was apparently the extensive quarries along Briar and Buckhead creeks located chiefly in Screven and Burke counties, Georgia. Other finds of fluted points along these streams indicate a paleo-Indian occupation within the drainage, but no sites are yet known.