Pollen analysis of woodrat (Neotoma) middens indicates that the local vegetation at Chaco Canyon and the regional vegetation of the San Juan Basin, northwestern New Mexico, have been shrub grassland since at least 10,600 years ago. Plant macrofossils in the same woodrat middens indicate that pinyon pine trees were present in the canyon during much of the Holocene, but low percentages of their pollen grains in both the middens and in adjacent alluvium suggest the trees were few, occurring as small stands or isolated individuals along canyon escarpments. The vegetation at Chaco Canyon during Anasazi times was an arid shrub grassland with a sparse escarpment population of pinyon and juniper. A climate-caused regional increase in pinyon at higher elevation sites occurred approximately at the time of Puebloan abandonment.

New data are presented on prehispanic ground drawings discovered and mapped during the 1979-1980 settlement-pattern research in the Santa Valley region, north coast of Peru. Among the drawings, which appear to date to the Early Suchimancillo/Gallinazo time period (ca. B.C./A.D. to A.D. 200), are a number of naturalistic figures-including humans, sierra-related llamas and condors, and a jungle-related (possible) cayman. These figures, and other lines of evidence such as rock-walled corral enclosures, suggest the existence of a strong ideological focus on sierra-related animals that probably reinforced intensive coast-sierra socioeconomic relations involving the use of llama pack trains.

Radiocarbon dates are essential to the understanding of chronological frameworks in many fields, but are particularly important in archaeology. An International Radiocarbon Data Base (IRDB) has been proposed to update and maintain a computerized, centralized, and standardized record of 14C data, on a global and inter-disciplinary scale, from which researchers may retrieve and utilize valuable data. Since 1985, planning conferences and workshops continue to address the issues of establishing the IRDB. The primary focus of these discussions has been the data-entry format and how to obtain continuing financial support.

With a focus on the archaeology of the early historic Choctaw, field investigations in east-central Mississippi resulted in the discovery of 73 sites and the confirmation of two previously known sites. Fifty-nine of the 75 sites had either definite or probable Choctaw components. The assemblages on the historic Choctaw sites typically consisted of a complex of four decorated and four undecorated Native American ceramic types along with Euro-American trade goods that suggest site occupation dates during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The better preserved Choctaw phase sites typically were small artifact clusters, probably the remains of individual households, located on low ridges. In several places these sites were grouped in clusters suggestive of the dispersed communities described in historical accounts of the Choctaw. None of the sites has yielded evidence suggestive of sociopolitical centrality.

The symbolic variant of the Maya glyph for north is claimed to be a phonetic construction xa-ma-n(a) generating the Yucatec term xaman, "north." The reading supports the notion that Maya directional symbolism was related to the horizon and disagrees with recent revisionist theory that such symbolism was related to the path of the sun across the sky and through the underworld.

One of the most exotic Maya glyphs consists of a seated figure having a head that appears to be a penis. This paper argues that the head is indeed a penis and provides an interpretation and a linguistic decipherment for the glyph. The glyph can be read as xib'ah "underworld lord" (Cholan) or xib'alb'a "underworld, underworld lord" (Yucatec). It is an epithet for a major Maya deity who was both god of Venus and Lord of the Underworld. In one case, it is used as a place name for the underworld. The paper also presents a rationale for the unusual graphic form of the glyph based on ethnohistoric documentation.

Lakeside Cave deposits spanning the last 5,000 years contain evidence of grasshopper (Melanoplus sanguinipes) use. Abundant ethnographic/ethnohistoric data suggest the widespread use of hoppers and other insects. Procurement strategies may be unique to the Great Salt Lake area. During the summer, salted and sun-dried hoppers are washed up on beaches and form windrows up to .2 m× 1.5 m× 15 km Hoppers produce over 3,010 kcal/ kg, and return rates average 272,649 kcal/hour. Digestible proportions have not been determined, but even at a return rate well below the experimental value, optimality models suggest hopper collection should be favored over all other collected resources.

This paper traces changing perspectives in archaeology and ethnology regarding the historical content of myth and demonstrates a method whereby mythological data are used to generate hypotheses amenable to falsification when integrated with other data sets. Based on a myth collected among the Tzotzil of San Pablo Chalchihuitan, Chiapas, Mexico, the presentation offers predictions regarding the location, contents, interpretation, and age of an unreported prehistoric burial site. It also sheds light on some currently unexplained aspects of an associated site in a neighboring community, and amplifies other ethnohistorical discussions relating archaeology to contemporary Indian mythology elsewhere in Mesoamerica. By showing how a modern Maya myth reveals significant information about an ancient Maya site, the study illustrates the complementarity of archaeology and ethnography through a suggested relation between myth and history.

The recently discovered Tomb 12 at Rio Azul contains some evidence in support of my "zenith" reading for one of the collocations Closs reads as xaman, "north." A positionally literal reading of the astronomical glyphs associated with the directional collocations on the walls of that tomb is consistent with a directional system based on zenith and nadir, but not one based on north and south. Furthermore, Closs's reading does not account for the demonstrable na reading for the prefix in that collocation. On the other hand, his evidence for reading the second collocation as xaman is compelling, and the polyvalency of T566 seems well established.

This ethnoarchaeological study of an Inupiat Eskimo fish camp examines the formation of activity areas through time-motion studies and the analyses of activity episodes. These observations on two adults using the site during the summer of 1982 are used as examples of how spatially discrete activity areas are shaped by behavioral processes. In this case, activity-area formation is tied to the adaptive strategies of the Inupiat Eskimo cultural system. Specific subsistence-related activities such as food processing, animal butchering, and equipment maintenance leave material residues after tasks are completed. Cognitive and adaptive aspects of the Inupiat cultural system contribute to the spatial organization of this fish camp.

Analysis of unpublished house floor and fill data has revealed new information concerning the production and distribution of shell artifacts at the Hohokam site of Snaketown. In addition to presenting data on the frequency and distribution of shell in structures, the analysis identifies manufacturing loci and evaluates previous statements concerning craft production at the site. Implications for the organization of production and exchange during the Sacaton phase also are considered. It is concluded that local kin groups could have procured, produced, and distributed shell products. This reconstruction is provided as an alternative to views which hold that a higher-level administrative agency was in control of the production and distribution of marine shell.

This paper acknowledges the validity of Closs's phonetic reading of north as xaman in the Classic Mayan inscriptions, while not accepting his separation of north from up and the zenith direction.

A falling-weight device was developed for testing ceramic impact strength. Tests carried out on a large sample of commercial tiles showed that the incremental height test, wherein drop height is raised gradually, is the most reliable. In order to assess the accuracy of the test, an additional experiment was performed on laboratory-made briquettes fired at 550, 650, 750, 850, and 950 °C. In contrast to the results of Bronitsky and Hamer's (1986) pendulum test (but in conformity with general principles of ceramic engineering), the present study found a strong correlation between firing temperature and impact strength. It is concluded that the falling-weight device provides a simple, accurate, and reliable test for ceramic impact strength.

In his recent article, Jernigan (1986) presents what he feels is a superior alternative to the traditional hierarchical approach to design analysis on ceramics. We disagree that the hierarchical system is flawed seriously. Both Jernigan's nonhierarchical approach and the hierarchical approaches are models of design that should be applied selectively according to specific problem orientations. Our discussion focuses on: (1) the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches regarding different aspects of design analysis, and (2) a critique of Jernigan's schema concept with respect to its supposed emic content, operationalization, and internal consistency. Specifically, we believe that Jernigan's characterization of schemata as emic units of design is inappropriate. An understanding of design units such as schemata can be achieved best by placing design in a cultural context. Jernigan's schemata also suffer from both ambiguity and internal inconsistency that compromise their usefulness. However, despite our reservations concerning the nonhierarchical approach, Jernigan's article rekindles important issues concerning the design analysis of prehistoric artifacts.

Located on the West Tennessee Coastal Plain, Pinson Mounds is one of the largest Middle Woodland ceremonial centers in eastern North America. The site includes at least 12 mounds, a geometric embankment, and associated temporary habitation areas within an area of approximately 160 ha. Of particular significance is the presence of five large platform mounds ranging in height from 3 to 22 m. A series of two dozen radiocarbon determinations indicate that the Pinson Mounds site was constructed and used between approximately A.D. 1-500.

Coggins and Bricker have accepted my phonetic reading of one version of the north glyph as xaman, "north." Nevertheless, they maintain that the traditional north-south axis in Maya directional symbolism pertains more properly to a zenith-nadir axis. In my response I argue against that position and provide evidence that the cardinal directions played a fundamental role in mesoamerican cosmology. These directions are interpreted in a relatively loose sense as sectors on the horizon and not as cardinal points. In particular, the north direction is viewed as a sector on the horizon centered at a point which is approximately 14 degrees east of north. The evidence includes three independent proofs of the cardinal direction hypothesis. These proofs specifically implicate the four Maya directional glyphs as symbols of the four cardinal directions.

There is an ongoing debate about the nature of artifact association and the expression of living surfaces in New England and Maritime Provinces shell middens. I focus this debate on a single shell midden where supposedly Early Woodland styles of projectile points are associated with Middle Woodland ceramics. These findings suggest that either a revision of the New England and Maritime Provinces Woodland sequence is necessary, or that we should rethink our models of shell-midden formation processes.

The Public Relations Committee of the Society for American Archaeology, in seeking ways to promote the Society and increase public awareness of archaeology, commissioned this "do-it-yourself" guide to the print media, principally newspapers. For demonstrative purposes, the short-paragraph format used conforms stylistically to that used in journalism.