In an earlier study (Tolstoy 1953b), we attempted to outline the Old World distributions of a limited number of ceramic elements and to make a case for their introduction into North America some 3000 to 4000 years ago. Russian reports that have appeared or become available to us since then (Okladnikov 1945, 1946, 1950b, 1955a, 1955b), as well as recent work this side of Bering Strait, prompt now a review of the sequence in the Lena Basin as a whole with North America parallels in mind. The main emphasis here is on the Neolithic of the Lena drainage and Archaic to Early Woodland developments in eastern North America.

Aerial photographs have been widely adopted in geology, physical geography, agriculture, soil conservation, and forestry, but it is surprising to find how rarely they have been thoroughly exploited in archaeology. This may be due to the fact that most of the literature dealing with the subject of aerial photographs and their uses has been directed to other fields, with very little appearing in archaeological literature. Possibly the earliest use of aerial photographs in archaeology is discussed in Crawford's Wessex from the Air (1928), while Reeves's “Aerial Photography and Archaeology” (1936), was probably the first work directed specifically to the American archaeologist. Both works deal more with locating sites from the air and taking aerial pictures of them than with aspects of mapping from aerial photographs or their use in reconnaissance work.

Burial mounds, with their contained structures, artifacts, burials, and the patterns of relationship between these concrete items, represent the largest recoverable body of data in the eastern United States which bears directly on problems concerned with prehistoric religion and ceremonialism. These data in turn are directly applicable, with varying levels of reliability, to problems of prehistoric social and political structure. This is possible through the predictably intimate relationship between supernatural and social controls which obtains in primitive societies.

In the Handbook of Texas Archeology by Suhm, Krieger, and Jelks, 4 major time periods are defined under the terms, “Paleo-American,” “Archaic,” “Neo-American,” and “Historic.”

I can see no reason to use the element “American” in the names of time periods in Indian prehistory. Strictly speaking, “American” can be applied to any inhabitant of North, Central, or South America, past or present. But popular usage restricts the term “American” to the people of the United States, and unless qualified, often further restricts it to the whites only.

Up to the present time, some specialists have held to the view that on the American continent before the European colonization, there was no writing in the true sense of that word. The various systems of writing used by the Indians were regarded as pictographic or ideographic. However, it is now known with certainty that the civilized peoples of ancient America — the Maya, Zapotec, Olmec, and also the Quechua and Aymara — had hieroglyphic writing of the same type as that of the Old World, of China, Egypt, Sumeria, and so forth.

The initial paper in this series (Littmann 1957, American Antiquity, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 135-40) presented a systematic approach to the study of ancient building elements such as mortars, plasters, and stuccos, and set forth the bases upon which the work was undertaken. It also included studies on steps of the prebrick period of Temple IV at Comalcalco, Tabasco, Mexico, in which it was demonstrated that a building unit comprising a monolithic limeaggregate structure covered with a thin, limebased wash coat followed by a thicker coat of plaster was used. Such a unit appeared to have been used in both the original structure and subsequent additions or modifications throughout the prebrick period.

In the October, 1956, issue of American Antiquity (pp. 180–3) an article appeared by Edward B. Danson and Roberts M. Wallace entitled “A Petrographic Study of Gila Polychrome.” The authors imply that up to the time of their publication Southwesternists assumed that Gila Polychrome was traded from one small area (Roosevelt- Tonto Basin) to all other regions. As far as I know this idea was restricted to those who adhered to Gladwin’s hypothesis of the Salado culture. They even quote a statement of mine (1952: 330) out of context to support their point.

Through the kindness of Clement W. Meighan, I have been enabled to examine a collection of fish remains obtained from an aboriginal shellmound on Strawberry Point, a promontory on the northwest shore of Richardson Bay, Marin County, California. Richardson Bay, an arm of San Francisco Bay, extends in a northerly to northwesterly direction from Sausalito. A description of this shellmound, and an explanation of the numerical grid system employed in its excavation, have been published by McGeein and Mueller (1955: 52–3, Figs. 22–3), who designated the site “Mrn 20.” With commendable thoroughness the excavators saved every bone encountered, and it is thus possible to present an identification of every bone rather than the more usual listing of species from a small, selected sample.

No satisfactory explanation, to the best of my knowledge, has been offered of the scenes on pages 16-20 of the Maya Dresden codex and the parallel passages on pages 93-95 of Codex Madrid which depict a goddess or woman in association with various birds, animals, and gods. She carries them on her head or shoulders or on a pack on her back supported by a strap across her chest.

In “A New Type of Ancient Peruvian Shirt” (American Antiquity, 1955, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 263–73) A. H. Gayton described a late period Peruvian shirt (UNMF 15–93) from the Central Coast, collected by Edwin Ferdon of the Museum of New Mexico, especially notable for its horizontal neck opening. The more typical vertical opening has been thought to have been universal in pre- Conquest Peru. The shirt is composed of 3 long narrow webs folded vertically, seamed horizontally, with a horizontal neck slit and short sleevelike extensions closed at the ends but left open along the lower edges (Fig. 1). The 2 lower webs are of very open, almost square count, plain weave of 2-ply natural brown alpaca warps and wefts. The upper and longer one, which forms the shoulder and sleeve section, has the same open construction in natural brown alpaca for something less than half its width; the rest is warp faced in red and slate blue warp stripes.

Presumably all archaeologists know that radiocarbon dates are estimates of true dates, or, more precisely, that they are derived from estimates of the true rate of emission of electrons from radioactive carbon. If it were possible to keep each specimen in the counter for an indefinitely long period or if the emissions occurred with the regularity of clock ticks, there would be no need to talk of estimates of rates. Unfortunately, the emissions do not occur at regular intervals nor is it practical to count for a very long time, so there is no escape from the uncertainty of estimation.

Carlyle Smith, on pages 159–62 of The Archaeology of Coastal New York, groups 2 historic sites, Pantigo and Fort Corchaug, on eastern Long Island with 2 historic Connecticut sites, Shantok and Noank, in what he calls the “Shantok” aspect, following the taxonomic scheme of McKern (1939). After some deliberation, I find myself believing that, while on the face of it, the connections between Fort Corchaug and Pantigo may seem plausible, actually a substantive basis for the connection is relatively meager.

In the last decade the middle Rio Grande area of New Mexico has produced considerable cultural evidence which indicates the presence here of the paleo-Indian and related cultures. Finds of the classic hunting varieties are rare in the Rio Grande valley itself, although a scattering of Sandia, Clovis Fluted, and Folsom points has appeared. Far more common are sites of Cochiselike character, usually evidenced by deeply buried fire hearths, milling stones, manos, and occasional projectile points. Several groups of these sites have been studied in recent years and some of the fire hearths have been dated by the radiocarbon method. A burial possibly connected with these early sites has also appeared.