Several currents of anthropological research specialization are historically important for the development of a modern approach to the study of ancient, complex societies. These currents are: (a) Taylor's conjunctive approach; (b) developmentalism; (c) settlement-pattern studies; (d) human ecology; and (e) urbanization studies. A case study of the writer's “dirt archaeology” approach in the Valley of Mexico indicates the nature of sampling, as well as typological and basic theory problems encountered in studying complex societies. This sort of field work and interpretation implies need for a new kind of basic field-observational work oriented to a theory of ancient social structure and utilizing techniques of intradisciplinary team research.

A collection of nonhuman, mammalian osteological materials from 12 archaeological sites was examined. The sites range in age from Circle Prairie phase (about A.D. 1) through Point of Pines phase (about A.D. 1450). A total of 3282 individual bones and 29 complete skeltons was identified to genus, and to species whenever possible. An additional 348 bones were identified to the ordinal level only. A comparison of the 26 genera identified from the archaeological material with the mammals known historically from this area shows a striking continuity between past and present. Odocoileus and Antilocapra bones were analyzed for ratio of adults to juveniles, and for the relative numbers of the various members of the skeleton. These analyses were made to gain information on the hunting habits of the prehistoric inhabitants. Bones of a pathological artiodactyl wrist are discussed.

Two sites, Kogruk (at the summit of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska) and Engigstciak (at the head of the Firth River delta, Yukon Territory, Canada), have recently yielded flake-tool assemblages which show striking resemblances to a Eurasiatic flake-blade tradition based on a Levallois-Mousterian stone-chipping technique, and to the Clovis flake-blade tradition of America which appears to be based on a similar chipping technique. It is suggested that these traditions are historically related and that the Arctic sites provide a possible link between the two. The presence of incipient fluting in Siberia and at Engigstciak may prove significant. Dating is discussed in terms of the ecology and geology of the sites and is correlated with the probable periods of availability of the Bering land bridge. An upland-foothills zone is seen to be essentially continuous from central Asia to central North America. It is suggested that this zone provided the only environmentally compatible link between the two continents, and that it was therefore the most probable route of early hunting peoples into the New World.

When sherd collections are enormous, it is extremely desirable to have procedures for discarding portions of the material which minimize risks of losing useful information and are easy to apply. It is suggested that sherd lots be made the sampling units. Lots from each provenience category relevant for a given problem can be listed, and then a random sample of lots from each category included in the sample. Since the value of a sample depends more on its absolute size than on the proportion of the population it represents, it is suggested that ceramic categories be roughly ranked according to their scarcity. A relatively small number of lots from each provenience category will provide an adequate sample of common ceramic categories, while a larger number of lots are needed for rare categories. This procedure insures that certain lots will be preserved in their entirety, while common sherd categories may be discarded from other lots if they do not add much to any sample of interest.

This question, which was answered affirmatively as early as 1716 by the missionary Velarde and more recently by some archaeologists, is reviewed in terms of trend and tradition through the archaeological and ethnographic sequence, ceramic, architectural, and other comparisons, the acculturational history of Pimas and Yumans, the broader context of the postcontact period, and the complete lack of archaeological evidence for the prehistoric Pima. The concept of a Hohokam-Pima continuum is accepted, although aboriginal Pima culture is seen as a product of multiple cultural influences.

A detailed map of Teotihuacán is being prepared through the use of photogrammetry and ground survey. The city's maximum limits have been circumscribed, and it appears that they surround an area of more than 10 square miles. Part of this area was occupied only during the first phase of the occupation of Teotihuacán (Tzacualli) in the Pre-Classic period; Tzacualli phase Teotihuacán appears to have covered an area of approximately 3 square miles. The maximum area reached by the city during its later phases appears to be close to 9 square miles, but how much of this area was actually occupied during any one period of time remains to be determined. The central 4.5 square miles of the city seem to have been subject to extensive planning (grid pattern, streets, and blocks of uniform size). Teotihuacán appeared as a settlement of great size in the Pre-Classic period and grew to mammoth proportions during the Classic period. No population estimates are yet possible. The Ciudadela now appears to have occupied a central rather than a southerly position in the city. Several Early Classic period Maya pottery fragments were found near the city's eastern border in the immediate vicinity of Tlamimilolpa where similar fragments had previously been found by Linné.

A newly defined pottery named the Sandy Lake ware is described. This ware extends from northwestern Wisconsin westward across east-central Minnesota into the extreme Mississippi River headwaters region. It is associated with Clam River focus pottery in Wisconsin and in Minnesota. It has a beginning association with Blackduck focus pottery but has a temporal duration beyond Blackduck to the latest prehistoric and perhaps protohistoric period.

Under the classic Bryan-Antevs model the climatic history of the Southwest has been divided into (1) pluvial, (2) early postpluvial or Anathermal, (3) mid-postpluvial or Altithermal, (4) late postpluvial or Medithermal. Pollen analysis of radiocarbon-dated pluvial deposits shows that the desert grassland of southern Arizona and the short grassland of the Texas High Plains were invaded by a pine forest or pine savanna during the last pluvial period. Sulphur Spring-age alluvial deposits at Double Adobe, dated as pluvial in age by Sayles and Antevs, do not contain the pine-pollen record associated with pluvial conditions elsewhere; six radiocarbon dates from deep alluvial deposits at Double Adobe range from 7756 to 9350 years B.P. On the basis of pollen content and radiocarbon-age estimates, the beds are of early postpluvial rather than pluvial age, and thus the Sulphur Spring-stage artifacts found there are also early postpluvial in age.

Under the Bryan-Antevs model the Altithermal, 7500-4000 B.P., is considered an especially hot, dry period. Sediments associated with three radiocarbon dates within this interval contain slightly more pollen of mesic and hygric indicators than do sediments postdating the Altithermal. Interpreting the results literally, the Altithermal was wetter, not hotter and drier, than at present. The limitations of pollen analysis are not fully understood. But the traditional view of a hot, dry Altithermal in southern Arizona cannot be verified from fossil pollen evidence available to date.

The effect which differing assumptions about ceramic analysis can have on the chronological ordering of ceramic materials is demonstrated with reference to the internal chronology of the Mabaruma phase in northwestern British Guiana. As a by-product of this demonstration, it is suggested that Evans and Meggers may have underestimated the time depth of Tropical Forest culture in this area by a factor of 100%.

Horned Owl Cave in the northern Laramie Mountains of Wyoming has provided a wide array of normally perishable artifacts in association with pictographs. Material objects recovered from the cave include fragments of atlatls, darts, shaft feathers, arrowshafts, blunt arrows, bark, weaving, bone tools, pottery, and lithic objects. The disturbed condition of the fill of the cave prevented a controlled stratigraphy, but typologically the material falls within the Late Middle culture and the Late Prehistoric culture phases of the northern Great Plains. The pictographs have been divided into three styles: an early red-figure style, a shield-figure style, and a final and probably late series of black-figure drawings. It is suggested that the red-figure drawings were a product of the last phases of the Late Middle culture, or perhaps the early phase of the Late Prehistoric culture. The shield style and the black-figure style would seem to belong to the Late Prehistoric period.

Samples were collected from four excavations and three muskegs for palynological examination in connection with a study of human prehistory in the Naknek drainage area, upper Alaska Peninsula. The purpose was to reconstruct the sequence of environments dating back to the earliest recognizable cultural phase, close to 4000 B.P. Pollen diagrams for muskeg show birch and alder as the principal arboreal types. Increasing percentages of alder occur during a late interval of hypsithermal time dating about 5500 B.P. Birch thereafter gained in proportion and between approximately 5000 and 2500 B.P. achieved maxima. Subsequently percentages of birch declined. Pollen spectra disclose that migration of spruce from the interior into this area took place within recent centuries. A climate cooler and drier than at present is interpreted from the diagrams to have been in effect during the earliest cultural phase and probably lasted until about 2500 B.P. Later, climate became slowly warmer and increasingly more humid. Temperature, however, was at first lower than at present and, coupled with greater precipitation, presumably caused heavy snow accumulation in the Aleutian Range which resulted in glacial advances during recent centuries.

Thirty-one percussion-shaped tools from the San Dieguito complex of the southern California middens have been examined. On 30 of these tools facets apparently corresponding to several regions of the thumb and the first two fingers of the right hand have been identified, as well as clearance and rake angles at the cutting edges corresponding closely to those on modern cutting tools. One of the tools seems to have been intended for left-handed usage. The evidence indicates that these tools were shaped with great precision to fit the hand and to have efficient cutting edges. Statistics on the length of the facets and the mass and height of the tools, as well as on the angles of the working edges, are given.