The cave recently discovered underneath the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico, is analyzed both according to historical written sources and reports of cults to cave deities, prominent in Mexico for millennia. Different cave rites are discussed in an effort to determine the function of the grotto. The Teotihuacan cave is compared with the mythical Chicomoztoc, Seven Caves, place of creation in ancient Mexican mythology. The author suggests that the cavern may have determined the site for the building of the Pyramid of the Sun and that later Aztec accounts of rulers being buried underneath the pyramid may have been based upon fact.

All reported findings of anthropomorphic clay figurines from the lower Pecos region of Texas are synthesized. Considerations are given to figurine chronology, technology, morphology, and function. The finds made with adequate chronological control occur in the Middle Archaic period, from about 2000 B.C. to 200 B.C. A brief description of the Lower Pecos Archaic cultural system is presented in order to place the figurines in a context for functional analysis.

The figurines are hand-shaped, usually unfired, and represent both males and females. Painted or incised decorations are restricted to female forms; socio-cultural explanations for this pattern are explored. The specific uses of the figurines remain indefinite.

An apparent similarity in settlement pattern change in portions of the Khuzestan region, Iran, and the Middle Northern Rio Grande region, New Mexico, is described. A model is formulated as a series of hypotheses of correlation to test the validity of this supposed change in the Middle Northern Rio Grande region. Test implications of this model dictate the establishment of a survey transect. Site data is gathered from the transect using museum records, published reports and a stratified, random sample site reconnaissance. The "site weight index" is described and used to render this site data into comparable numerical form. A phi-coefficient statistic is applied to this data, and the first model is rejected. An alternative model of settlement change is derived and used to reinterpret Northern Rio Grande prehistory in general.

A settlement pattern study is made of 160 prehistoric habitation sites along the Klamath river in northwest California to determine what environmental factors regulate site placement and population density. Topographic variables, especially gradient, were found to serve as negative criteria in limiting the possibilities of site location. Differential access to anadromous fish was found to function positively in favoring site placement and high population density. This finding supports Baumhoffs hypothesis that Karok population levels could be accounted for by available fish resources alone (Baumhoff 1963).

The recovery of pollen from archaeological sites in Eastern North A merica has not been as successful as it has been in the western part of the continent. The depositional environment of eastern archaeological sites is generally unfavorable for pollen preservation and archaeologists have failed to search out special situations in which pollen may be preserved. At the Rhoads site, a Proto-Historic Indian village in central Illinois, abundant pollen has been found associated with copper artifacts and deeply buried tree bark. Pollen was preserved around copper, apparently due to dissolved copper salts which act as a fungicide. Tree bark, an excellent collection surface for air-borne pollen, can yield abundant pollen when preserved. When the factors involved in pollen deposition and preservation are considered, the prospects for archaeological palynology in eastern North America should be greatly enhanced.

Prehistoric construction projects in the Moche Valley required the mobilization and coordination of very large numbers of individuals. It is thought that workers were mobilized by means of labor tax obligations, and large projects were subdivided into repetitive tasks executed by distinct parties of workmen drawn from separate communities.

Mud bricks in Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna differ in soil composition, dimensions, mold marks, and makers' marks. The differences reflect conditions of brick production and use, and some variables are chronologically significant. This paper discusses the archaeological significance of adobes in these platform mounds, located on the south side of the Moche Valley. Four brick variables-soil, dimensions, mold, and makers' marks-are examined in terms of patterns of associations.

Steel balls were dropped on to massive glass prisms at an impact angle of 45° in order to determine the effects of oblique impact on several attributes of flake size and flake shape. The results indicate that a flake produced by oblique impact is shorter, but not significantly thinner (except in the immediate area of the cone), than a flake of comparable platform thickness produced by vertical impact.

Settlement pattern surveys over a large portion of the Valley of Mexico by Sanders, Blanton, and Parsons have produced a sample of over 600 Aztec spindle whorls with good provenience data. This paper examines the distribution of both cotton and maguey whorls, and their variation from sub-region to sub-region within the Valley of Mexico. Particular attention is given to the maguey whorls. These clearly fall into three distinct stylistic groups, each of which appears to be restricted to a limited area within the Valley of Mexico. An attempt is made to explain this distribution in terms of the prehispanic Aztec market system.

Clean, odor free vertebrate skeletons can easily be prepared in from two days to a week by using bacterial or enzyme maceration in conjunction with other techniques.

The use of factor analysis in archaeology has increased considerably in recent years as archaeologists have recognized the advantages of using a statistical technique that can elicit otherwise unrecognizable patterns in a set of data. But there are several questions relating to scaling transformations and reliability assessments that must be answered within the context of specific research designs before reliable results can be obtained. A re-analysis of pottery type distributions at Broken K Pueblo is used to illustrate these questions. The factor solutions produced by the re-analysis exhibit relatively low reliability levels, indicating that the ratio of specific and error variance to common variance in the data is somewhat high.

Charlton (1973) argues that Parsons' (1969, 1970) explanation for the abandonment of the central Texcoco region, Mexico, during the Early Toltec period, is misleading because Parsons considered only “non-ecological” factors. Specifically, Parsons suggested that this zone was not occupied because it was the boundary between the political spheres of two competing regional centers, Tula and Cholula. Charlton argues instead, that the region was abandoned due to “ecological” factors. Namely, he argues, the Early Toltec period was a period of low population density, when only the most suitable agricultural land was occupied; thus the central Texcoco region was not utilized because it is agriculturally marginal. Charlton’s emphasis on the use of “ecological” factors to explain the distribution of Early Toltec settlements is misleading because it does not allow prediction of the locations of other known Early Toltec settlements in the Valley of Mexico. Abandonment of large portions of the Valley of Mexico was a general pattern during this period, due to “Balkanization” and competition between local centers.

Blanton ’s use of a hypothesis of warfare among Early Post- Teotihuacan sociocultural entities of the Basin of Mexico to account for selective reoccupation following the end of Teotihuacan is based ultimately on a conceptualization of a dichotomy between a peaceful Classic period and a warlike Postclassic period. Except for unoccupied areas between local concentrations of Early Toltec sites there are no data to support the warfare hypothesis. Through a presentation of available Early Toltec settlement pattern data from the Basin of Mexico and a consideration of the sociocultural connections between Teotihuacan and the Early Toltec epi-Teotihuacan states, I support my earlier model which utilizes a tightly reasoned cultural ecological (sociocultural factors pais environmental features) framework to account for and predict the locations of concentrations of Early Toltec period sites. Continuity between Teotihuacan and the Early Toltec period sites is stressed.

Numerous reports of trace element analyses contain defects which severely limit their utility. These defects are, on the whole, inexcusable and serve only to hamper the comparison and replication of such studies by other researchers.

Several additions and corrections to the recent compilation by Morris of the late Anna Shepard’s bibliography are reported.