The habitat and technology of Hogup Cave, Utah, is one of the most complete, longest and well analyzed archaeological records in the world. In this paper, data from the Hogup Cave report are analyzed to determine how much cultural change in the subsistence system can be accounted for by environmental change. The model used is causal in concept. Path analysis suggests that approximately 50% of the cultural change at Hogup can be attributed to environmental change.

The value and need for the micro-seriation of archaeological data are discussed, and a non-typological approach is described. Excavated and surface material from the Cibola region of New Mexico are seriated by two different techniques: factor scores and multidimensional scaling. The results are compared with stratigraphic and dendrochronologic data. It is argued that the methods produce useful results and that time differences of about a decade can be determined.

Some of the richest and most varied archaeological information in North America lies on desert surfaces of the Greater Southwest and Great Basin. Because these sites are erosional exposures, it has been common to discount them and to overlook the opportunities they afford. This article outlines procedures which have proved successful in studying an extensive area of Paleo-Indian sites at China Lake, California. These procedures may be adapted to similar desert regions elsewhere.

There seems to be little doubt that major population shifts occurred in Northern Ontario and Manitoba following the Iroquois wars of the seventeenth century and the advent of the fur trade. These movements have tended to blur pre-contact ethnic boundaries. Although recent archaeological reports have provided much needed data, differing interpretations of that data have only further obscured the issue. For instance, while some scholars have argued that Blackduck Focus sites in western Northern Ontario and northern Minnesota were occupied by Algonkian-speakers (either Ojibwa or Creej, others have interpreted the materials as having an Assiniboin authorship. In support of the latter view, we analyze both the archaeological and early ethnohistorical data. From these sources we conclude that, at contact, the Ojibwa extended no further west than Michipicoten Bay, while the Cree occupied most of Northern Ontario except for a strip of about 50 mi north and south of the present International border west of Lake Superior which was Assiniboin territory. Proper determination of ethnic boundaries is of theoretical importance to studies of cultural ecology and social organization.

Discriminant function analysis is used as a systematic measure of interrelatedness among sites within the Lamine River and Big Bend Localities. Chipped stone projectile points from Mellor, Imhoff, Givens and Fischer-Gabbert were chosen for this analysis. Their selection was based on a suggested operational criterion: that social distance between peoples is reflected in the degree of similarity between artifacts commonly found on contemporaneous Hopewell settlements. Two statistically significant roots are defined, rejecting the null hypothesis that no significant variation occurs among these settlements' projectile points. The Euclidean distances of projectile points in discriminant space are remarkably similar to the site's geographic distribution. This analysis suggests social interaction was greatest within localities and minimal between.

The gamma-ray induced thermoluminescence of specimens of majolica pottery of known origin, and of specimens of majolica of unknown origin collected in the Caribbean area was analyzed to determine if thermoluminescence could be used as an indicator of the provenience of pottery found in an archaeological context. The results of the measurements show that the shape of the gamma-ray induced thermoluminescence glow-curve of the clay matrix of majolica is specific to the geographic locality where the pottery was made, and that the provenience of specimens found archaeologically can be determined on the basis of their thermoluminescence glow-curves, when the curves obtained from the samples with known origins are used as references.

Corroboration of linguistic evidence for the northward expansion of Numic speakers from the southwestern Great Basin around A.D. 1000 is provided by the dating of Paiute-Shoshoni pottery. At eight stratified eastern Great Basin sites, this distinctive pottery is associated with Anasazi and/or Fremont ceramics, supporting the hypothesis that competition with Numic speaking groups was partially responsible for the disappearance of the Fremont culture.

Recent studies have suggested that variations in areal distributions of utilized and non-utilized lithic materials can aid in the delineation of functional site areas. Microscopic analyses of experimentally produced and utilized flakes suggest that due to an accumulation of animal fats along the working edge significant numbers of utilized flakes may not display wear indicating use. Factors of lithology and variations in butchering technique are considered and implications for areal patterns explored.

Data provided by 42 COPA (Committee on Public Archeology) representatives are provided as a synthesis of current status of state support for archaeological research programs. Trends indicative of increasing support are documented. Eight states have not been updated.

M. Coe and K. Flannery (1964) a decade ago presented an account of their brief reconnaissance of a portion of the massive El Chayal obsidian quarry and workshop near Guatemala City. Noting the lack of ceramic artifacts and obsidian prismatic blades, Coe and Flannery reasoned that the workshop materials likely predated the Formative, and concluded that a date in the Archaic was the most probable. Their reasoning evidently was based on two fallacious assumptions, which, considered in the light of new data from Chalchuapa, El Salvador, indicates that the majority of the El Chayal artifacts described and illustrated actually date to the end of the Late Classic and particularly to the Postclassic (ca. A.D. 800-1500). Comments on technological analysis and basic illustration standards are included.

In 1964 M. Coe and K. Flannery reported on the existence of a major obsidian chipping station, El Chayal, in highland Guatemala some 15 km northeast of the large administrative and ceremonial center known as Kaminaljuyu. In that report they introduce arguments supporting their belief that the chipping station exhibited a preceramic industry, belonging either to the Archaic period or to the Paleo-Indian period, or to both. New evidence, resulting from obsidian dating, unequivocally contradicts their conclusions and thus calls into question their basic line of reasoning. Obsidian dating results suggest that the El Chayal chipping station probably dates to the Early Post Classic period IA.D. 1000-1200) and certainly no earlier than A.D. 900.

Explicit methodological statements on the needs for and goals of an “ecological” study of man’s past first appeared in the 1950’s. Since this time it has become fashionable to operate archaeological projects with symbiotic teams from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Although government agencies and private foundations have shown a measure of sympathy toward the support of “non-anthropologists” engaged in archaeological projects, there has been little reflection on how successful such ventures have been.

The “new archaeology,” a philosophy of archaeological research based on deductive logic, has both resolved and created problems. It has rightly stressed that the empirical content of a theory determines its acceptability; no longer must an assessment of its theoretical status be based on an appraisal of the person advancing the theory. However, a deductivist account is not satisfactory either logically or as a description of scientific processes. The basis of the problem is demonstrated by the concern of many archaeologists with ascertaining the degree to which a theory is confirmed; factual reconstruction, although of interest, is not, and should not be, fundamental to scientific work. By reexamining the basic purpose of science, I hope to demonstrate that what is required is an assessment of theoretical status based on relative empirical content.