In the Summer of 1935, the finding of Folsom Man was heralded throughout the country by the daily press and several Sunday supplement articles on the subject appeared in various papers. The articles were based on a publication, New World Man, by J. D. Figgins, then director of the Colorado Museum of Natural History, now with the Bernheim Foundation, Louisville, Kentucky. The identification of the remains as those of Folsom Man seemingly was made by some reporter who noted that they were found eight miles east of Folsom, New Mexico. Beyond the fact that the bones were in a bank of the Cimarron River, fourteen miles east of the quarry where the original Folsom points and extinct bison were uncovered ten years ago, there was nothing to warrant the conclusion that they represented Folsom Man.

There has been considerable discussion recently as to whether or not the coiling method was in use in the northeastern Woodlands area. There are two sources of information: early written reports of settlers, missionaries, and others, and archaeological material. Holmes reports the observations of Mooney and Palmer among the Catawba, who used the coil method. Sagard, a French missionary, described the the Huron as using the paddle and anvil method. Parker found a section of a coil in an Erie village in western New York, and several partial sections have been found since. Griffin summarizes the ethnological and archaeological evidence and describes his attempts to produce fractures along the lines of the coils. Little material on sherds showing horizontal breaks along the coils is available at the present.

In the North central Middle West there is a well-defined complex of archaeological material traits that received the classificatory name Oneota aspect of the Upper Mississippi phase at the Indianapolis meeting of 1935. The material which probably should be grouped together occurs over quite a large geographical area. In northern Illinois it is one of the best known of the prehistoric cultures and is represented by at least three foci. In Wisconsin the southern and western parts of the state contain quite a number of sites grouped into three foci, two of which appear to be local, namely, Lake Winnebago and Grand River. The sites in northeastern Iowa and southeastern Minnesota contain remains so similar to those of southwestern Wisconsin that they have been placed together in the Orr focus.

In the course of its long and eventful prehistory, the territory embraced in the present state of New York was invaded from nearly every direction. For several groups, notably the Iroquois, it was the end of the trail; others sojourned briefly and passed on. In part it was heavily occupied by diverse bands for a considerable period of time. This is especially true of the central and southern sections and of large parts of the Genesee Valley. The latter and the Finger Lakes region, including the Seneca River, are thickly strewn with sites of varying age and size. In one section of the Genesee Valley, just south of Rochester, hardly a knoll is opened without revealing skeletons. Other relatively intensively occupied areas are the Susquehanna drainage, parts of the Mohawk and Hudson valleys and Long Island.

The interest in American antiquities has increased in the last few years. One result of this increased interest has been the preparation of archaeological surveys of states and lesser areas. These surveys are of great value in organizing the available knowledge and in furnishing data for future studies and explorations.

In order for such publications to be of maximum usefulness, it is necessary that the locations of sites be fixed with accuracy. A description is not a survey. Such expressions as “near Springfield” or “six miles south of Jonesville” are entirely too vague.

In the following simplified method for classifying projectile-points the use of the term arrowhead is purposely avoided. The term projectile point is used for all specimens commonly referred to as birdpoints, arrowheads, spearheads, and lance points. Relative sizes are necessarily disregarded, although unusually long or short specimens are given proper mention.