Data from 22 Archaic sites in four ecologically similar regions in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia are compared to provide a synthesis of Archaic materials dating from the Anathermal to the first centuries of the Christian era in the Middle South. Stratigraphic evidence and radiocarbon dates make possible the establishment of two local sequences in western Tennessee where 15 components from ten sites can be assigned to six phases. These components are compared in terms of 83 traits through the use of the Z-coefficient described by Kroeber. Both the archaeological and the statistical analyses suggest the presence of two contemporaneous Archaic traditions in the area. The validity of this interpretation is tested by comparing the Tennessee materials with those from the Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia regions, again with the aid of the Z-coefficient. The Archaic phases of all four regions are assigned to the two traditions: Midcontinent tradition—Eva, Three Mile, Big Sandy (Tenn.), Indian Knoll, unnamed phase which includes the Parish, Ward, and Chiggerville sites (Ky.); Eastern tradition—Stallings Island (Ga.), Lauderdale (Ala.), Kays, Weldon, Ledbetter (Tenn.). The contacts between the Archaic and Woodland traditions and the lack of contact with Early Lithic cultures are discussed.

Excavations in the Western Mound at this prehistoric Hopi pueblo provide 13 adjacent columns of refuse in masonry rooms which yielded 21,569 painted sherds. Stratigraphic analysis of these ceramic profiles has resulted in a relative chronology of five color classes of locally made painted pottery which will serve as a control for future ceramic studies at the site. Black-onwhite, black-on-orange, and orange-paste polychrome were made from about A.r>. 1200 to 1300 when they were abruptly replaced by black-on-yellow and yellow-paste polychrome. The differences between trash deposited in rooms and that dumped in the open, the anomalies of sherd and vessel quantities, and the well documented nature of this large sherd collection make possible observations on the problems of stratigraphic interpretation. Numerical comparison of painted sherds with vessels restored from them demonstrates the hazards of interpretation based solely on limited sherd samples. The fact that one of the rooms produced a sequence exactly the reverse of the situation in the other 12 rooms emphasizes the need for more extensive testing in room blocks than in trash dumps. Restoration of vessels from sherds found at different levels in different rooms shows the inadequacy of chronological inference based on stratigraphic position of unassembled sherds.

This graphical technique utilizes only three types of artifacts from the collection to the seriated. The relationship between the three selected types is plotted on three-pole graph paper. The points on the graph are clustered along a line representing change through time; hence the archaeological materials are arranged in their correct temporal sequence. Data from Paragonah, Utah, and Pindi, New Mexico, two Southwestern sites for which the time sequence is known, are used for empirical tests of the seriational technique. In both cases there is close agreement between the results of the seriation and the time sequence revealed by field evidence.

An algebraic explanation is offered for the graphical method of sedation proposed by Meighan. A suggested simplification of the graphing technique makes it possible to plot the seriation on ordinary graph paper rather than on three-pole graph paper.

Wilson Duff's tentative identification of several lower Fraser River artifacts as atlatl weights led the authors to examine 104 whole and fragmentary probable weights from the Northwest. They classify them on the basis of lashing grooves, notches, holes, or scars into three main types, each of which has variants. The weights are found in the lower Columbia and lower Fraser river valleys with a concentration in the Dalles-Deschutes region and range in time from the late Middle to the early Late periods of the Dalles Reservoir sequence, about 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400. Metallurgical analysis of a hollow copper bead found with two weights indicates that it is prehistoric and suggests connections to the east. The weights are often found paired in burials. Although ethnographic comparisons are disappointing, archaeological comparisons reveal possible relationships between the Northwest and California, the Great Basin and the Southwest, especially during Basketmaker II, and the eastern Woodlands. The possibility that the Northwest atlatl weights may be derived from eastern forms reinforces the previously presented idea that the Northwest participated in certain continent-wide developments.

The three major forms of Palenque incensarios, the great majority of which appear to be locally made, are pedestal'based vessels, ladles, and elaborately decorated, hollow, flanged cylinders. The first two forms were clearly used for burning incense, but the elaborate cylinders show no definite evidence of burning. They may have served as stands or supports for incense burners, and in any case, are certainly related to the incensario tradition in Mesoamerica. At Palenque, this tradition seems to be oriented toward the hierarchical aspects of Maya civilization. The decoration on the flanged cylinders shows close resemblances to the symbolism and the manner of portrayal in Maya monumental art. While the Palenque incensarios are fundamentally similar to those in other parts of Mesoamerica, they are quite distinctive in both shape and decoration. The main correspondences are with Late Classic incense burners in southern Tabasco and the Alta Verapaz.

There are three prehistoric or protohistoric ceramic traditions in the Northwestern plains. The Shoshone tradition is represented by Great Falls ware, found immediately east of the Rockies in central Montana, and probably made by an eastern Plateau tribe. The Pisamiks tradition includes two wares: Ethridge ware in Alberta and northern Montana, probably made by the Blackfoot; Wascana ware in Saskatchewan, closely similar to Selkirk focus pottery in southeastern Manitoba, and probably made by the Cree. The Mandan tradition includes Hagen ware, found along the Yellowstone River in southern Montana, and probably made by the Crow, as well as the pottery made by the Mandan-Hidatsa along the Missouri River in North Dakota.

The El'gytkhyn site consists of a cache of stone artifacts and a nearby campsite on the shores of Lake El'gytkhyn on the central Anadyr plateau. The cache contained some 50 artifacts, both knives and points made on large flake-blades and carefully retouched by pressure flaking, and blanks from which they were made. Similar points were found at the campsite along with scrapers and other tools, many retouched chips, prismatic nuclei, and the blades struck from them. Previously, similar artifacts had been found at the Amguema site about 300 km. to the east and the Chirovoe site about 100 km. to the south. The latter is a settlement with pottery as well as stone artifacts. The inland Neolithic culture is compared to the Caribou Eskimo and the Yukaghir, and the El'gytkhyn site is interpreted as the summer hunting camp of people following reindeer to the north from permanent winter villages like the Chirovoe site. The presence of blades removed from prismatic cores, retouched points and other artifacts, tools with graver facets, and pottery in both the Chukchi inland Neolithic and the Paleo-Eskimo cultures suggests movements from the Asiatic to the American Arctic by 4000 years ago.

Ecologically oriented studies in anthropology can be improved by greater familiarity with standard botanical and agricultural sources (many of which are listed in this paper) on the enumeration, classification, domestication, and use of culturally significant plants.

Burials of condors at two central California coastal sites extend the area of this trait, previously known from burials further south and inland. It was probably a ritual practice from Early horizon times (about 2000 B.C.) onward. Possible connections with bird burial in the Southwest deserve study.

Chemical and microscopic analyses of material from eight structures at Palenque show that mortars, plasters, stuccos, wash coats, and lime-aggregates were used as building units, and extend the distribution of limeaggregate, known also at Comalcalco, Las Flores, and Uxmal.

Although the Portuguese route from Lisbon to Goa via Bahia and Cape of Good Hope was the first direct route from South America to Southeast Asia, it was so little used that it was unimportant in the introduction of American plants into Asia. It is more likely that American plants brought first to Portugal were carried directly from there to Asia.

Borhegyi and Scrimshaw's identification of goiter on two prehistoric pottery figurines from Guatemala is questioned and their discussion of iodine deficiency as the cause of endemic goiter is challenged.

Examples of the rebuilding of a boulder structure by Navajo and of a cliff dwelling by uranium prospectors, both buildings in Pueblo III sites in the lower San Juan River drainage, illustrate the difficulty of establishing universally valid, diagnostic house types.