Two years ago Lothrop (1934) published a summary of archaeological work in South America covering the years 1931–1934. This article continues the summary up to 1936. Relatively few archaeological expeditions have come to my attention in this period and consequently the review is based largely on published accounts. Such field reports as are available are incorporated under the proper sections. Thompson (1936) has published a guide leaflet on the archaeology of South America, reviewing the various fields included. Other publications refer more specifically to single sections. The review of sections starts in the Andean region, and continues with the eastern South American countries.

A cave deposit in New Mexico has recently been discovered which seems to combine all the favorable circumstances under which the association of man with extinct mammals may be conclusively demonstrated. In the fall of 1935, one of the students at the University of New Mexico reported to the Department of Anthropology that he had located several caves in the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque. He also produced such tangible evidence of archaeological remains found on the floor of the caves that an investigation was initiated to survey these and other previously reported caves. Most of them, as might have been expected, indicated but slight occupation of man, recent or ancient.

The stone carving in bas-relief pictured herewith (Plate 19) was found during the summer of 1936 by the writer while in the course of conducting archaeological explorations at Starkweather ruin in the Reserve district of the Upper Gila area, New Mexico. Newspapers learning of this rather unusual find sensationally spread the story throughout the country that Aztec and Toltec art objects had been found in New Mexico. It is really amusing to note how they jumped at conclusions, for there is nothing in the find that would indicate any relation to the Aztec or Toltec. The writer hopes that all such inaccurate information will be corrected through the following description of the find and the conditions under which it was made.

The Archaeology of Alaska has been coming to the front in recent years as the result of protracted activities chiefly on the part of the National Museum in Washington, the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, the Canadian National Museum at Ottawa, and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. Some twenty years ago, through the efforts of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the American Museum of Natural History had already obtained a large archaeological collection from Pt. Barrow and vicinity, which is at least partly published and which may conceivably have helped to stimulate this new interest.

The Sites of the Fort Ancient aspect of the Upper Mississippi Phase are located in southern and southwestern Ohio, northern and northeastern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana. It is the purpose of this paper to present the grouping of the individual components within the larger cultural unit; to state briefly the chronological position of the Fort Ancient aspect; and to discuss the possible ethnological connections.

The existence of many of these sites has been known for years, and their cultural similarity has been recognized since the beginning of the twentieth century.

In the course of certain investigations on the identification of cloth ash, it became necessary to develop a technique whereby relatively large (5 to 15 cm.) fragments of ashed cloth of all types woven from vegetable fiber could be permanently preserved.

The requirements were that the preparations should be capable of withstanding the relatively rough handling of the laboratory. They should show the textile remains displayed flat with the yarns of the warp and weft in their original relations.

In the winter of 1934–35, a ball-court, analogous in many details with those of Central America, was discovered at Snaketown on the Gila River Indian Reservation in south-central Arizona, during excavations conducted by Gila Pueblo. The announcement of a ball-court 1500 miles from its supposed origin, and in a region where it was entirely unexpected, met with skepticism until the discovery was verified by men qualified to judge from first hand knowledge acquired in the Middle American field. A new angle to the problem of relationships of Southwestern, Mexican, and Central American cultures was thus brought to the fore. Now, to add to this discovery, comes another find in the form of a rubber ball. It, too, was found in south-central Arizona and may, indeed, have been used in the game for which the courts were built.