Informal impressions or formal estimates of the size of prehistoric populations are often distorted by counting as if contemporary remains that, although dating to the same general period, were not in fact contemporary in a strict sense. In this paper, I evaluate a number of methods for mitigating this problem and propose a new solution. In the process, fundamental questions are raised concerning the nature of period boundaries, the life-cycles of sites, and how these phenomena affect estimates of the size of prehistoric populations. It is suggested that the growth cycles of most sites can be approximated by a relatively simple mathematical formula, or a series of such formulae, each expressed as a function of time. The total population can then be estimated at any point in time. A computer program to perform this task is given as an appendix, and the suggested procedure is illustrated with an example using data from SW Iran.

Data derived from analyses of vessel size and shape have been largely overlooked by researchers who seek to understand Mississippian site variability. Vessel form data are analyzed to demonstrate that relative site permanence and the relative size of group that lived at or visited sites are reflected in the size and shape of ceramic vessels. Vessel forms from four archaeological sites are compared, each of which played a different role within a single, late Mississippian society of the Georgia Piedmont.

Southeast Europe is the location of the earliest horticulture and metallurgy in Europe, and is therefore important to understanding processes of cultural development in prehistoric Europe as a whole. This review of the rich literature is an introduction to topics of current interest, including the debates and differences of opinion among scholars.

My aim in assembling this review is to make recent archaeological research in the Old World accessible to readers of this journal. Three issues are emphasized–current research concerns, major recent discoveries, and readily available literature on the subjects treated. The regions covered are Europe, the Near East, and China. A review article concerned with Africa will appear in a later issue. I wish to thank Peter Bogucki and Richard Meadow for helpful advice in this review's preparation. PSW

The 12 Mile Creek site in western Kansas was the first site yielding a fluted projectile point to be excavated in North America by scientific personnel. The Bison from this kill site were used in forming the original concept of B. occidentalis. A new study of the site including radiocarbon dates and a pollen analysis suggests the kill took place in a pine parkland about 10,300 years ago. The artifact from this site reported by Williston seems to be a Clovis projectile point.

TL/ESR measurements were made to test whether a semicircular arrangement of cobbles at the Calico site was a man-made hearth. Results of an earlier magnetic study of one of the cobbles suggested the inner portion had been heated to 360ºC. Such a temperature would destroy radiation-induced defects on the inner portions of the cobbles, which can then be measured by TL/ESR. TL/ESR signals of the inner and outer portions of four cobbles were measured and showed no significant differences. Moreover, all samples appeared to be at full TL and ESR saturation. Progressive heating of a control cobble taken from outside the hearth feature indicated that destruction of the TL/ESR signal occurs at 200ºC. Estimates of the dose rate at the site indicates that at least 400,000 years are required for an annealed rock to attain full TL/ESR saturation, a much longer time than the estimated 200,000-year age of the deposit.

Seven burial/habitation sites of the Late Archaic-Early Woodland periods in the Great Lakes area have yielded galenas whose lead isotope ratios define the provenience of the minerals. Galenas at five of the sites probably originated at a single vein near Rossie, New York. A single sample from one site may be from a vein close to the Ottawa River near Ottawa, Ontario. Galena at one site has come from the southern part of the Upper Mississippi Valley mineral district in the central United States. Carbon-14 dates and cultural characteristics suggest that the galenas were obtained over an extended period, perhaps as long as 600 years. Although the data set is small, it appears that galenas found at aboriginal sites in the northeastern Great Lakes region were primarily obtained from two veins within a few hundred kilometers of the site locations.

Excavation of a small single-component prehistoric campsite in the coastal southern California foothills has provided evidence concerning the patterns and approximate rates of redistribution of archaeological materials caused by the burrowing pocket gopher, Thomomys bottae. Investigation of bimodal vertical distributions of both historic and prehistoric archaeological materials shows a close correspondence to the burrowing habits of pocket gophers in coastal California. Comparison of these bimodal distributions with a site chronology based upon diagnostic artifacts and C-14 dating suggests that, under certain soil conditions, downward displacement of archaeological materials may occur at rates averaging over 5% per century. The broader implications of the effects of faunalturbation upon the interpretation of archaeological assemblages are briefly discussed.

This report demonstrates recourse to homophony in ancient Maya script, illustrating the generalization of signs on the basis of their phonetic values, apart from their primary semantic values. It focuses on substitutions, in eight glyphic contexts, of signs for “sky,” the number “four,” and “snake,” the words for which are homophonous or nearly homophonous in most Mayan languages. A final, unique glyphic context exhibits the use of homophony in a spelling of Kukulcan's name from the classic period.

This report describes a general purpose diagnostic program for the Maya Calendar Round. Taking as its input any or all of the components of the Calendar Round position, it displays all possible Long Count dates and their Gregorian day equivalents, commencing at any specified Long Count date. Provisions are made in this program to correct for a wide range of spelling errors and impossible combinations. In addition, a number of innovative programming techniques are used to provide fast execution.

Microcomputers are proposed as relatively inexpensive, portable substitutes for mainframe computers in processing archaeological data. Five types of software packages and an economical hardware system are described. These can facilitate cataloging and sorting data, create two-dimensional tables and graphs, carry out statistical tests, and do word processing.

Forty-nine obsidian artifacts from a Classic period residential group at Nohmul, northern Belize, have been analyzed by neutron activation analysis. The majority of the samples originated from Ixtepeque, and the remainder from El Chayal. Increasing prominence of the Ixtepeque source from the Late Classic into the Terminal Classic (i.e., before and after ca. A.D. 800) suggests greater use of a coastal distribution route known to have originated in the Formative and to have remained in use through the colonial period.

Some points raised by Joyce Marcus's survey of lowland Maya archaeology require further discussion.

With good reason, several scholars have challenged the exaltation of long-distance trade as a prime mover in the rise of civilization. However, in dismissing the economic importance of long-distance exchange in the development of Maya civilization, Marcus (1983) has moved too far in the opposite direction.

In the transfer of surface mining regulatory authority from the federal government to state governments, significant archaeological and historic sites have been, and continue to be, jeopardized. In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, primacy in this regulatory function has meant an almost total disregard for the effect of mining on cultural resources and thus the cultural impoverishment of the state and the nation at large. The Lands Unsuitable for Mining petition process offers concerned citizens a vehicle by which such inadequacies may be addressed. Lands Unsuitable for Mining Petition 83–1, the first petition to be filed in Kentucky and the first such petition in the nation to be filed solely on the grounds of potential impacts of mining on significant archaeological sites, successfully forced the issue for a 166 km2 area in the Big Bend region of Kentucky's Green River. It must be acknowledged that use of the lands unsuitable petition process leads inevitably to a potentially volatile confrontation between archaeologists and coal operators and therefore, it represents an abysmal preservation tool. Nevertheless, in states such as Kentucky it remains the only regulatory option available to insure that significant sites are adequately considered in the permitting process.

The federal government is engaged in large scale archaeological surveys in the western United States that demonstrate an apparent disregard for the techniques of probability sampling. In addition, federal advocacy of “cookbook” predictive models based on inadequate samples may constitute a threat to archaeological sites.