Recently, there has been an intensification of interest in the history of American archaeology, and a number of general attempts at delineating the history of the entire field have been advanced since 1940. Most of these overall views have taken the form of explanatory-periodization schemes. Four of these schemes are reviewed in this article and then examined in the light of 4 testcase studies: (1) the initial period of archaeology in the Southwest (1840-1860), (2) the history of archaeology in the Grand Canyon region (1540-1964), (3) the development of Kentucky prehistory (1661-1957), and (4) the study of early man in the United States (1500-1965). A number of discrepancies and weaknesses are shown in all the schemes under review, and the use of any such period scheme in the initial history of a science is questioned. The nature of period schemes is then examined resulting in the suggestion that all such undertakings should serve as tentative working hypotheses rather than end goals in themselves.

Scovill is a Weaver focus site in west-central Illinois. Various techniques were employed to extract maximal amounts and kinds of food remains from the site, and these remains, identified and quantified, are then compared with the estimated food potential from the 10 mi2 area surrounding the site in an attempt to determine both the ecology and the subsistence pattern of the inhabitants. Certain hypotheses concerning the overall settlement-subsistence system of the Weaver focus are presented, and problems involved in the recovery, differential preservation, and quantification of archaeological food remains from open sites are discussed.

Discussion on the subsistence base of the ancient Maya has centered mainly around the potentialities and limitations of shifting cultivation. The case for alternative and more intensive food-producing systems warrants serious consideration. Reports and personal observation reveal that techniques of terracing, irrigation, drainage, gardening, and tree culture, plus gathering and intensified shifting cultivation were likely known and used. Like other high cultures in America, the Maya probably employed a number of food-producing systems to exploit the rich variety of environments found in their region.

The present article responds to questions raised by Marshall (1969). Based on European material, the author concludes that engineering principles cannot be universally applied, despite some obviously positive results. Before reconstructing an object, the completeness of its preserved remains should be taken into account and the preserved floor plan should be supplemented with those elements that have vanished. To use only what actually remains of a house floor in making a reconstruction presupposes that the layout is fully preserved, and this is of course not always the case. The English version of this paper was translated from the original Czech manuscript by H. Martin Wobst, University of Michigan.

Discovery of a typical Miccaotli phase offering at Altun Ha, British Honduras (Belize) indicates contact between Teotihuacan and the central Maya lowlands in the second century A.D., 2.5 to 3 centuries earlier than previously recognized.

Pre-fire incised marks can be observed on many of the plain cooking and storage ceramic vessels of the Moche style, which flourished on the north coast of Peru from approximately 100 B.C. to A.D. 800. A possible explanation of these marks is suggested on the basis of an ethnographic analogy to the present-day practices of potters in the central sierra of Peru. It is suggested that the marks were made to facilitate the identification of the pots of each potter during production and prior to the actual marketing of the pots.

The role of scavengers, especially dogs, with reference to archaeological faunal remains is not always clear. While distortion admittedly results from the activities of these animals, total destruction of all such evidence is questioned. Emphasis is placed upon fish remains in the examples and both ethnographic and archaeological data are used. It is argued that a more thorough knowledge of the nature of the food items themselves will greatly aid in assessing both their potential archaeological visibility and the information they may yield.

The earliest style of petrographs known for the Glen Canyon region, Arizona and Utah, is believed to be much older than previously held. Between 4000 to 8000 yr ago is the suggested new beginning date.

The future of field archaeology in some parts of North America is seriously threatened by rampant pot-hunting. Archaeologists should capitalize on popular concern against the looting of foreign antiquities to build better public cooperation for site preservation within the United States.

Test excavations at Aguacatal, located on the Xicalango peninsula, western Campeche, revealed chultuns (water cisterns) of the Late Classic period. Modern chultun construction by Chontal Indians, as late as the 1940's, followed the Late Classic period methods and style. First hand descriptions of the construction and use of chultuns by the Chontol is an aid in archaeological interpretation.

Neurolepis is an easily recognizable bamboo-grass found as the dominant vegetation in many of the wettest and most remote Andean montane grassland areas. The plant has little economic value and is usually burned to produce pasture or facilitate hunting. After burning, regrowth is extremely slow, so that areas previously occupied by Neurolepis are apparently permanently colonized by tussock pasture grasses. It seems likely, therefore, that the existing remnant areas of Neurolepis represent the areas which have not been substantially affected by man in historic, and perhaps prehistoric, times.

In the field it is often difficult to distinguish black manganese dioxide from specks of charcoal or other organic materials. Misinterpretations can be avoided by testing the earth material with a small amount of potassium periodate which will oxidize any manganese to the highly colored permanganate ion.

Some systems of site designation are designed primarily for filing site records; it is possible to design systems which can be used to mark specimens also. In 1953, the author devised a system of the second type for the whole New World; it was published in Peru by Duccio Bonavía in 1966. A comparison with the River Basin Surveys system illustrates some of the problems involved in uniform site designation.