This paper is an attempt to place the dispute about early man in South America in historical context and to review the most convincing and important evidence that has been put forward. Essentially no skeletal remains–either in North or South America–have survived recent scrutiny and direct dating by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and small CO2 counters. Only a handful of North American sites still are considered likely to be pre-Clovis, but the concept of an earlier, generalized hunting-and-gathering adaptation remains popular. In South America the pre-Paleoindian sites of the 1960s and 1970s are reevaluated and found to present only weak or negative indications of early occupation. Recently discovered sites in Brazil and Chile are examined critically, and the evidence is questioned. The results of this survey and evaluation suggest that we still lack the absolutely certain case that would be necessary to support the hypothesis of glacial-age occupation. Moreover, the probability of demonstration is seen to decrease, rather than increase, as the Paleoindian horizon increasingly is defined with more certainty while only equivocal cases are marshalled for an Archaic-like pre-Paleoindian stage. In summarizing prehistory, archaeologists should depend more on unambiguous and replicated cases, rather than on regional exceptions. More interpretive caution is needed, especially where there are possibilities of mixture and secondary deposition. Natural processes often mimic cultural patterns, confusing the positive identification of informal hearths and simple artifacts.

Origin stories collected among the indigenous peoples in the Windward Islands during the early colonial period have been interpreted as indicating a mainland Carib affiliation for the islanders. This interpretation gave rise to efforts in the present century to identify the archaeological correlate of the presumed late prehistoric or protohistoric migration of Cariban speakers into the Lesser Antilles. Recent debate centers around two models. One of these associates the supposed migration of mainland Caribs into the Lesser Antilles with the advent of the Suazey ceramic complex in the twelfth century; the other implies either a protohistoric migration or an episode of rapid acculturation of island populations to South American mainland Carib culture in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries. A review of relevant archaeological, historical, and linguistic evidence provides little support for either of these models. Instead, the so-called “Island Caribs” were Arawakan speakers, probably longtime residents of the Windward Islands whose cultural and linguistic connections with the mainland Caribs probably were the products of contacts related to trade and alliance.

In both diachronic and synchronic studies of archaeological examples of Ontario Iroquoian longhouses, the standard method of analysis is spatially static. In this paper, the spatially dynamic method is used to analyze longhouses representative of diachronic and synchronic episodes encompassing over 800 years of Ontario Iroquoian prehistory. The results of the analysis using this approach provide significant quantifiable data on the development of Iroquoian matrilocal residence systems and functional and tribal variation in longhouse settlement patterns.

A chronological sequence for the introduction of the major categories of loom weaves in the Initial period and Early Horizon of prehistoric Peru reveals a process of experimentation that begins with primarily suprastructural and discontinuous decoration and culminates with the achievement of designs that are wedded materially to the weave. Three major innovations allowed for this dramatic advance: (1) the use of multiple heddles, which is found surprisingly early in the sequence; (2) the recognition of the full potential of the “cross” to vary the selection of the warps from the fixed order in the heddles, and (3) the related application of the complementary principle, in which one colored yarn is substituted for its partner in a contrasting hue. Through the elaboration of these truly revolutionary discoveries, the last limits to artistic freedom were removed and weaving technology rapidly advanced to include the full repertoire of loom-weave classes known in the Andes.

Rapid replacement of Cibola Whiteware bowls by Roosevelt Redware bowls is documented at Chodistaas, an 18-room pueblo ruin in the American Southwest occupied from A.D. 1263 until its burning in the 1290s. This example from prehistory illustrates how controlling for formation-process variability enhances estimates of the rate of ceramic change. The Chodistaas case underscores the importance of the prehistoric record for understanding the intricate relation between ceramic variability and past behavior and for contributing to the development of ceramic theory.

Numerous distinctly hooked silicified hairs are produced in pods of common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). Similar phytoliths were found in six dicot species native to the central Great Plains in an extensive reference collection of both cultivated and wild plants. Statistical analysis demonstrates that many of the hooked hairs produced in common beans are significantly wider near the tip than those produced in the other species. Bean phytoliths were identified at a late prehistoric village in central Kansas based on this distinguishing characteristic.

The examination of stone-tool edges for blood-antigen residue is a relatively new technique in the archaeological analysis of lithic material. To date, a number of different methods have been employed to determine the species of origin of residual blood, such as Ouchterlony double-diffusion (Ouchterlony 1968) and radioimmunoassays (RIAs) (Lowenstein 1985, 1986). These techniques have been of limited use due to problems of sensitivity, cost, and applicability to archaeological field conditions. Enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) utilizing a nitrocellulose protein-binding membrane have shown that it is possible to retain both specificity and sensitivity in a technique that can endure the rigors of archaeological field work and the vicissitudes of differential preservation (Tersak and Hyland 1988). However, due to cross-reactivity, species identification of blood residue using immunological techniques can be problematic when it is necessary to distinguish individual species within a single genus or family. Recent work has shown that careful refinement of antisera can eliminate cross-reactivity, thereby increasing specificity (Berkeley Antibody Company, personal communication 1987). This refinement is accomplished by absorbing any antibodies from the antisera that may cross-react with antigenic sites held in common by closely related species. The ramifications of the successful implementation of this technique are discussed in terms of Paleoindian artifact function as well as paleoeconomic, paleoenvironmental, and paleodietary reconstruction using a case study from the Shoop site in central Pennsylvania.

A carved segment of mammoth ivory recently recognized in a faunal collection from the Clovis type site at Blackwater Draw, New Mexico, reveals for the first time techniques employed by Clovis Paleoindians for working ivory and adds a new trait element shared between the archaeological cultures of the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic and the late Pleistocene Clovis complex of North America.

The Inka empire was supported by goods and services provided by both generalized and specialized labor. To gain insight into how goods were produced and distributed in the imperial economy, 173 sherds from Cuzco, Lake Titicaca, the upper Mantaro Valley, and Tarma were analyzed (INAA) for materials composition. Results show that production and consumption of Inka ceramics were focused within regions, although two plates probably made in Cuzco were among the Titicaca and Mantaro samples. Inka ceramics from the upper Mantaro were made from at least two sources of raw materials, both distinct from those used in local Wanka ceramics. Evidence suggests that the Inka provincial capital (Hatun Xauxa) and two Wanka towns obtained most of their Inka pots from either one or the other source. These results imply that the state controlled production of its ceramics regionally, starting at the source of the raw materials, and distributed the products of separate sources selectively.

Results of chemical analyses on residues collected from ceramic vessels found in an Early Classic period Maya tomb revealed that certain of the residues contained theobromine and caffeine, a clear indication that the corresponding vessels once contained cacao in some form. One of the vessels yielding cacao residues is decorated with hieroglyphs, two of which we believe have the phonetic values for the word “cacao” in the Mayan language. These findings are significant for three reasons: (1) a new method for recognizing ancient cacao use is demonstrated, (2) a novel way of verifying glyph interpretations is presented, and (3) data are generated that indicate what contents certain Maya vessels actually held, thus permitting useful functional interpretations.

Obsidian sources, and the proportions of those sources represented in site collections, are known poorly in the southeast mesoamerican periphery. The Honduran sources of La Esperanza and Güinope are described and “fingerprinted” chemically, and their utilization is explored in selected sites in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Although prehistoric Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans used obsidian from sources as far away as Honduras and Guatemala, most of their cutting tools were made from local materials, using informal manufacturing techniques. The analytical results indicate two sources of new types of obsidian have yet to be found; they may lie in western Nicaragua.

This comment argues that Latta's (1987) recent interpretation of certain ceramic items on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Ontario Iroquoian sites as imitations of Catholic chalices is contrary to the chronological distribution of the artifacts, is inconsistent with the nature of contemporaneous chalices, and ignores more-plausible alternative interpretations.

Ramsden and Fitzgerald (1990) offer no basis for altering the conclusions of the original article (Latta 1987), where I proposed that stemmed ceramic vessels in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Ontario Iroquoian sites appear to represent diffusion from European sources, probably through imitation of the Catholic chalice.