We argue that the development and use of law-like statements by archaeologists to explain characteristics of the archaeological record has been and should continue to be one of the most important goals of archaeological research. Using a model for explanation developed by the philosophers of science, Carl Hempel and Paul Oppenheim, we indicate the role of such statements in archaeological classification. However, in archaeology such statements are found to be implicit, untested, and extremely general in referent.

We further argue that the testing of potential laws requires a shift from an inductive procedure, or from one in which undirected data collection forms the first and the "abstraction" of laws from data forms the last research step, to a deductive procedure in which the explicit formulation of potential laws and their empirical consequences precedes and directs the collection of data.

The Hohokam grew maize as early as 300 B.C. Common beans were introduced by Estrella phase (100 B.C.-A.D. 100) and cotton was cultivated by the following phase (A.D. 100-300). Sahuaro and mesquite seeds supplemented agricultural products especially when crops failed. The Hohokam apparently harvested two plantings per year. Opuntia seeds were eaten when crops failed and sedge seeds were consumed during optimal conditions for growth of all local vegetation. Pollen analysis suggests cholla buds were eaten and that there was continual expansion of agricultural land from Sweetwater through Gila Butte phases. Coniferous timbers were incorporated into houses during the last phase (Sacaton, A.D. 1100-1200) of the occupation of Snaketown.

A recent settlement pattern survey in central Mexico offers a useful perspective from which to view the first part of an ethnohistoric document–the Codice Xolotl–which deals with the same area. Regional settlement patterns from the Early Postclassic period seem to correspond most reasonably with events depicted in the Codice. It is suggested that the first part of the Codice Xolotl is most useful to anthropologists when considered within a framework of relevant archaeological information.

Application of the type-variety analytical procedure to Preclassic ceramic material excavated from mound-fill deposits at Chalchuapa, El Salvador, has provided important indications of possible ceramic relationships between this site-zone and the Maya Lowlands. Of the five ceramic complexes, the earliest (the Tok ceramic complex) seems related to the Early Preclassic (Cuadros phase) of south coastal Guatemala and Mexico. Pottery of the early Middle Preclassic (the Colos and Kal ceramic complexes) appears to involve certain direct type-variety relationships with the Lowland Maya Xe and Mamom ceramic spheres. Late Middle Preclassic pottery (the Chul ceramic complex) is evidently almost exclusively affiliated with Highland Guatemala (the Providencia phase at Kaminaljuyu). Pottery of the Late Preclassic and "Protoclassic" (the Caynac ceramic complex) at Chalchuapa continues to reflect these ties (now with the Miraflores, Arenal, and Santa Clara phases at Kaminaljuyu). Apart from such ties, however, there are also significant indications of renewed ceramic connections with the Maya Lowlands during this time interval that we believe might have been of some consequence for the development of the Classic Lowland Maya. The implications of these ceramic relationships for the problem of the initial occupation of the east-central Maya Lowlands and the later intrusive Floral Park ceramic sphere at Barton Ramie are discussed. The paper also considers the implications of this evidence for the type-variety analytic procedure and proposes a tentative outline of Preclassic ceramic relationships in the Maya area.

Shafts of human femurs from burials on Washington Island, Wisconsin dated ca. A.D. 200 were in good enough condition to allow decalcification, microscopic sectioning and routine staining. Many histological features of the bone are retained. Such procedures are less laborious than grinding undecalcified sections, allow three-dimensional observation of serial sections, and offer possible uses in age determinations of skeletons and paleopathology. The specimens give initial evidence that prompt burial prevents the formation of weathering cracks in bone.

Cores recovered from a soil auger were found to yield accurate information about the depth of midden deposit and to compare favorably with column samples as a means of recovering midden material for microanalysis.

Excavations of protohistoric Arikara sites in South Dakota have produced native manufactured blue-glass pendants in association with burials. On the basis of archaeological and laboratory evidence, it is conjectured that the Arikara produced these pendants by first grinding blue-glass seed beads to form a powder. They then moistened the powder to form a paste and shaped and fired the paste to the desired form on a copper plate which often was a rifle butt plate. In addition, it is shown that, through time, the Arikara gradually refined their techniques to produce better made pendants and ornaments of different shapes.

Excavation of a coastal site often involves the temptation to perform a quantitative analysis for mollusc shell present in the midden. A major factor in such an analysis is the time expense involved. This paper presents the minimal time costs for the sub-processes of standard shell analysis. Time costs for an actual shell analysis are reconstructed to illustrate the use of sub-process rates and as an independent check on the rates as reported. An adequate standard shell analysis is an expensive undertaking. The time and/or money involved might well be applied to more productive research.

The repeated occurrence of flakes possessing remnants of unifacially trimmed edges was noted in the analysis of chipping refuse from two late prehistoric sites in west central Texas. Attributes on these flakes suggest three techniques of removal–by a burin technique, by striking the uniface on the ventral surface near the edge, and by striking the uniface on the dorsal surface near the edge. Examples of these retouch techniques were evident on certain unifacially chipped scrapers from the two sites, and, together with wear patterns and edge angle values, support inferences that the flakes are by-products of uniface retouch.

A problem commonly encountered in transferring pottery designs from curved vessel surfaces to flat drawing surfaces is that of controlling the type and placement of the distortion which results from this transfer. Elimination of all distortion is impossible. Control of the distortion may be accomplished by tracing the design onto a polyethylene sheet prior to making a pen and ink reproduction.

One or more icosahedral polyhedrons with faces numbered in pairs are inexpensive, compact, durable, portable, easily used generators of random numbers for archaeologists in the field.

A comprehensive system of archaeological site designation does not exist for Latin America. A quadrinomial system is proposed, in which the components identify the nation, state, local political unit, and site number.

The contention by Donn T. Bayard that anthropology is not rigorous enough to be a science or to formulate scientific laws is challenged, and an example is presented of a regularity in cultural evolution with a claim to being considered a statistical law.

In a 1969 paper Browman and Munsell draw erroneous conclusions about Plateau prehistory by failing to use primary sources. They also miss the point of some early work on the emergence of Plateau culture.