The summer of 1941 saw the American Museum in possession of a permit to excavate two caves on the Crow Indian Reservation in south-central Montana. Those caves were selected from other possibilities the year before by my colleague, Junius Bird; but, owing to his absence, the permit, originally issued to him, was changed in my favor. August and September were chosen as the most favorable time, and five weeks were devoted to actual field operations.

During parts of the seasons of 1937 and 1938, parties from the Montana Archaeological Survey excavated at a campsite exposed by one of the many cave-ins in abandoned tunnels of the Red Lodge Coal Mines, near Red Lodge, Montana. The first season's work was under the direction of the late H. Melville Sayre, then Director of the Survey, while Raymond Thompson was leader of the 1938 party. Laboratory analysis and interpretation were completed by the writer, who is indebted to Paul Reiter, of the University of New Mexico for critical comment.

Results in the synthetic studies of archaeology and phases of Recent physiography and geology are not unfamiliar to investigators in many parts of the world. These are generally concerned, however, with somewhat ideal conditions, cave or arid, for both archaeologic discovery and the revealing of physiographic succession.

During the autumn of 1941, excavations in Modified Basketmaker sites in Mesa Verde National Park were carried on, for the twin purposes of clearing well-preserved pit houses that could be used in the interpretative program of the park and of adding to the meager amount of information on Modified Basketmaker culture in the park area. Although this period has been studied extensively in adjacent districts, little work has been done on it in the Mesa Verde.

A new and significant element was added to the archaeological inventory of California by the discovery, in 1940, of two unique objects of baked clay. These seemed to be fragmentary female figurines but several considerations at the time of discovery called for reserve in this interpretation. Although a well developed baked clay complex is known archaeologically in the Central Valley of California, it had not been evidenced before this time to the west of this stoneless region. Moreover, none of the figurines occurring in this Valley complex represents any part of the human figure; it has been noted, in fact, that aboriginal California in general lacked a tradition of human representation. In addition, these two pieces were fragmentary.

In 1938 Steward and Setzler published a brief plea for a more enlightened interpretation of archaeological materials, calling attention to the necessity for ecological and configurational considerations of material culture complexes. Since that time a number of studies touching upon these features have appeared–enough to constitute a trend. It is the purpose of this paper to analyze these contributions and suggest further possibilities along functional lines.

In the spring of 1941, Dr. W. T. Edmundson, a medical doctor of Newberg, investigating sites along the Yamhill River, located mounds of the same type as those of the Calapuya. With some assistance from Mr. Mark Wald, of Portland, myself, and others, he has now excavated two of these “mound” sites. The objects recovered from the Yamhill River sites exhibit many differences from those of the Calapuya River Mounds. At the period of Caucasian entry the Yamhill Indians spoke a Calapuyan dialect that was different from that of the Indians in the area of the Calapuya River to the south, and were reputed to depend more upon hunting and fishing than the Calapuya proper. The relatively large number of bone and antler objects, the relative absence of large stone work, mortars and pestles in the local collections from the Yamhill area, and numerous fish vertebrae (not found in the Calapuya sites) all indicate the possibility of an archaeological perspective for early historic cultural differences between the Calapuya and Yamhill bands.

This group is characterized by low, domed shaped mounds located on the higher ridges and bluffs, and by village sites located on the second terraces in the bottoms adjacent to all weather springs and the larger creeks.

The outline submitted is based upon mound excavations and surface work in the village sites done on vacations and week-ends over a period of eleven years. No village site excavations have been made because they are all located in fields that are in crops during the time of year that excavation is possible. Thirty-four mounds have been opened and the thirty-fifth is about one-half completed at this time. Fourteen elevations that proved not to be burial mounds have been worked. It is of interest to note that none of these contained any limestone slabs or unworked mussel shells, while all mounds containing burials did contain these two items.

A unique technique of ceramic manufacture was practiced by the inhabitants of the Goheen site in Marshall County, Kentucky, ML 14. This unusual procedure was found in a salt-pan vessel from a midden pit, Feature 22. Apparently after the salt-pan vessel was made it was found that certain portions of the vessel walls did not come up to the thickness of the rest of the vessel. An additional coat of clay was added to the outside of the vessel, in the weak spots, thus reenforcing the vessel walls. The original exterior displayed textile impressions; the part that was reenforced was absolutely plain. It is the plain part that is important, for the potter who placed this secondary coat of clay on the exterior of the vessel was doing the archaeologist an unintentional favour–he was making a direct positive of the textile used to cover the mold from which the vessel was formed.