Archaeological News

Archaeological NewsAuthor(s): Frederick JohnsonSource: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Jul., 1951), pp. 255-268Published by: Archaeological Institute of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/500976 .

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American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 55, No. 3 (July, 1951)

ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS

AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY, 1950

FREDERICK JOHNSON, Editor

THERE are a number of ideas which come out of a survey of the archaeological work which was

done during 1950. If one had to choose the most excit- ing possibility, I believe that one would focus attention on the data emanating from the Arctic, particularly from Alaska. The activities of Giddings and Larsen, who are old hands in the region, to say nothing of Rainey, and the newer comers to the field are indeed promising. There is the considerable promise that they have the leads which will enable them to trace back the migrations which are responsible for the population of the new world. It may be optimistic to think that at long last they are on the threshold of discovering the relationship between the Old World and the New. There is even the hint that isolated groups of artifacts such as the Folsom and Yuma may be traced through the peninsula to the Siberian shores. Unfortunately, at the moment, the history of these tools in the Old World is at the mercy of others.

This is not all, however. It is with considerable satisfaction that we see the expansion of the River Basin Surveys to include large scale excavations. The many references in the following reports indicate the amount of work already accomplished. It is unfortu- nate that the necessary laboratory work delays the reports which we hope are inevitable.

As always, I wish to emphasize the part played by the Associate Editors of American Antiquity and the Journal itself in the compilation of this report. The various men and women have supplied your editor with a great deal of information. To this I have added data briefed, if not copied directly, from the Notes and News section of the Journal. In every case the original source includes more details than could possibly be recorded here, and readers are advised to seek the source of remarks concerning which they desire more information. I may repeat also that the Journal carries as usual a number of original and significant articles on many phases of New World archaeology.

During 1950 Drs. Libby and Arnold of the Institute of Nuclear Studies, University of Chicago, have re- leased tables of about 150 radiocarbon dates on archaeological specimens. One of these releases was a pam-

phlet by the Institute and the second was in Science. These dates have been the occasion for much profitable discussion, but comment is withheld here. The Com- mittee on Radioactive Carbon 14 of the American Anthropological Association and the Geological So- ciety of America will publish its report and the discussion of a number of archaeological problems relative to the dates, as Memoir no. 8, Society for American Archaeology, July, 1951.

The Viking Fund sponsored a seminar which is of general interest to all archaeologists. The purpose was to stimulate interest in, and to diffuse information about archaeological techniques, a subject with which everyone is concerned but finds difficulty in securing adequate information. An extensive summary of the papers and discussion appears in American Antiquity 16, pp. 85-88. A list of the papers indicates the breadth of subject matter covered. Albert Spaulding, "Recent Advances in Surveying Techniques and their Applica- tion to Archaeology"; Waldo Wedel, "The Use of Earth Moving Machinery in Archaeological Excava- tions"; Frederick Johnson, "Collaboration among Scientific Fields with Special Reference to Archae- ology"; Junius Bird, "Recent Developments in the Treatment of Archaeological Textiles"; J. Webster Gettens, "Principles in the Preservation of Mural Paintings"; S. F. Cook, "Chemical Analysis of Fossil Bone"; W. C. Root, "Metallurgical Analyses and their Aid to Archaeology"; Paul F. Titterington, "The Use of X-Ray in Archaeological Research"; Frederick R. Matson, "Ceramic Technology as an Aid to Cultural Interpretation"; G. W. Brainerd, "Statistical Analysis of Archaeological Material"; F. P. Thieme, "The Use of I.B.M. Machines in Analyzing Anthropological Data"; Hans Lundberg, "Possible Geophysical Aids to Archaeology"; Lolita Binns, "Recent Developments in Photography." This list of titles does not indicate the quantity and interest of the discussions. It is presumed that the papers will be published and that the discussions will continue.

It is also of interest to note that a symposium on archaeological chemistry was held during the meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia. With the exception of a paper read by W. C. Root, the discussions were devoted to the preservation and

255



256 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY [AJA 55

care of Near and Middle Eastern specimens and to Chinese specimens. Lacking further description, it seems likely that information applicable to the preservation of New World Specimens was presented.

The Arctic'

Work in Arctic and Sub-Arctic North America continues to produce an unprecedented amount of new, sometimes puzzling data. A list of activities is lengthier than usual. Frederica de Laguna with Catherine Mc- Clellan and assistants combined ethnological work among the Tlingit with archaeological investigations in the Angoon area of Admiralty Island. William Laughlin and his associates report the completion of a large cut across the Nikolski site in the Aleutians. Apparently Palaeo-Aleut skeletons are distributed from top to bottom of the midden which, with the cultural material indicates that the later Aleut culture and people did not immediately replace the ancient characteristics of the place. Wendell Oswalt with Mrs. Oswalt and others explored the little known Hooper Bay region of the Bering Sea Coast bringing to light a lack of cultural change from the lowest to the most recent level. Such extreme conservatism is unusual in a populous area of this sort. The Bering Strait Expedi- tion of Rainey, Larsen, Giddings, and nine assistants discovered new Palaeo-Eskimo sites between Cape Prince of Wales and Norton Bay. Also excavations were continued at Deering, Cape Denbigh, and the Trail Creek Cave. New evidence of "Yuma" techniques were brought to light, particularly at Trail Creek where, in the lowest levels, separated from Ipiutak remains by more than a meter of debris, there were diagonally chipped blades and antler and bone arrowpoints. Microlithic side-blades and decorated and slotted bone imply Mesolithic traditions. Solifluc- tion phenomena in the Cape Denbigh site adds glacial evidence, supporting former hypotheses of considerable age. Members of the geological survey have added about seventy significant new sites to those from the arctic slope recorded in 1949 by Ralph Solecki. Giddings informs us that the Anaktuvik Pass site containing the Denbigh Flint Complex discovered by William Irving has turned out to be an entirely original find, and not the one investigated by Robert J. Hackman as reported in American Antiquity. Irving's site produced burins, lamellar flakes, and small diagonally-flaked blades. Two Folsom points and polyhedral cores were found in post-glacial mo- rainal areas on the headwaters of the Noatak River. To the west of this region H. B. Collins excavated three sites near Resolute Bay, Cornwallis Island. The houses were for the most part late Thule, but one produced early Thule, i.e. post-Birnirk material. Another house yielded Cape Dorset material overlain with the Thule.

In a letter, Louis Giddings notes that forthcoming articles by several authors will indicate among other things that Alaska archaeologists are becoming more aware of the significance of lamellar flaking and Old World parallels in the region. Such studies have sent people back to their old collections, notably Larsen who reports true burins, distinct from the Dorset "boot creasers," from a recent collection from North- east Greenland, presumably materials related in some

way to the Solberg "Greenland Stone Age" material long ago timidly advanced, and more or less set aside as anomalous. "Could all this mean that following the retreat of glaciers, the makers of burins followed

game wherever ice-edge conditions favored their special sort of culture?"

Giddings also adds the interesting comment, "Per- haps the most important development in the Arctic area concerns the realization that 'Eskimo' archaeology, as we are accustomed to think of it, has many ramifications, and a bottom, and that we are becoming confronted with a considerable body of materials that

carry cultural context, and yet do not fit within the frame that we have constructed for the Arctic. Re- gardless of whether these finds eventually prove to be basic to Eskimo culture or not, we cannot overlook the need to tie them into a world picture, and to consider them a true cross-tie of American 'early man' and people of the Asiatic-European 'stone-age'. It

begins to look, for example, as if Dorset more nearly perpetuated the old techniques and combinations than did any of the cultures succeeding each other over a

period of 2000 years in the Bering Strait area, and that we need not look for a migration of Dorset 'Eskimos' around the coasts from the west, but instead for an inland spread of certain techniques that per- sisted on the east coast and became overlain with 'Eskimo.'

"The finding of 'Folsom-Yuma' techniques near Bering Strait even suggests that these were not an American contribution, but a development of as yet undiscovered trends in northeast Asia."

The Alaska Science Conference was held in Novem- ber under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council. The conference was aimed at the statement and discussion of a wide range of problems grouped under the Division of Biological Sciences, Division of Physical Sciences and Division of Social Sciences. The session on An-

thropology was devoted to discussion of the status of research in the area, and problems having to do with the indigenous peoples. W. S. Laughlin, Froelich Rainey, and Louis Giddings presented papers dealing with Aleutian and Eskimo archaeology, and a review of knowledge concerning Early Man in the region.

Included in the Arctic area, pretty much by default,



1951] ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS 257

is a region which has been completely unknown. Richard S. MacNeish, for the National Museum of Canada, surveyed the MacKensie River from Provi- dence to Norman, up the Liard to Fort Liard, and up the "mysterious" south Nahanni. The sites found were very small, and of the fifteen, none looked very early, but one site did have about forty fragments of pottery on it. The pottery is not Woodland, Eskimo or like anything else MacNeish has ever seen. It is thin, hard, brushed interiorly and exteriorly, grit tempered, and has a general seed-bowl shape. Except for two fragments with trailed, incised lines, the pottery was not decorated.

The Northeast2

A prehistoric Iroquois site on Balsam Lake, near the village of Coboconk, Ontario, was excavated by students under the supervision of J. Norman Emerson, University of Toronto. An abundance of material was found, chiefly potsherds marked by the unusual occurrence of elaborate neck decoration, similar to that found on the distant Black Creek site, near Weston, Ontario. Other artifacts were trumpet type pottery pipes, fox head effigy, side-notched flint projectile points, bone needles, beads and awls, the latter sometimes carved. An engraved bone tube with raised triangular designs was of unusual interest. A typical Iroquois long house site, 150 x 30 feet in size, was uncovered. The total pattern does not closely resemble any presently known Ontario manifestation, and Emerson suggests that this may be another of the new developmental stages of Iroquois culture which have recently come to light in Canada.

Mr. Frank Ridley of Islington, Ontario, has found at various widely separated places in Ontario stratified sites on which historic Huron components overlie precontact manifestations of the same people, and beneath the latter horizon a still different Iroquois complex which he refers to as the Lalonde culture. This culture is also found on single component sites similar in location and size, interspersed with, but more numerous than contact Huron sites. The dominant Lalonde pottery type has an elongated neck and boldly incised high collar. Accompanying artifacts are simple trumpet and ringed bowl pipes and side-notched arrowpoints.

Definite ceramic resemblances exist between La- londe and Onondaga in eastern Ontario, Quebec, and New York, and Ridley further discerns a link with Neutral in south-central Ontario in the variant pot and pipe types found on the Webb site in Huronia in which the major portion of the ceramic inventory is represented in the Lalonde complex.

These discoveries of Emerson and Ridley emphasize the need for more extensive and intensive research

on Canadian Iroquois stations before any far reaching conclusions can be drawn concerning Iroquoian developmental sequences and relationships.

On the south shore of Lake Nipissing Mr. Ridley excavated on a remarkable stratified site which showed a sequence of occupations indicated by the following materials: (1) Huron of the French contact period, (2) bar-stamped incised ware which may be late Al- gonkian, (3) Lalonde type of Iroquois ware, (4) Late Woodland with late Point Peninsula pot types, (5) Archaic type scrapers, (6) fire-broken stones, jasper chips, and ashes in a deep deposit of brown sand.

Richard MacNeish of the National Museum of Canada excavated the Goessins site near Tilsonburg, Ontario. The site produced (1) materials identical to those found on late Owasco sites in New York, (2) a new Owasco of Ontario such as has been found in the earliest levels of the Middleport site and the Krieger site dug by K. Kidd of the Toronto Museum, and (3) materials that are obviously transitional between Iroquois (Neutral) and Owasco (Ontario variety).

In New York the field researches of the New York State Science Service and State Museum, aided by a grant from the Viking Fund, and conducted by Dr. William A. Ritchie, assisted by Charles E. Gillette and Donald Lenig, contributed in some measure to the decipherment of early stages in Mohawk Iroquois development. Sites on Deowongo Island in Cana- darago Lake, Otsego Co., and on the Clock Farm near St. Johnsville in Fulton Co., yielded potsherd series and other artifacts showing changes in ceramic styles and techniques of decoration which in turn tie into later Mohawk types. At the first named site three distinct types (Oak Hill Corded, Chance In- cised, and Otstungo Notched) comprised the whole of the series. Suggested affinities between the first type and the earlier Owasco Corded Collar type were strengthened, as was also the probable genetic connection between the last type and Bainbridge Notched Lip, another late Owasco form. Chance Incised, a dominant early Mohawk type, on the other hand, still cannot convincingly be derived from any known Owasco form, and accumulating data on its range point to a possible connection with early Oneida-Onondaga.

On the Clock site deep grass-and bark-lined cache pits containing carbonized corn and refuse were excavated. The resulting series of bone, stone, and ceramic artifacts illustrates a late prehistoric stage in the development of Mohawk material culture. The corded technique of pot decoration found at Deowongo Island was no longer used and the incising present on the enlarged collars was much less meticulously executed, although most of the same design motifs found at Deowongo Island and cognate early sites were present. Basal collar notches, absent or only faintly




present in the latter ware, were boldly defined in the Clock series.

At Brewerton in central New York, another area of the Wickham site (excavated, and reported on by Ritchie in 1946) was examined. The previously reported stratigraphy was confirmed and further examples of late Point Peninsula pot types were obtained from the lower horizon. These finds augment the scanty evidence of derivation of early Owasco from late Point Peninsula in central New York.

In the latter part of the season Dr. Ritchie conducted a survey of sites and collections in the Lake Champlain and Susquehanna River valleys.

Alfred K. Guthe and Gordon K. Wright, of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences, assisted by Leonard G. Wood, made an archaeological survey of the upper Genesee and Alleghany River valleys in western New York. Surface collections were made from seventeen sites, ranging from Laurentian to Iro- quois. They later excavated a Hopewellian mound in the Conewango Creek valley, Warren County, Pa. Although despoiled many years ago, three undisturbed burials with scanty grave goods, consisting chiefly of rude side-notched points, were found in the peripheral portion. The mound fill yielded similar projectile points, steatite pot fragments, and sherds of Vinette I and Geneseo Cord-Marked pottery, as well as flake knives, some of Ohio chalcedony.

During the past summer the Robert S. Peabody Foundation, represented by Douglas S. Byers, and the Robert Abbe Museum, represented by Wendell S. Hadlock, completed excavations at the Smith Farm, Ellsworth Falls, Maine. While it is not yet possible to describe the interrelations of the objects found, pending study of the data secured on the complex stratigraphy, a number of new types, including a perforated ovoid atlatl weight, were added to the inventory from previous work. Again the lower levels produced a higher percentage of large, scraper-like cores and heavy flakes.

A reconnaissance party consisting of Robert H. Dyson, Jr., and Theodore L. Stoddard, Jr., was sent out by the Peabody Foundation. Near Richibucto, N. B., a post-contact site yielded an instructive assemblage of projectile points, hafted stone tools and potsherds. A number of sites were tested in Cobscook Bay, Maine, and near Dennysville, on the Dennys River, Maine, a two-component site of different cultures was excavated.

Edward Rogers and Roger A. Bradley continued archaeological reconnaissance in west central Quebec under the auspices of the R. S. Peabody Foundation. A number of sites located between Lakes Mistassini and Lake St. John yielded a small, but significant collection of potsherds and stone tools.

According to Maurice Robbins, the Warren King Moorehead Chapter of the Massachusetts Archaeo- logical Society continued its work for the fifth con- secutive season on the Titicut site in Bridgewater, Mass. A striking ceremonial deposit, underlying a hearth, consisted of a mass of red paint enveloping a grooved axe, a plummet, and an engraving tool of white quartz, the whole enclosed in a stone cist the cover of which was engraved with a snake or fish design encircled by cryptic figures. Robbins believes that this feature pertains to the protohistoric level of the site. Mr. Joseph Hartshorn continues his study of the geology of the region. It is expected that some of the strata at the site may be correlated with geological events in the region.

At the foot of Nippinnicket Lake, one of the headwaters of the Taunton River in southeastern Massachusetts, an important precontact stratified site has been under excavation by Richard W. Staples, Roland E. Engstrom, and William S. Fowler. The lowest horizon pertains to Archaic times. The middle level, containing forest humus, produces a steatite bowl industry, while the upper zone of heavy humus yielded pottery and evidence of agricultural activities.

Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh concentrated its field work of 1950 in Green, Washington and Fayette counties in southwestern Pennsylvania; in Garrett County, Maryland; and in the West Virginia panhandle. William J. Mayer-Oakes was in charge of the party which included Mrs. Mayer-Oakes, John R. Simpson, David Van Buskirk, and John W. Oliver, Jr. One hundred thirty-two sites were located, plotted and recorded, and surface collections were made on most. Five sites received preliminary excavations.

Field examination of the materials collected indicates that each of the six major cultural horizons in the eastern United States is represented. Of special interest is a site in Beaver County, Pa., which produces pottery similar to the Vinette 1 type associated with a crude stone tool complex, probably prepottery sites in southwestern Pennsylvania and on the Ohio River in the West Virginia panhandle, and a site containing trade goods which may be documented as historic Delaware.

Interest in the northeastern area continues to center on problems of absolute chronology, determinations of which have been made possible through the radiocarbon analyses of Drs. W. F. Libby and J. R. Arnold of the Institute for Nuclear Studies of the University of Chicago. Dates of 5,383

- 250 and 4,930

- 260

years of elapsed time have been obtained for Archaic 1 period components of the Lamoka culture in New York, while in Massachusetts the Boylston Street fishweir may pertain to the same temporal horizon. In central New York, crematory charcoal from a site




of the Point Peninsula 1 Focus (Late Woodland 1

period), marking the introduction of ceramics in the area, gave a date of 2,948 -~ 170 years.

Comparison with radiocarbon dates of generally similar cultures in the southeastern United States and upper Mississippi Valley clearly indicates that the northeast was not an isolated peripheral area with

marginal lag, but rather that it participated con-

temporaneously with the adjacent areas in the major cultural events as determined for the eastern part of North America.

Problems of continuity within the sequences already established, and the determination of further regional cultural successions in the northeast are also receiving major attention from archaeologists active in various

parts of the area. The general similarity of developmental trends over the northeast as a whole, is now

clearly revealed and details of interregional and inter- areal relationships are being filled in.

In October, 1950, the Eastern States Archaeological Federation held its annual meeting in the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Representa- tives of a majority of the twelve Atlantic Seaboard states now composing the Federation, having a total membership of approximately 2,000, attended the two-day session.

An established aim of the Federation, to promote interstate cooperation in the field of archaeological research, is being met in a variety of ways, e.g., through the activities of a research committee which is stimulating site surveys, ceramic classification, a roster of specialists in the identification of early Euro-

pean trade goods, etc. The Federation has published a bibliography of the archaeology of the eastern United States, and is now sponsoring "a definitive list of the accessible repositories of archaeological material in the eastern states." It issues a yearly Bulletin which contains the minutes of the annual

meeting, reports of the activities of the constituent state societies, and abstracts of the papers given.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Smith, Carlyle S. "The Archaeology of Coastal New York," Anthropological Papers of the American Mu- seum of Natural History 43, pt. 2, 1950.

Harp, Elmer, "An Archaeological Survey in the Strait of Belle Isle Area," American Antiquity 16, pp. 203-222.

The Northern Mississippi

In Iowa, Paul L. Beaubien of the National Park Service conducted initial excavations in the recently established Effigy Mounds National Monument. Some of the mounds proved to be barren of artifacts, but

one conical mound contained partially cremated material. Hopewell and Effigy Mound components are apparently identifiable in the Monument.

In Missouri, the University of Missouri Summer Field Session, directed by Carl H. Chapman, excavated in Graham Cave in Montgomery County. At this site the Archaic horizon extends almost to the surface in some sections. The party also conducted surveys and test excavations were made on two camp sites, one of which was non-ceramic, in the Pomme de Terre reservoir area where Indian occupation from Archaic to historic times is to be found. In the Kasinger bluff reservoir area a house site and three caves were tested and more than twenty sites were located. The material recovered covers a wide range of history. The Utz site, an Oneota manifestation in Saline County was also investigated, and a cemetery yielding fifteen burials was excavated.

The first summer field school of the University of Arkansas Museum concentrated its work on the St. Francis River in northeastern Arkansas. A stratigraphic cut in the Rose Mound brought to light a Woodland occupation overlain by Mississippi. In north-central Arkansas, several burials of late Missis- sippi which were exposed by a flash flood of the White River were salvaged by Lynn E. Howard.

The University of Michigan has begun a five year survey and excavation program in the central Missis- sippi valley. This is intended to cover both sides of the river from the mouth of the Ohio to the mouth of the Illinois. The program is supported by a generous grant from the Viking Fund. Through the courtesy of the National Park Service the headquarters of the

party is located at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The program is being directed by James B. Griffin and Albert C. Spaulding.

A field party from the University of Illinois, directed by John C. McGregor, spent a month at the Poole site north of Chambersburg excavating a circular house. This is part of a plan to determine ceramic sequences at the site in an effort to place various Illinois Hopewell villages in a time sequence.

The Illinois State Museum party, directed by George Neumann recovered an interesting assemblage of material at Hopewell sites on the Wabash River in White County, Illinois. "Typical" Hopewell pottery was recovered as well as expected types of stone pipes, mica sheets, cassis shell cups, and copper ornaments and implements. The great bulk of the pottery and possible other traits are similar to Baumer or show Baumer influence.

A field party under the direction of Melvin L. Fowler, Illinois State Museum, excavated some control areas in the Clear Lake Village site near Manito, Illinois, in order to determine the stratigraphic posi-




tion of some pottery types recently reported from the site.

Melvin Fowler has been appointed Curator of An- thropology of the Illinois State Museum. J. Charles Kelley joined the staff at Southern Illinois University as Director of the Museum, and Professor of Anthro- pology. The new program calls for the expansion and remodeling of the museum, which was originally in- stalled by Cyrus Thomas, and the inauguration of a research program in both archaeology and applied social anthropology, and the development of a De-

partment of Anthropology. The Ohio State Museum continued its archaeo-

logical research program under the direction of Ray- mond Baby. A series of trenches were dug at the historic site of Schoenbrunn Village (1772-1777) near New Philadelphia. One example of a central fireplace in the house of a convert Indian, together with a refuse pit and part of the fence pattern of the village, was brought to light.

Excavations were conducted on an Archaic site north of Oxford, Ohio. There were found a series of trough-like refuse pits, a post-mould pattern and, beneath the midden material, a dog burial, in addition to various artifacts. Late in the season a salvage excavation of an Adena-type mound in southeastern Ohio produced three extended burials, and a crema- tion located on the floor and in the mound.

Lloyd A. Wilford of the University of Minnesota excavated in the vicinity of Redwing, Minnesota. Work on the Silvernale village site increased the sample of shell-tempered pottery of Middle Mississippi type. At Howard Lake, north of Saint Paul, excavations in a small mound brought to light a good sample of pottery classified as Malmo Focus, Mille Lacs aspect, but having closest relationship with the Central Basin of Illinois. Below the mound in an irregular pit were twenty-five badly disintegrated bundle burials with no cultural association other than some red ocher.

Concerning work generally in this large region, David A. Baerreis writes, "The major trend of recent work is directed toward the amplification and clari- fication of the data on horizons that have been previously defined. More specifically, it seems to be focussed on two complexes-Hopewellian and Missis- sippi (Middle). In the latter category, the work of Michigan directed by Griffin at the Cahokia area, and the work of the Wisconsin Archaeological Survey at Aztalan, and a portion of Wilford's work in Minne- sota are directed at this problem. The second major area of attack appears to be directed at Hopewellian and various institutions in Illinois are working on this problem. Something should culminate on this at a conference in Springfield this coming April. I suspect

that the work in the Cahokia area by Michigan is the most important, but I have no report on the results."

The Plains

The 1950 field season in the Plains marks the beginning of large-scale archaeological excavations at sites found by the River Basin Surveys during the past few years. Not only Smithsonian Institution field parties, but also many from state institutions, operating under cooperative agreements with the National Park Service, have been active from Texas to North Dakota, and from the eastern slopes of the Rockies to the eastern margin of the Plains. The sites have been selected on the basis of imminence of destruction due to the construction of reservoirs, and because of their relative importance archaeologically within areas to be flooded.

In the Eufaula and Optima Reservoir area in Okla- homa, Robert E. Bell took the University of Okla- homa Field School back to the Fort Gibson Reservoir to excavate again on the Harlan site, related to the Spiro Focus. Karl Schmitt of the University of Okla- homa carried on work in sites of a Plains type, evi- dently of late-prehistoric date on the Washita River in south-central Oklahoma.

In Texas, Robert L. Stephenson, for the Smith- sonian Institution, completed excavations of a variety of sites from rockshelters to historic remains in the Whitney Reservoir. In the Lavon Reservoir peculiar and unexplained large pits were of special interest.

Appended to an account submitted by Alex Krieger was the following description of work done in Texas.

The Anthropology Department of the University of Texas, under a grant from the National Park Service, conducted a survey of the Falcon Reservoir basin in the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the summer of 1950. The Mexican government collabo- rated through its Direcci6n de Monumentos Pre- hispanicos. Numerous historic sites and ruined buildings of the Spanish, Mexican, Texas Republic and American periods were found, and their mapping begun. A long prehistoric occupation was revealed by occupation zones buried in the Rio Grande terraces. Plans for the future include studies in erosion, soil, ground cover, climatic changes, plant and animal col- lecting, documentary researches on relations between early Spaniards and Indians, analysis of architectural styles in the historic buildings, and the encouragement of sociological study on the Spanish-speaking population to be displaced by the reservoir. A preliminary report has been prepared by Alex D. Krieger and Jack T. Hughes.

In August the Falcon field party moved to the head of Corpus Christi Bay on the central Gulf Coast of Texas, uncovering a total of thirty-five burials in a




prehistoric site. The artifacts reveal certain new features which cannot be referred to either the Arkansas or the Rockport Focus.

For the Smithsonian Institution, Richard Wheeler excavated a site related to the Dismal River Aspect in the Angostura Reservoir in South Dakota. At the end of the season, he moved to the Boysen Reservoir Area in Wyoming. The northernmost fortified village known was excavated by Ellis Burcaw at Rock Village in North Dakota. Donald J. Lehmer began work in the Oahe Reservoir in South Dakota by excavating a stratified site. Walter D. Enger carried on surveys in the Tiber Reservoir in Montana. Other surveys in Montana and Wyoming were carried forward by Robert L. Shalkop. An excavation unit was at work in the Fort Randall Reservoir, South Dakota, where Thomas Garth was principally concerned with historic sites such as Fort Randall, an old U. S. Army post.

Under cooperative agreements Carlyle S. Smith of the University of Kansas excavated portions of the Talking Crow site, a fortified earth-lodge village in the Fort Randall Reservoir. At this site three cultures resembling Upper Republican, Protohistoric Arikara and possibly the nineteenth century Dakota.

In Nebraska, John Champe of the University of Nebraska returned to the Harlan County Reservoir to continue excavations of White Cat Village. Exca- vations in other sites produced materials attributed to Upper Republican and the as yet to be defined "Glen Elder" Focus. Marvin Kivett of the Nebraska State Historical Society excavated some small Wood- land sites in the Swanson Lake Reservoir in Nebraska.

Wesley Hurt of the University of South Dakota excavated part of the Swanson site, a fortified earth- lodge village on Brule Flats in the Fort Randall Reservoir, finding at least three ceramic traditions. One of these is related to Upper Republican, one is similar to that found at the Mitchell site and a third resembles Middle Mandan. Carling Malouf of the University of Montana found a number of small sites in the Canyon Ferry Reservoir in Montana. William Mulloy of the University of Wyoming carried on a survey and some excavations in Wyoming.

Until he was seriously injured in an automobile accident, Glenn Kleinsasser led a party for the North Dakota State Historical Society in the Garrison Reser- voir, North Dakota. Several features at the site at Fort Berthold, particularly a ceremonial lodge 80 feet in diameter, were excavated.

Chris Vickers reports that the Manitoba Historical Society devoted May and June to the survey of portions of southwestern Manitoba. Excavations were made on the Snart site on the Assiniboine River. This was a village probably occupied by the Assiniboine between 1768 and 1794.

In his contribution to this account, Carlyle S. Smith points out that the laboratory work has not kept pace with the large amount of excavation which was accomplished. "The work of the River Basin Surveys and cooperating institutions in the Missouri Valley, at least, will undoubtedly result in the definition of a whole series of hitherto unknown culture complexes having connections in and out of the Great Plains. Already it appears that the archaeology of the Upper Missouri region is very complex and does not lend itself to a classification based solely upon a division into cultures which are ancestral to the Arikara on the one hand, and to the Mandan and Hidatsa on the other. Additional groups must have occupied the area prior to the historic period."

All the work in the Plains is discussed at the Plains conference which is held during the Thanksgiving week end, usually at the University of Nebraska. This is a remarkable conference from the point of view of the sheer weight of the material which is presented and discussed. The proceedings are published as rapidly as possible, the last one being "Proceedings of the Sixth Plains Archaeological Conference, 1948," Univ. of Utah, Dept. Anthropology, Anthropological Papers, Number 11, October, 1950, Salt Lake City. The Eighth Plains Conference, November, 1950, was no exception to preceding ones. A brief of the work accomplished is too long to include here; it will be published in American Antiquity 16, no. 4, April, 1951.

The Southeast

Carl F. Miller, River Basins Survey of the Smith- sonian Institution, excavated in the Buggs Island Reservoir area during the season. One large pre- European burial ground was discovered which produced an interesting series of skeletons and a certain amount of stratigraphy. Later Mr. Miller excavated two eastern "Folsom" sites which had been found there during his survey.

In Kentucky the Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, excavated in a large Adena earth mound located on the banks of the Ohio river.

The summer field school of the University of Georgia returned to southwest Georgia to continue the survey and salvage work in the basin of the lower Flint and Chattahoochee. To date the students have worked on a historic late eighteenth century site, and a palaeo-Indian site. At Kolomoki Springs the students worked in conjunction with explorations on a burial mound site supervised by William H. Sears. Antonio J. Waring completed a test excavation on a huge circular shell ring on Sapelo Island, Georgia. He transferred to a shell mound near Savannah. Both sites produced Poverty Point objects, and fibre-tempered pottery was found from the lowest to the




highest levels. A cut into the wall of the great shell ring on Sapelo Island reveals that the top two feet contain ornamented fibre-tempered pottery. Artifacts include simple and engraved bone pins, a very nice banner stone, socketed antler projectile points, and Poverty Point clay objects. The shell ring appears to be a big "ceremonial" enclosure, Adena style, as a late Archaic trait.

The two stone effigy eagle mounds located near Eatonton, Georgia, described by C. C. Jones some seventy-five years ago, are being surveyed by test pitting by Arthur Kelley. It is hoped that for the first time definite archaeological description will be possible.

The Florida Park Service has been concerned with both aboriginal and European sites. Ripley P. Bullen excavated on the Madira Bickel Mound State Monu- ment on Terra Ceia Island and found that the site had been occupied in the Perico, Weeden Island and Safety Harbor Periods. Test excavations were also undertaken at Perico Island and at the Whittaker Site in Sarasota. John W. Griffin briefly examined the site of Fort Gadsden, built in 1818 in the Apalachicola National Forest. This site also contains the remains of an earlier British post established during the War of 1812, on which Indian pottery was found. Early nineteenth century plantations in Volusa County were investigated by Griffin. In addition to much European material it was established that two so-called late seventeenth century Spanish missions were in reality early nineteenth century sugar mills.

No new projects were initiated during the season by the University of Florida, but work continued with voluntary student labor at Fig Springs and Spaldings Lower Store. Fig Springs is a rich refuse site of the Spanish period, possibly early seventeenth century. Spaldings Lower Store, a late eighteenth century trad- ing post for the Seminoles, has yielded a rich store of European remains as well as some probable Seminole material. In some parts of the site a sequence running from late Archaic to historic times has been obtained. Minor projects include test excavations in the Glades Area on Fish-eating Creek in the northern Everglades and on Onion Key in Lostman's River, Everglades National Park.

Dr. John Goggin conducted a summer archaeological field session excavating at the Zetrouer Site, a seventeenth century Spanish-Indian Site near Gainsville. No intrusive Seminole Burials such as were found in earlier work were discovered.

Hale G. Smith, Florida State University, conducted an archaeological survey of northwest Florida. Also testing was done at a Depford site at Dale Mabry Field, the Lake Marquette Mound Village area, Fort San Luis, and the Reywinkle place. Also a field session was conducted by Smith at the St. Marks Wildlife

Refuge where extensive excavation was done in the cemetery and village area. A small mound in the Refuge was partially excavated, and testing was also carried on at Bird Hammock.

In Mississippi, William G. Haag and five students of the University of Mississippi carried on excavations in a rather large village of what is now recognized as Early Middle Mississippi. The predominant pottery types are Baytown Plain and Mulberry Creek Cord- marked with its related form, Tishomingo Cord- marked. Perhaps the most significant site found during the early summer was a Poverty Point culture site. During the course of expanding an old railroad right of way into a road bed, two mounds were completely removed by the construction company. Fortunately, Dr. Hagg was at hand while most of this was going on. A deep borrow pit alongside still a third mound revealed a nine and one half foot accumulation of midden beneath the level of the mound base. The lower four and one-half feet of the midden is Poverty Point material. The deposit is overlain by one foot of sterile soil, then three feet of Baytown-Marksville and like material. Finally, the top half foot or so contains Neely Ferry Plain, shell tempered pottery with some pinched and some incised pottery.

The Southwest

The following account of activities was supplied by Katherine Bartlett, Museum of Northern Arizona, for which grateful acknowledgement is made. It is an expert brief of two long accounts appearing in American Antiquity 16, pp. 187-188; 288-290.

Fourteen different expeditions were engaged in field work in the Southwest in the summer of 1950. All were engaged in studying special problems, and no important discoveries have been announced. The Uni- versity of Arizona, Tucson, the Amerind Foundation, Dragoon, the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Havapai County Archaeological Society, Prescott, and Pueblo Grande, Phoenix, worked in Arizona; Uni- versity of New Mexico, Albuquerque, Texas Techno- logical College, Lubbock, Chicago Museum of Natural History, Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, and Colorado State College, Alamosa, worked in New Mexico; the University of Utah in Utah; the University of Colorado in Colorado and Utah, the University of Denver in Colorado; the U. S. National Park Service on the Colorado River at Willow Beach, and at various National Monuments in New Mexico and Arizona. Formerly, much of the archaeological work in the Southwest was done by eastern institutions, but, as shown by the above list, this is no longer the case.

At the meeting of the Southwest Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Flag-




staff in May, five reports on archaeology were presented in the Social Science section. The stratigraphy at Willow Beach on the Colorado River, by Albert H. Schroeder, National Park Service, and The Dry Creek Site, in the Verde Valley, Arizona, by Dick Shutler, Jr., University of California, Berkeley, were the most important.

At the Pecos Conference, annual meeting of South- westernists, at Flagstaff, in August, nearly all the institutions mentioned above as engaged in field work were represented by one or more members of their staffs. Most important discovery of the summer was reported by Fred Wendorf, Museum of Northern Arizona, and Tully Thomas, postmaster at Concho, Arizona. The latter had found a number of sites in the upper drainage of the Little Colorado River where Folsom and Yuma points were weathering out from under fossil sand dunes, and Pinto points from their surfaces. This marked the first discovery of Folsom and Yuma points in situ in northern Arizona.

The Tree-Ring Laboratory at the University of Arizona has become the depository for tree-ring specimens for the whole Southwest. The tree-ring collections made during the past twenty years at the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, at the Lab- oratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe, and the Taylor Museum, Colorado Springs, were sent to Tucson, where they will be in charge of Terah L. Smiley. Dated specimens will be filed for safekeeping, and duplicates will be used for study by graduate students.

The El Paso Natural Gas Co. became the first public utility company in the Southwest, and perhaps the United States, to employ archaeologists to survey and excavate prehistoric sites on their pipeline right- of-way, which extends from the San Juan Oil Field in NE. New Mexico to a point near Gallup, and from there across northern Arizona to Topock on the Colo- rado River. From the San Juan Field to a point near Flagstaff, their right-of-way crossed the Navaho In- dian Reservation, and Jesse L. Nusbaum, Archaeolo- gist for the U. S. Dept. of Interior, brought to the attention of the Company the provisions of the Antiq- uity Act of 1906, regarding the ruins that might be encountered. The Company agreed to abide by the Act, and paid the salaries of five archaeologists for four months to make a survey and conduct salvage excavation of certain sites. In addition they made a grant to four of the archaeologists to assist them while they are writing up the results of their work. The specimens obtained by survey and excavation are to be deposited at the Laboratory of Anthropology and the Museum of Northern Arizona. The El Paso Nat- ural Gas Company is to be congratulated upon its splendid cooperation and interest in "pipeline archaeology."

In December, announcement was made by E. W. Haury, Director of the Arizona State Museum, that Harold S. Gladwin of Santa Barbara had presented to the University of Arizona the buildings and valuable archaeological collections of Gila Pueblo at Globe, Arizona. Gila Pueblo has been one of the outstanding archaeological centers of the Southwest since 1928, and houses a large collection of valuable specimens, the results of many expeditions !in Arizona New Mexico, SW. Colorado, Texas, and Sonora. Dr. Haury plans to move the entire collection to the State Museum in Tucson, and the buildings in Globe will be sold.

Outstanding publication of 1950 in both importance and interest is "Ventana Cave" by E. W. Haury. Ventana Cave, on the Papago Indian Reservation west of Tucson, spans the age of man in Arizona, with the earliest occupation dating before 6000 to 8000 B.C., and the latest, the Papago Indians of the present day.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Haury, E. W. Ventana Cave. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, and University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 1950.

The Pacific Coast

Charles E. Bordon, University of British Columbia, with two students surveyed a former Carrier Village site on the Stuart River in interior British Columbia and partially excavated one of the ten rectangular shallow house depressions. The site, which according to Father A. G. Morice had been abandoned since 1745, yielded trade goods which suggest a later date of abandonment.

Richard D. Daugherty, Washington State College, found an early site in the Lind Coulee in eastern Washington. Under 6 to 15 feet of sedimentary deposits there were large keel-shaped scrapers, fragments of two single-shouldered projectile points and other material. According to Charles D. Campbell, geologist, Washington State College, the artifact bearing layer equates with the Mankato advance.

Robert F. Heizer, assisted by A. Pilling, conducted the third University of California summer field session, excavating at Leonard Rockshelter in west-central Nevada near Lovelock Cave.

Norman Gabel and asistants carried on a joint excavation for the Berkeley-Santa Barbara Depart- ments of Anthropology, University of California. A site at the mouth of Jalama Creek, south of Pomoc, yielded curved fishhooks and small concave-based and base notched points indicating Canalino occupation, with the possibility of an earlier phase occurring in the lower levels of the site.




The University of California Archaeological Survey with the assistance of A. E. Treganza of San Francisco State College, excavated a dry cave from which came numerous artifacts, a "mummy" and basketry. The Survey also conducted large scale excavations at the West Berkeley shell mound. Clement Meighan was in charge of the work which produced Wan Li period porcelain left among the Indians in 1595 when Cer- meno lost his ship in that bay. Harry Riddell is conducting excavations in Inyo County for the Survey. Exploratory excavations, carried out in Moaning Cave, Calaveras County, by Wallace and Lathrap have made possible the dating of Middle Horizon burials imbedded in solid travertine.

R. F. Heizer is carrying forward his project of a

gazeteer of all tribal and village names and their variants listed for the California Indians. M. R.

Harrington excavated at the Stahl site, Little Lake, California. The University of Southern California in

cooperation with members of the Southern California Archaeological Survey Association, is continuing work on a deep shell midden south of Point Mugu.

The River Basin Surveys Columbia Basin Project of the Smithsonian Institution had four parties working in the area under the direction of Douglas Osborne. A party under the direction of George Cheney excavated some house-pit sites and tested a number of others in the Chief Joseph Reservoir. In the Equalizing Reservoir, within the Grand Coulee itself, S. Tobin and a party excavated a number of sites including a shallow cave which may offer a valuable range of culture. R. Dougherty and a third party at Moses Lake in Potholes Reservoir working on house pits and small middens. The largest crew was operating in the Mc- Nary Reservoir near Umatilla, Oregon, under Os- borne's immediate direction, with John E. Mills as assistant.

Other field parties of the Smithsonian were working in the Idaho-Montana area, and in Oregon and Wash- ington. A third party surveyed the Bear, Burns, and Owen Reservoirs on the Merced River, and also the Cachuma Reservoir area on the Santa Ynez River in California.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Smith, Marian W. Archaeology of the Columbia- Fraser Region, Memoir no. 6, Society for American Archaeology, Menasha 1950.

King, Arden R. Cattle Point, A Stratified Site in the Southern Northwest Coast Region. Memoir no. 7, Society for American Archaeology, Menasha 1950.

Borden, Charles E. "Preliminary Report on Archae- ological Investigations in the Fraser Delta Region." Anthropology in British Columbia, no. 1, 1950. British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria.

Early Man It is your editor's opinion that we are rapidly reach-

ing a point where the designation Early Man as an archaeological field is becoming a little absurd. Re- mains of ancient occupation are cropping up in widely scattered parts of the country. Furthermore it seems likely that until we find the primeval American it is going to be increasingly difficult to assemble references to ancient occupation under one heading. If recent ideas concerning chronology even approach final de- cision, we may note that occupations in different parts of the country dated back of, say, 8000 years differ considerably in character. Thus it seems that cultural differentiation is not recent in the continent. The editor of "Notes and News," American Antiquity, has also recognized this problem and has decided, I gather, to include under the various sections accounts of discoveries of ancient man as well as his descend- ants. This general scheme will be followed in this account. In the meantime, we acknowledge and present an interesting summary assembled by Alex Krieger, University of Texas.

During the past four years the Texas Memorial Museum (Dr. E. H. Sellards, Director) has conducted a series of highly important excavations bearing on Pleistocene man in North America, including links with more recent cultures. The Montell and Sabinal rock shelters in Uvalde County, southwest Texas, both contained stratified deposits, the upper parts of which are featured by numerous flint artifacts and great amounts of burned limestone hearth-rock fragments (equivalent to the burnt-rock middens of the Edwards Plateau Aspect), while the lower parts yielded evidence of man in association with extinct fauna. Several fluted projectile points, some of them of the classic Folsom Fluted type, and others somewhat larger, had been found in the Sabinal shelter by previous diggers; three other fluted points found by the Museum expedition were not in situ. However, the stratigraphy and the presence of Pleistocene fauna in the lower levels, which were overlapped outside the shelter by a well-developed terrace, made it highly probable that the fluted points were associated with this fauna, or part of it. Within the lower levels, and covered by additional remains of the Pleistocene fauna, was a rather large area of flat stones fitted together to form a fairly even floor. The purpose of this unique man-made flooring is unknown, but there is abundant evidence that it must be dated before the end of Pleistocene times.

In the summer of 1949, the Texas Memorial Mu- seum partly excavated an enclosed cavern eighteen miles north of San Antonio known as Friesenhahn Cave. This cavern yielded a great number of late Pleistocene animal remains, many of them completely




articulated, among which some thirty genera have been recognized. Virtually all the large vertebrates now extinct are represented, with the notable exception of the ground sloth, a comparatively recent migrant from South America. Several hundred pieces of flint were recovered, most of them nodules and spalls, but some with edge-chipping sufficiently regular to indicate human workmanship. A polished bone tube, almost certainly an artifact, was found beneath the complete skeleton of a saber-toothed cat.

In the summer of 1949 and 1950 the Texas Memorial Museum conducted new excavations in the famous "Clovis" site on Blackwater Draw in eastern New Mexico. Beneath the heavy sand mantle in this vicinity, three very distinct strata are now clearly recognized, each with characteristic fauna and associated artifacts. The lowest stratum also contains quan- tities of elephant remains, and, near its upper margin, projectile points of the type Clovis Fluted. The middle stratum, a diatomaceous lake deposit, has yielded several Folsom Fluted points and fossil bison; and the upper stratum many examples of points loosely called "Yuma" (a term which has become useless), with additional bison bones.

Of very great interest is the discovery, during the 1950 season at Blackwater Draw, of a number of large bone splinters bearing marks of human workmanship in the form of beveling and pointing at one end. These were scattered through the lowest stratum, most of them lying lower than the Clovis Fluted points, and suggest affiliation with similar crude bone tools found in scattered occurrences elsewhere in North America. Interestingly, no Plainview points have yet been found in the Blackwater Draw sequence, although they do occur in blow-out collections nearby. A most intriguing series of cylindrical, dug wells was found around the margins of the depression in which the excavations were conducted. These were dug from the top of the upper artifact stratum, before the sand mantle was deposited, and since they were undoubtedly sunk to the water table at that time, they suggest man's attempt to find water here some thou- sands of years ago. A report on the wells by Glen L. Evans is to appear in American Antiquity.

The Texas Memorial Museum has also carried on excavations in the dry basin of the Lubbock, Texas, city reservoir, revealing a stratigraphic and faunal sequence closely paralleling that at Blackwater Draw. Folsom Fluted points have been recovered here from dragline muck, but since there is a diatomaceous lake deposit here which is almost certainly coeval with that at Blackwater Draw, it is quite probable that the Folsom points came from this stratum. A radiocarbon date of 9,883

- 350 years has been obtained

on bones from this diatomaceous stratum at Lubbock,

with the inference that it also applies to the Folsom points, a matter which was somewhat confused in an announcement by Time magazine on January 9, 1951.

From October to December, 1950, the Texas Me- morial Museum carried on excavations at the site known as Fort St. Louis on Garcitas Creek, which enters Lavaca Bay on the central Gulf Coast of Texas. The purpose of this work was to check Professor Bolton's belief that this site was the scene of La Salle's fort, occupied in 1685-1687, and later, in the

early eighteenth century, a Spanish settlement which was abandoned in 1725. Indian artifacts were found in abundance along with many objects of French and

Spanish origin, resulting in a prime problem of early European contacts with Texas coastal Indians.

All of the above explorations of the Texas Memorial Museum have been carried out under the active field

supervision of Glen L. Evans, its Assistant Director.

During the fall of 1950, Evans and Krieger instituted a joint project of the Museum and the University of Texas for a complete re-examination of early projectile point types. As a thesis problem, Robert

Humphreys is compiling photographs, drawings, and data on these points from the published literature, museum collections, and private collections. This

project arises from a conviction that the projectile point terminology has reached such confusion that no two papers agree on names and specific identification; hence it is necessary to attain a broad perspective on these artifacts from all parts of North America to build up a new conception of the types and their variations.

In October 1950 the bone objects reported in 1906 from the Potter Creek Cave in northern California, by Wm. Sinclair, were re-examined in Berkeley by Alex Krieger. Since these bones were associated with remains of many late Pleistocene vertebrates, the tend- ency has been to regard them as shaped entirely by gnawing and water-wear. Krieger, however, regards at least six or eight of them as pointed or beveled by human agency, and one is a polished bone tube, cut

square at the ends, very similar to the tube found under the saber-toothed cat skeleton at Friesenhahn Cave in Texas. There is no evidence whatever of stone artifacts in Potter Creek Cave. Hence the possibility of a very ancient and widespread bone industry in North America has some support in the above discoveries, the lowest stratum at Blackwater Draw, at

Tequixquiac in the central Mexican plateau, and in a number of occurrences of fossil bones believed to have been fashioned while "green." Evans and Krieger have felt for some years that man was present in the New World long before the first stone projectile points were made, but naturally the utmost caution is re- quired before such a case may be formulated.




Under the direction of Dr. W. C. Holden, students of Texas Technological College, Lubbock, undertook the excavation of the Bonnell site near Ruidoso, New Mexico, during the summer of 1950. This is a Puebloan site with significant relationships with Plains cultures to the east and northeast.

In October, 1950, the annual meeting of the Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society was held in the Museum of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society in Canyon, Texas. At the same time, the newly-built museum of Texas Technological College was opened to the public with many striking displays of archaeological, ethnological, and historical material. A large map with key sites and artifacts of "Early Man" was prepared by Mrs. Frances Holden to show graphically the results of investigations in this field.

Middle America

On the Mexican Plateau, Jorge Acosta reopened excavation of the Quetzalcoatl structure at Tula, and also carried on excavations in some small surrounding sites. At Tlatilco the Museo Nacional has unearthed many burials with Middle Culture and Olmecoid furniture. At Atoto a stratification has been discovered. The Museo Nacional has surveyed sections of Morelos in search of Middle Culture sites for the purpose of working out connections between the Valley of Mexico and southern Vera Cruz, and, perhaps Guerro. In the Tepantal section of Teotihuacan, Carlos Margain of the Instituto Nacional continues excavation. Miscellaneous activities include the repair and partial restoration of various ruins.

In eastern Mexico, Jose Garcia Payon excavated for another season at Tajin. Reconnaisance of sites in Totonicapan has produced important ceramic collections. A number of important publications concerning this region have either been completed or published.

Linton Satterthwaite, University of Pennsylvania Museum, is working in the Lowland Maya Area. Excavations were made at a small site near El Cayo, British Honduras, and at Caracol where a number of new monuments were found. One stela has an early Initial Series date. At Benque Viejo, Satterthwaite uncovered a large section of a magnificent stucco fagade including an interesting mask, astronomical signs and figures. Alberto Ruz L. explored a stairway under the Temple of Inscriptions, at Palenque.

Carnegie Institution archaeologists and historians had a week of conferences in July to discuss the 1950- 1955 program of work at Mayapan. Morris R. Jones, lent by the Geological Survey, spent nearly eight months at Mayapan, and has completed about three quarters of the map of the site. This map is probably completed at this writing. The map reveals an amazing

number of structures most of which seem to be house groups, within the large walled area.

Frans Blom and Gertrude Duby, with a grant from the Viking Fund, have reconnoitered in the forest region north of Comitan; they report many caves containing ossuaries with deformed skulls and crude pottery between Comitan and the Jatate River, but note the occurrence of fine pottery with regular burials, particularly in ruins at Banavil.

A. V. Kidder, Gordon Ekholm and Gustav Stroms- vik spent five weeks visiting by yacht the coast of British Honduras, the Bay Islands and the north coast of Honduras. Sites were examined on Wild Cane Cay and Frenchman's Cay. At Pomona, the party saw material from an early tomb. This material has been presented to the British Museum by Mr. Bell- house, the excavator.

Work in the Highland Maya area proceeds. The Carnegie men are occupied with their reports prepara- tory to closing out the present project. Ed. Shook excavated several large pits at Kaminaljuyu finding Las Charcas (early Formative) material. From other trenches he secured Sacatepequez sherd material thus adding considerably to his unique knowledge of those pre-Miraflores phases. Stephan Borhegyi, under a grant from the Viking Fund, is organizing the study material in the Guatemala National Museum.

Excavations at Zaculeu having terminated, the site has been turned over by the United Fruit Company to the Guatemalan government. A report on the excavations is being prepared by Woodbury, Trick and Dimick. For the government of El Salvador, Stanley Boggs continues work at Tazumal. The immense amount of restoration and reconstruction makes this a complex task, but the work is throwing much light on the relations of the Tohil plumbate horizon, the equivalent of Maya Classic. Boggs also supervised the clearing of the site of Cihuatan which is to be a government monument.

J. Eric Thompson who collected the data published in American Antiquity of which this is a very short brief has written that more information will appear in the same journal, vol. 16, no. 4, April, 1951. This will include a rather complete bibliography of significant works which have been published during the year.

South America

The attempt to summarize work in a whole continent is facilitated by a misfortune. John Rowe, Uni- versity of California, Berkeley, points out the difficulty in securing information concerning the work in 1950. At this writing incomplete references to field work and publications dated in 1949 and even 1948 are still appearing. As an example, Rowe notes an




active archaeological program for which no information is available in Columbia, possibly around Santa Marta, Sogamoso, and Tumaco. In Peru, the National Archaeological Museum has done some work at Ancon and probably elsewhere, but there is no report. There is, also, a French expedition working in Peru, and at least one German is working on museum collections in Europe. It has not been possible to learn a great deal concerning activities in Argentina.

In Chile, Dr. Greta Mostny directed the field party of the Museo Nacional and the Instituto Geografico of the University of Chile. Ethnological investigations and archaeological excavations were conducted in the environs of Peina in the Desert of Atacama.

Wendell C. Bennett spent the summer doing survey work in the Mantaro Basin, and excavating at Wari (Huari). Preliminary analysis of almost 100,000 potsherds indicated an earlier and dominant period closely related to Coast Tiahuanaco. Richard N. Adams has been surveying in the vicinity of Muqui- yauyo finding sites appearing to be late. Hans Hork- heimer, of Lima, has also been doing survey work in the Jauja area. Ross T. Christensen has completed the excavation of a habitation site at Chusis, north of Secura in the Piura valley. The site is still occupied by Indians living in wattle and daub huts. Their culture does not seem to be very different from that of the prehistoric inhabitants of the same site.

John Rowe has kindly and generously provided this editor with much of the data briefed for this section. In the copy of the manuscript submitted for "Notes and News," American Antiquity 16, no. 4, April 1951, there is a long summary of the interesting and significant results of a seminar in Peruvian Archae- ology held under Dr. Rowe's guidance at the Uni- versity of California, Berkeley. Rowe undertook to test a theory of Rafael Larco's against Max Uhle's Early Chimu lots from Site F. and Moche. James A. Bennyhoff analyzed the earlier part of the Viru sequence as presented in Ford's 1949 report. William S. Evans sorted out Uhle's Early Nazca grave lots from Nazca and Ica and compared them with Gayton and Kroeber's A-X-B classification of 1927. Charles W. McMaster made an ethnographic study of the painted and modelled representational vessels of Moche III and IV. Dwight T. Wallace collected the published references to resist dyed textiles in ancient Peru and classified the processes used. Dorothy Men- zel reviewed the Ancon sequence, amplifying Strong's analysis of Reiss and Stubel's classic report, working out the sequence of tomb types, and coordinating the recent reports (1948) of Rebeca Carrion and Cirila Huapaya with the earlier work. The "new tomb type" and the "Sub-Chavin culture" discovered by Huapaya seem to be simply Strong's Middle Ancon I, found in

the northwestern part of the necropolis, near the shore, where only Uhle had previously dug.

In Columbia Emil W. Haury, University of Ari- zona, surveyed and excavated in the Chibcha zone. He was assisted by Julio Gubillos of the Instituto Na- cional de Bogota. The excavations were stratigraphic tests in thin refuse deposits revealing; (1) pre-con- quest; (2) colonial, about 1538-1820; (3) recent, since 1820. Various regional differences were defined. An important result of the survey was the identification of agriculture terraces on many slopes between Bogota and Sogamosco. These had not been previously reported from the Chibcha area.

Gerardo Reichel - Dolmatoff has left the Instituto Etnologico del Magdelena in Santa Marta, Columbia and is now residing in Bogota. He is preparing a series of reports on his archaeological work in the Santa Marta area, of which the first dealing with midden excavations in the valley of the Rancheria River is scheduled to appear in 1951. In this report it is expected that the author will describe a sequence of two cultures each of which was divided into two phases. The earlier culture is characterized by a gradual development from polychrome to bichrome wares, both using a white or cream slip. Gray or brownish culinary wares develop into red wares, of which there are several sub-types. The later culture has an entirely different style characterized by finely made cups with bird designs in black and red; also included are corrugated wares, metates and manos, all of which were absent from the earlier cultures. The latest Rancheria occupation can be linked by trade pieces to the earliest phases of a sequence established in the neighboring Sierra Nevada area. These latter precede later phases with evidence of Spanish contact. In addition to the archaeological work Reichel- Dolmatoff is studying important ecological factors which may throw considerable light upon the changes in economy and produce chronological data.

Irving Rouse, Yale University and Jose M. Cruxent, Museo Ciencias Naturales, Caracas, carried on joint excavations. On the peninsula of Araya the party dug primarily at the preceramic site of Manicuare. The material found showed some resemblances to the Ciboney culture of Cuba. Two ceramic sites in the region proved an extension eastward of the Tierra de los Indios style of pottery, and produced historic pottery of a different style. At Barrancos, on the lower Orinoco river, the site of Saladero produced, as the earliest material, potsherds of the classic Los Bar- rancos style similar to that of the Cuevas style which is at the beginning of the ceramic sequence on Puerto Rico. This being the first time that Cuevas-like pottery has been reported from the mainland, the discovery provides confirmation of the theory that the



268 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY

earliest ceramic culture of the Antilles diffused from South America. The expected transition from Cuevas- like pottery to the classic Los Barrancos did not materialize and it is inferred that the latter had its origin elsewhere, possibly the island of Trinidad. Finally the party excavated at Tocuyano Sur south of Quibor. There was discovered negative painted pottery with no apparent relation to other known styles. This pottery is certainly older than the classic Tierra de los Indios pottery of Quibor and Araya, and may have been contemporaneous with the Cuevas- like pottery of the Barrancas region.

In Argentina during 1948 and 1949, Enrique Pala- vecino and Alberto Rex Gonzales of the Museo de la Plata carried on extensive survey work in the Goya Area of Correintes Province. Sites originally excavated by Ambrosetti were relocated and tested. On the Parana Mini River burials on sites proved to be

both primary and secondary and are related to the Malabrigo culture group. Another expedition, directed by M. A. Vignatti, assisted by Gonzalez, went to Patagonia to excavate in midden sites north of Como- doro Rivadavia. The bone and stone artifacts are of particular interest, especially those from the Bahia Solano sites which may be correlated with a series of raised beaches lines. This same party also investigated areas in the territories of Santa Cruz and Chubut. Rockshelters in the Charcamac Gorge of the Pinturas River have pictographs representing human figures. The most interesting pictograph was a complete scene representing a guanaco hunt by the surround method. In the same area, numerous graves were found. Most of these were of a type covered by heaps of stone. Atop the Cerro Poivre site a great many individuals were uncovered in a mass burial.

1 Condensed from American Antiquity "Notes and News," and contributions gratefully received from Louis Giddings.

2 Condensed from an account received from William A. Ritchie.



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