Book Reviews 697

pect some pre-am. 1300 analogue in this zone). Future research will doubtless expli- cate this relationship; it is to Fowler’s credit that his data can be used for purposes other than those for which it was collected.

What is the overall significance of these two reports? Fowler states that the “results of the 1966 Eastern Nevada Survey sub- stantiate the known picture of Great Basin prehistory: the existence of a food collecting economy, characterized by the term Desert Archaic” (p. 33). We should probably tread softly when equating artifact inventories sui generis with “economy”; right or wrong, the notion of a Desert Archaic, and its presence or absence in eastern Nevada, would rest much more comfortably upon a firm sub- stratum of substantive settlement pattern and technoenvironmental studies. We have the artifacts, but what, and where, are the patterns? The next decade of Great Basin archeology may well see the demise of the antiquated saw that “grinding stones equal a food gathering economy.” More to the point, let us recognize that Fowler has given us one of our best packages of basic, ground floor data.

References Cited BAUMHOFF, M. A., and J. S. BYRNE

1959 Desert Side-notched points as a time marker in California. University of Cali- fornia Archaeological Survey Reports, 48: 32-65.

JENNINGS, J. D.

O’CONNELL, J. F.

1957 Danger Cave. University of Utah Anthropological Papers, 27.

1967 Elko Eared/Elko comer-notched pro- jectile points as time marken in the Great Basin. University of California Archaeo- logical Survey Reports, 70: 129-140.

The Ancient Civilizations of Peru. J. ALDEN MASON. Middlesex, England & Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin Books, “1968” [1969]. xvi + 335 pp., appendix, bibliog- raphy, figures, index, key to bibliography, maps, plates, table. $2.25 (paper). [Re- vised ed.; 1st ed. 1957.1

Reviewed by DONALD COLLIER Field Museum of Natural History

This new edition of Mason’s survey of Peruvian archeology is slightly revised from the edition of 1964. The revisions, com- pleted in mid-1966, are confined to the

chapter on chronology and periodization and the chapter on the Incipient Era (Early Lithic and Pre-ceramic periods). Two pages have been added to the bibliography to bring it up to date through 1965, with the inclusion of some items from 1966. Even though this book does not discuss some of the recent findings and concepts in this field, it is still very useful for its general coverage, its very full account of Inca culture, and the extensive, classified bibliography (44 pages).

Pre-Colonial Highways of Bolivia. Part I : The La Paz-Yungas Route Via Palca. KAREN STOTHERT STOCKMAN. Foreword by Carlos Ponce Sanginks. Publication No. 17. La Paz: Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Bolivia, 1967. 53 pp., illus- trations, map, 2 appendices, bibliography. n.p. (paper).

Reviewed by CRAIG MORRIS Brandeis University

This slender monograph begins what pre- sumably will be a continuing series on the pre-Columbian roads of Bolivia. It docu- ments a prehistoric road from La Paz to Ya- nacachi but deals in detail only with that section of the road between the Abra Taquesi and the modern mines and town of Chojlla. The primary problem, stated at the monograph’s outset, is that of dating con- struction and use-“to determine who built or designed the roads originally, who im- proved them, and who used them at differ- ent times” (p. 1 1 ) . The study is admittedly preliminary and does not pursue the prob- lem of chronology very systematically. How- ever, the general conclusion that the route described represents Inca improvements, maintenance, and use of roads that, at least in part, probably had earlier beginnings seems sound. Certainly the appearance of the road, as illustrated by several photo- graphs, is characteristically Inca.

The Taquesi-Chojlla section of the road is documented by a map showing its route, photographs of several of its important fea- tures, and a descriptive summary of Mrs. Stockman’s survey. While some may find the description lacking in important details, there is ample evidence to demonstrate a major well-planned and constructed route connecting the highlands with the inner low- lands, at least since Inca times.

698 American Anthropologist [72, 19701

The purpose served by the highway is not the focus of attention, and in the opinion of the reviewer the value of the report would have been increased by a more sustained at- tempt to set the road in the broader context of Andean archeology and ethnohistory. However, the history of the road’s use in late colonial times is frequently alluded to, as is the relation of the road’s importance to the rising and declining fortunes of the vil- lages and sites it connected. Perhaps most significantly, Dr. Ponce, in his preface, stresses the role of the road as a link be- tween the altiplano and the lowlands. The great importance to the Inca of access to lowland products, particularly coca, has long been known. The road Mrs. Stockman de- scribes underscores that importance.

The need to understand the history of re- gional and inter-regional exchange and com- munication in the Andean area as a whole is a pressing one. Studies of well-dated road networks undertaken in the context of the sites they connect is an important means of achieving such an understanding. Hopefully, Pre-Colonial Highways of Bolivia is evi- dence of a renewed interest in these road networks.

Megalithic Enquiries in the West of Britain: A Liverpool Symposium. T. G . E. POW- ELL, J. X. W. P. CORCORAN, FRANCES LYNCH, AND J. G . SCOTT. Preface by T. G. E. Powell. Liverpool Monographs in Archaeology and Oriental Studies. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1969. xxi + 357 pp., figures, maps, plates, tables, 4 appendices, bibliography, index. Gns. 7 (cloth).

Reviewed by ELIZABETH C . BAITY Chapel Hill, North Carolina

This symposium, a field study of mega- lithic tombs in western Britain, presents a tremendous range of information about a prehistoric population group whose most ob- vious survivals are great rock tombs. The volume is not only an encyclopedic state- ment for the areas concerned but throws new light on the Neolithic in Western Europe and on megalithic sculpture in general. The drawings, maps, and photog- raphy make possible typological compari- sons with Continental areas, while the serial numbering system permits cross-reference to

G. E. Daniel’s 1950 inventory and provides a framework for the future corpus of British chambered cairns. While classification is made on formal characteristics including ground-plan, the authors have avoided at- tempting to fit the plan-typology of each tomb into a lineal relationship for evaluating the development of megalithic architectural styles.

J. X. W. P. Corcoran describes the Cots- wold-Severn group of monuments, ques- tioning former attributions of origins to northwestern France. No comprehensive ty- pological sequence emerges. Corcoran notes that the environment shows a preference for light, easily drained soils that would have supported woodlands; settlements are not yet recognized but the environment suggests that stock-raising may have played a large part in the economy, with hunting also of importance and little information as to pos- sible crops. The Neolithic pottery shows cer- tain affinities: Corcoran notes a plain un- decorated type perhaps related to Windmill Hill and another resembling the Peterbor- ough tradition. Other artifacts also resemble those of Windmill Hill culture. Corcoran suggests that the three principal types of chambers had independent origins, perhaps from a long cairn of trapezoidal plan de- rived from earth and timber tumuli.

Frances Lynch describes the principal tomb-building tradition around the coastlines of North Wales as that of the Portal Dol- man, also widespread in Ireland. This ap- pears to be the earliest definable type of megalithic tomb in North Wales, its origin impossible of present solution. Pottery finds suggest that its establishment was earlier than the arrival of the Cotswold-Severn long-cairn tradition. Her evidence, with that of Powell‘s other two students, suggests that a non-megalith-building people may have preceded the megalith builders. She does not find it possible to define any principal groups among the Neolithic pottery.

J. G. Scott studies the chambered long cairns of southwest Scotland in the light of new excavations since Piggott’s 1954 study of the Neolithic cultures of the British Isles. He finds Irish influence prominent. The sub-Boreal climate of the late third millen- nium, with peat bogs probably in retreat, is seen as more favorable for a Neolithic econ- omy that of any subsequent climatic phase.