Evidence of human occupation has been found in Pleistocene river terrace strata near Lewisville, Texas, over the past 7 years. Noteworthy finds include a Clovis projectile point in place in the site, an extensive faunal collection, and charcoal which has produced 2 radiocarbon age determinations in excess of 37,000 years B.P. The following article is a condensation of a detailed account appearing in the Texas Archeological Society Bulletin for 1957.

Fluted projectile points of chipped flint have been found occasionally in Michigan and Wisconsin. Most, if not all of these, closely resemble the Clovis style of fluted point found in the west. There is some evidence indicating that the western Clovis points belong to a period older than 8000 B.C. A number of archaeologists, myself included, have assumed that the eastern varieties of fluted points are of approximately the same order of antiquity as the western points.

The archaeology of the San Luis Rey Basin is characterized by a series of sites which for the most part conform to the San Luis Rey complexes described by Meighan (1954). San Luis Rey I is characterized by dark, sooty midden deposits containing small pressure flaked projectile points, manos, portable metates, spire-lopped and disc beads of Olivella, drilled stone ornaments, and portable and bedrock mortars with unshaped cobble pestles. San Luis Rey II contains all of the above elements plus pottery, pictographs, and historical artifacts on the terminal sites. The physical locations for San Luis Rey sites seldom deviate from streamside locations in close proximity to boulder outcroppings suitable for bedrock mortars and shelter.

The Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona has long been a favorite area of study for geologists from all parts of the world, but until recently little intensive archaeological work has been done within the canyon itself. In 1953 the senior author began to investigate Cataract Creek Canyon, the only major drainage leading from the Coconino Plateau on the south to the Colorado River. Also in this year Walter W. Taylor (1954) made a quick survey of the lower reaches of the Grand Canyon by boat, but due to high and fast water he was unable to locate many sites. The present project was the first major excavation to be carried on in the main canyon area and it revealed material that should stimulate further work in the region.

Burial mounds, with their contained structures, artifacts, burials, and the patterns of relationship between these concrete items, represent the largest recoverable body of data in the eastern United States which bears directly on problems concerned with prehistoric religion and ceremonialism. These data in turn are directly applicable, with varying levels of reliability, to problems of prehistoric social and political structure. This is possible through the predictably intimate relationship between supernatural and social controls which obtains in primitive societies.

Up to the present time, some specialists have held to the view that on the American continent before the European colonization, there was no writing in the true sense of that word. The various systems of writing used by the Indians were regarded as pictographic or ideographic. However, it is now known with certainty that the civilized peoples of ancient America — the Maya, Zapotec, Olmec, and also the Quechua and Aymara — had hieroglyphic writing of the same type as that of the Old World, of China, Egypt, Sumeria, and so forth.

The initial paper in this series (Littmann 1957, American Antiquity, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 135-40) presented a systematic approach to the study of ancient building elements such as mortars, plasters, and stuccos, and set forth the bases upon which the work was undertaken. It also included studies on steps of the prebrick period of Temple IV at Comalcalco, Tabasco, Mexico, in which it was demonstrated that a building unit comprising a monolithic limeaggregate structure covered with a thin, limebased wash coat followed by a thicker coat of plaster was used. Such a unit appeared to have been used in both the original structure and subsequent additions or modifications throughout the prebrick period.

No satisfactory explanation, to the best of my knowledge, has been offered of the scenes on pages 16-20 of the Maya Dresden codex and the parallel passages on pages 93-95 of Codex Madrid which depict a goddess or woman in association with various birds, animals, and gods. She carries them on her head or shoulders or on a pack on her back supported by a strap across her chest.

Presumably all archaeologists know that radiocarbon dates are estimates of true dates, or, more precisely, that they are derived from estimates of the true rate of emission of electrons from radioactive carbon. If it were possible to keep each specimen in the counter for an indefinitely long period or if the emissions occurred with the regularity of clock ticks, there would be no need to talk of estimates of rates. Unfortunately, the emissions do not occur at regular intervals nor is it practical to count for a very long time, so there is no escape from the uncertainty of estimation.

Paradoxically, in presenting fluted point measurements and proportions the percentage or ratio relationship of maximum (or minimum or average) fluting to total blade length is not completely a matter of mathematics. This seems to have escaped the notice of many students of the paleo-Indian flint industries. The problem involved has come to the attention of the writer in the course of studying several series of northeastern and Great Lakes area fluted points, with the result that he has been as frequently bewildered as enlightened in attempting to compare his data with those obtained by other archaeologists.

The article, “Local Grouping in Melanesia,” by H. Ian Hogbin and Camilla H. Wedgwood, published in Oceania (Vols. 23 and 24, pp. 241–76 and 58–76, 1953, Sydney), has considerable theoretical importance for the study of social organizational-settlement relationships. I take this somewhat belated opportunity to call it to the attention of American archaeological colleagues. Most of us, including myself, do not consult Oceania in the ordinary course of events. I am grateful to a colleague, S. W. Miles, and to a graduate student, Kwang-chih Chang, for bringing the article to my notice.

On page 179 of American Antiquity for October 1956, Aaron J. Cosner describes some experiments on the fire hardening of wood. Perhaps, in this connection, the following experience may be of interest.

During my boyhood in Michigan, corn was harvested entirely by hand. In the process we always used a husking peg to remove the husks from the ears.