On December 28, 1946, during the forty-fifth annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, a symposium on River Valley Archaeology in the United States was conducted under the auspices of the Committee for the Recovery of Archaeological Remains. The Committee was organized in 1945 to represent American Archaeology and Anthropology in the emergency brought about by the extensive Government program for floodcontrol and irrigation. Plans for hundreds of dams in the major and minor river systems of the country are completed.

Suggestions that archaeologists cease their dalliance with inconsequential minutiae and concern themselves to some extent with conceptualization and problem have appeared a number of times in recent anthropological literature. This injunction is probably justified, and if archaeology is to contribute to our knowledge of the processes of culture and the historical interrelations of peoples it must broaden its scope of understanding and sharpen its tools of analysis. This is not as simple as might be hoped.

Dr. Max Uhle's excavations at Moche in 1899 for the University of California yielded a collection of pottery and associated non-ceramic objects that remains the touchstone for Early-period finds from the Northern Peruvian coast.

Moche pottery has been published by Kroeber.The Mochica were imaginative as well as skilled craftsmen, and their ceramics is proof of an ability to express ideas and to handle tools with precision.

In 1941–42 J. Frank Sterling, Paul Delgrego, and W. W. Yenney, amateurs who had become interested in collecting local Indian artifacts, excavated a rock .shelter on a stream flowing into Langford Run, near the town of Broomall in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Langford Run is a tributary of Darby Creek, which in turn flows into the Delaware River from the west at Eddystone, about ten miles southwest of Philadelphia. Further excavation, in a second shelter about 100 yards away from the first, on Langford Run proper, soon uncovered a burial, and contact was established with the University Museum in the fall of 1943 through the good offices of Dr. and Mrs. H. O. Albrecht, members of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ties between northeastern Asia and northwestern America are frequently postulated but have never been satisfactorily worked out in detail. Forms of subterranean or semi-subterranean houses and of large plank buildings were known in both regions and this fact has been used to suggest northern Asiatic-American relationships. It seems clear that some prehistoric ties did exist between the two regions but their exact nature remains unknown. Fuller data and more careful comparisons are needed and one segment of the American distribution is therefore given below.

During the summer of 1941 the writer made a survey of the sites in Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, which represent the later phases of Modified Basket Maker and the early phases of the Developmental Pueblo period. The object of this survey was to trace the development of architecture from the early slab-lined pit houses to the above-ground dwellings constructed of linearly-laid stone masonry. Since the writer lacked the facilities for any intensive excavations, the information contained in the paper was on the whole based on surface observation.

At the junction of Redwood Road and Mountain Boulevard in Oakland, California is an outcrop of rock containing hematite which shows signs of having been worked aboriginally. The exposed stratum measures 30 by 20 feet by 6.5 feet at its highest point. Hematite occurs in almost pure form as thin layers in the main body of rock.

Sizeable cavities can be seen at the base of the deposit, indicating where the hematite was chipped out. Fire may have been used as an aid in getting out the ore, this being suggested by the presence of charcoal and smoke blackening. No quarrying tools were found.

A number of unusual ornaments of gold and copper were found several years ago in a site on Apalachee Bay, Wakulla County, Florida (Fig. 74). This site lies in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge a few hundred feet east of its lookout tower, several hundred yards south of the headquarters, and a mile northwest of the St. Marks lighthouse. The site is a burial ground, showing no signs of habitation other than some sherds and flakes of chert scattered on the surface. The burials are found close under the sandy surface on a small natural ridge which lies along the shore where high land merges into extensive marshes. Nearby are two other sites, both shallow refuse areas. One lies about 150 yards to the west, near the gate of the present lookout tower. The other is under the buildings of the present refuge headquarters.