Following my attempt at an explanation of the function or use of Mexican stone yokes I was led on to consider, in a similar vein, two other classes of well known stone objects also common to the eastern coastal regions of Mexico, namely, the palmas or palmate stones and the thin stone heads, also known as hachas. Both of these groups of objects include some of the finest stone carvings known from the ancient cultures of Mexico, but their curious forms and possible functions have never been satisfactorily explained. Hints or suggestions as to how they may have been used appear to be singularly rare. Those I have been able to gather are equivocal enough and far from conclusive, but I believe they are worth reviewing at the present time as a beginning toward investigation of the problems involved.

A study of the use of gold and silver by the ancient inhabitants of southern Peru and Bolivia has been made by Lothrop (1937). He found that in the region of the southern coast the available material from Paracas and Nasca was adequate, but that there was very little satisfactory material from the later periods, such as Ica. Many of the objects in museum collections that purport to be from Ica are of questionable origin, and many objects actually from Ica are thought to be from Lima, Moche, etc. This not only prevents a satisfactory investigation of the use of metals in Ica, but confuses a study of their use on the central and northern coasts.

The present study is an attempt to supply more exact information about the use of metals in the vicinity of Nasca, Ica, and Chincha. Max Uhle made very careful excavations in the Chincha and Ica valleys in 1901, and in the region of Nasca in 1903.

While making an archaeological survey of the Clark Hill Reservoir area in eastern Georgia and western South Carolina, the writer located an apparently undisturbed shell deposit, the Lake Spring site (9 Cu 61), which is situated 5 miles east of Pollards Crossroads, Columbia County, Georgia, on the south bank of the Savannah River about 1.5 miles upstream from the construction area of the Clark Hill dam and just west of Lake Spring Creek. It is a fairly large site with a deep midden of shells and other occupational refuse.

This can be ranked as the major site of the Clark Hill Reservoir basin. It occupies an area roughly 400 feet long and about 150 feet wide, and has only superficially been disturbed by plowing. The cultures represented are more or less intact.

During August and September, 1948, the writer made an archaeological survey of the Lavon Reservoir area in Collin County, Texas. This was a project of the River Basin Surveys program of archaeological salvage, undertaken by the Smithsonian Institution, with the cooperation of the Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service. This reservoir is being built on the East Fork of the Trinity River near Wylie, Texas and approximately 25 miles northeast of Dallas.

Twenty-five sites were located in or near the proposed reservoir area during the course of this survey. Nineteen of these appear to be small, temporary campsites, some producing a few potsherds; others are apparently non-pottery sites. However, six of the sites appear to be permanent village locations occupied by relatively large groups of pottery-using people over a long period of time. The material from these sites is in the process of laboratory analysis at the present time and a statement of the cultural affiliations involved cannot yet be made.

In the January, 1949 number of American Antiquity T. L. Smiley presents a concise description of an early eighth century pithouse at Mesa Verde. He notes the occurrence of a similar pithouse excavated by Brew at Alkali Ridge in southeastern Utah, and a second similar structure described by Morris from the La Plata area. The purpose of this note is to broaden the comparative picture by indicating a third pithouse even more closely resembling the Mesa Verde one. This is Pithouse G, Site , excavated by Martin in 1938 in the Ackmen-Lowry area in southwestern Colorado, not far from Mesa Verde. The Ackmen-Lowry pithouse is nearly identical with the one described by Smiley. Tree-ring dates from the former structure range from A.D. 736 to 768, which make it some 60 years later than the Mesa Verde pithouse, though in the same Basket Maker III period.

Clam shells, particularly species of Elliptio, considerably worn from use, were found by the late W. J. Wintemberg in a number of comparatively recent archaeological sites in Ontario, such as Roebuck, Lawson, Uren, and Sidey-Mackay. He suggested that some of these had been used as knives, as scrapers, and as tools for shaping pottery vessels.

Among the specimens collected were several which showed attrition in the middle of the longer side, as shown in Figure 26. Wintemberg was apparently unable to suggest to what use these might have been put.

The following extract from Memoirs of Odd Adventures, Strange Deliverances, etc. in the Captivity of John Giles,Esq.…may afford an explanation: “To dry corn when in the milk, they gather it in large kettles and boil it on the ears, till it is pretty hard, then shell it from the cob with clam-shells, and dry it on bark in the sun.“

In view of the vast number of spurious glass artifacts known, it is of interest to note a genuine example which came to light recently in excavations in Florida.

The scraper illustrated with this note (Fig. 27) is made of heavy green glass, and is a perfectly good aboriginal piece in form and workmanship. The length is 57 mm., the width 36 mm. The greatest thickness, 11 mm., lies near the steep nose at a point where original surfaces are present on both bottom and top. Undoubtedly, the material was derived from a heavy green glass bottle.

The artifact was found in test excavations at the site of San Luis de Talimali, several miles west of the city of Tallahassee, Florida. San Luis was the major Spanish settlement in the Apalachee area during the seventeenth century, and at the time of its abandonment and destruction in 1704 consisted of a fort and blockhouse, a mission, and a number of dwellings inhabited by both Spaniards and Indians.

Among the Mexican antiquities in the Ethnographical Museum in Vienna dating from the time of the Conquest is a small wooden figure bearing the accession number 12,585. Though this object has received cursory attention in previous publications, it has never been fully described. Because of its unique design and the unusual complexity of its structure, the piece merits a full technical description.

In 1881 this figure was transferred from the then ”Imperial Cabinet of Coins and Antiquities“ to the then Anthropological- Ethnographical Division of the Imperial Museum of Natural History, which later became the present Ethnographical Museum (Museum für Volkerkunde). According to information supplied by Professor F. Eichler, Director of the Division of Antiquities in the Museum of Art, the object cannot be traced back farther than its entry under the number XIII/47 in the fifth volume of the ”New Inventory“ of the Cabinet of Coins and Antiquities. It is not known from what earlier collection it entered the “Cabinet.“ Possibly it came from the Imperial Treasure (Schatzkammer).

A new material trait of the Adena Aspect has recently been discovered in two mound sites in Ross County, Ohio, viz., tubular pottery pipes with a constricted mouthpiece. Similar specimens in stone are diagnostic of the aspect but pipes made of pottery are unreported in either comprehensive analyses of Adena or the site reports in their bibliographies.

The Renick group of mounds are situated 0.4 mile southeast of Chillicothe on the second terrace overlooking the Scioto River, and are on the property of the Aluminum Company of America. Mound I was 9 feet 1 inch high, had a diameter of 74 feet, and contained 32 burials, 2 subfloor tombs, and a house site. The skeletal remains were generally in an extreme state of decay, in some cases being discernible only as a discoloration in the soil. Mound II, 80 feet to the northeast, was 15 inches high and 30 feet in diameter.