Excavations at the site of Pottery Mound, 40 mi. south and west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, give evidence that the first structure at the site was a large, flat-topped pyramid built in two terraces. Four Pueblo IV architectural levels are superimposed on top of this structure. Sixteen painted kivas in association with the Pueblo IV room tiers retained on their walls a number of multi-layered fresco paintings. These paintings show macaws, other varieties of parrots, jaguars, and possibly Mexican Indians. The flat-topped mound and the ceremonial implications of the frescoes seem Mexican-inspired. The mound may date in the late Pueblo III period. The superimposed architectural levels and the frescoes date in the early Pueblo IV period.

The introduction of the Colonial period culture of the Hohokam of southern Arizona derived from northern Mexico, and its diffusion in one form or another is traced north and east through Arizona. On the basis of changes in settlement patterns, architectural structures, and other material traits, a tentative reconstruction of sociological, ceremonial, and other intangible aspects of the early cultural developments in southern Arizona is attempted.

The ceramic period of Venezuela began in the extreme west about 1860 B.C. with coarse-textured, grit-tempered bowls having modeled decoration, and it began in the east around 1050 B.C. with bichrome and modeled pottery in the Orinoco region. By 1000 B.C., pottery making and, by inference, agriculture had spread over most of Venezuela; and the later dual division between eastern manioc growers with a plastic ceramic tradition and western maize cultivators with a painted-pottery tradition was well started. Developments in both areas influenced the Antilles, with those in the east stronger in early times and those in the west stronger in later times. Relationships with the Antilles are not reducible to a simple formula that calls for movement from the northeastern coast of Venezuela out into the island chain.

Classic Clovis, classic Folsom, and atypical fluted points from southern Saskatchewan are described. The variations in the atypical fluted points, which include three fluted Piano points, suggest that the parallel-flaked tradition was developed out of the fluted tradition in the centuries of rapid climatic shift following the retreat of the Valders ice. This development may have taken place in the region that included southern Saskatchewan.

Reconnaissance, surface collecting, and test excavation were carried on in Salts Cave in August, 1963, by a joint Illinois State Museum-Cave Research Foundation expedition in cooperation with the National Park Service. Various analyses and secondary investigations have continued since then. The main upper passages of the cave were extensively visited during the last millennium B.C. by a prehistoric people who are probably to be assigned to the Early Woodland culture grouping. They were exploiting the mineral resources of the cave, primarily sulfate crystalline deposits, at least one of which is cathartic. Some individuals penetrated nearly two miles into the cave, using cane torches. Quantities of prehistoric, dried human feces are available and are yielding important dietary information. The people were apparently cultivating some plant species, including sunflower (Heliarn thus annus) and two members of the classic tropical horticultural complex, squash and gourd (Cucurbita pepo and Lagenarid siceraria). There is as yet no evidence that they grew or used maize (Zea mays).

This was an intensive study of a single mountain range rich in petroglyph sites. One hundred nineteen sites with over 2,000 designs were recorded. Unsuccessful attempts were made to find significant positive correlations between such factors as design associations, site locations and concentrations, and environmental influences. The study produced some evidence that the probable originators of the petroglyphs were the Hohokam farmers who occupied the area for approximately the first 1500 years A.D.

A new late-ceramic culture in the west-central Plains is defined on the basis of recent investigations and early scattered references in the literature. This Birdwood culture, which is dated about A.D. 1600, is characterized by river-edge sites that yield thin-walled, sparsely sand-tempered, incised pottery.

Near Killarney, Canada, three raised beaches of former Great Lakes stages have cultural material in circumstances indicating contemporaneity with the construction of the beaches 7000 B.C. and A.D. 1. The physical conditions demonstrating this contemporaneity are set forth in detail, with illustrations of artifacts in situ in gravels. The several components of two sites are distinguished, and a workshop with most of the artifacts in unfinished condition is described and illustrated. The geology, which involves Postglacial uplift of the Lake Huron basin along with rising and lowering levels, is fully outlined.

A collection from a small Late Wisconsin site is described. This assemblage exhibits a distinctive coreworking technique and a distinctive variety of fluted points. It is dated on geological grounds to between 11,000 B.C. and 9000 B.C. at a time when spruce stands were probably becoming established in the area. The contrasts between this assemblage and others described from Northeastern North America suggest a number of hypotheses not testable with the available data.

Spring Creek Cave, a single-component, habitation site in the Big Horn Basin near Ten Sleep, Wyoming, yielded an assemblage of stone artifacts diagnostic of the Late Middle Prehistoric period in context with a considerable variety of hitherto undescribed perishable items. Charcoal produced a radiocarbon date of A.D. 225 ± 200. The Spring Creek material considerably amplifies present knowledge of Late Middle period technology and economy in the Northwestern Plains and provides opportunities for comparison of Late Middle period perishable items with similar items in Basketmaker assemblages of the Southwest and in other assemblages from various parts of the Basin-Plateau region.

Relative chronology is found in the paintings in twelve Texas rock shelters which have Pecos Style pictographs. Three periods are defined within the Pecos Style. The earliest period comprises large-scale polychrome paintings emphasizing fishing subjects, suggesting a rivercentered life. The second period comprises slightly smaller-scale polychrome paintings in which deer first appear and become progressively more common. Fishermen still appear but tend to be smaller and more geometrically elaborate. The last period shows fewer paintings. They are very small, monochrome, and concentrate on deer and new figure types. These periods merge into each other. They appear to reflect an Archaic Desert Culture whose art began as the expression of a riverine ceremonial cult and changed toward a personal expression centered on deerhunting.

Survey and tests in Grenada indicate three major ceramic periods. The first, A.D. 0-700, is a typical Caribbean extension of the Saladoid-Barrancoid tradition of Venezuela. The second is represented by burnished, red-painted pottery with rim points and horns associated with black-and-red-painted cazuelas. A thick, crude ware which frequently exhibits deeply scratched surfaces characterizes the third. A late phase with finger-indented rims is associated with historic materials. These ceramic traditions are correlated with the pre-Arawak, Arawak, and Carib Indians.

A decorated pottery vessel excavated at the Cahokia site in southwestern Illinois is believed to be a specimen from the southeastern United States. A megascopic and a petrographic analysis are presented to confirm a southern origin. The megascopic analysis suggests that the vessel is of Caddoan derivation. The petrographic analysis demonstrates that the paste of the vessel is not indigenous to the American Bottoms and suggests the use of weathered Tertiary shale deposits from the lower Mississippi River Valley. Both analytical procedures are required in order to assess adequately the sources of origin for suspected foreign pottery specimens in archaeological sites.

The representation in the prehistoric and the early historic art of North America of circular shields or human figures whose torsos are depicted in the form of a shield provide a revealing indication of how widespread and complex was the diffusion of objects, ideas, and forms on the continent. Drawings of the shields and of shield figures are found in rock paintings and engravings, on paintings and skins, and on incised bark scattered throughout the continent. The origin of the motif is still in question, although present evidence would seem to point to central Mexico. The earliest examples north of the Rio Grande would appear to be in the rock paintings of the lower Pecos area of Texas. It next appears as an important form in the rock art of Utah which has been attributed to the Fremont Culture. From this latter area in late Prehistoric times, it apparently spread to the northern Plains, and thence into the central and southern Plains where it briefly became an element in the rock art and the mural paintings of the late Pueblo cultures. During this late period it also entered into the art of the region east of the Mississippi and into the rock art of the far western part of the continent.

Two stone stelae at the Crystal River site, Florida, are in similar alignment with two temple mounds. One stela has an incised human head, ceremonial caches, and a radiocarbon date of about A.D. 440. The stelae, their spatial relationships, and the ceremonial deposits are evidence of influences from southeastern Mexico.

Pottery types are demonstrably useful archaeological tools in the Lesser Antilles. The sequence of types established in selected excavations in St. Lucia and in Martinique confirms the sequence in Trinidad and northern South America. Several horizon markers are uniform in their distribution from St. Lucia to Guadeloupe. These are the early “types,” such as White-on-Red, Broad-Line Incised, Incised Polychrome, and Zoned Crosshatch. An additional type may be delineated based on conventionalized faces with coffee-bean eyes. A later type shows rim treatment wherein the lip area is regularly punctated with finger depressions. The seriation of these uniform and easily recognized types enables the reconstruction of a site-occupation sequence applicable to much of the Lesser Antilles.