Analytic classification consists of forming successive series of classes, referring to different features of artifacts. Each class is characterized by one or more attributes which indicate a custom to which the artisan conformed, for example, a technique of manufacture, or a concept which he expressed in the artifacts, such as a design. These customs and concepts constitute modes. They are “procedural modes” when they refer to behavior of artisans and “conceptual modes” when they consist of ideas which artisans have expressed in artifacts.

Taxonomic classification consists of formulating a single set of classes, one for each kind of artifact in the collection. Each class is characterized by two or more modes, selected from among the total number of modes obtainable by means of analytic classification. The modes diagnostic of each class constitute its type. If diagnostic modes are selected for their time-space significance, the resultant types are “historical.” If the diagnostic modes are selected for what they indicate about the intrinsic nature of the artifacts, the types are “descriptive.”

The situations under which it is best to use either procedural or conceptual modes or historical or descriptive types are discussed and it is concluded that all four kinds of units are essential for the complete interpretation of archaeological remains.

Data from 22 Archaic sites in four ecologically similar regions in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia are compared to provide a synthesis of Archaic materials dating from the Anathermal to the first centuries of the Christian era in the Middle South. Stratigraphic evidence and radiocarbon dates make possible the establishment of two local sequences in western Tennessee where 15 components from ten sites can be assigned to six phases. These components are compared in terms of 83 traits through the use of the Z-coefficient described by Kroeber. Both the archaeological and the statistical analyses suggest the presence of two contemporaneous Archaic traditions in the area. The validity of this interpretation is tested by comparing the Tennessee materials with those from the Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia regions, again with the aid of the Z-coefficient. The Archaic phases of all four regions are assigned to the two traditions: Midcontinent tradition—Eva, Three Mile, Big Sandy (Tenn.), Indian Knoll, unnamed phase which includes the Parish, Ward, and Chiggerville sites (Ky.); Eastern tradition—Stallings Island (Ga.), Lauderdale (Ala.), Kays, Weldon, Ledbetter (Tenn.). The contacts between the Archaic and Woodland traditions and the lack of contact with Early Lithic cultures are discussed.

The system of ceramic taxonomy presented by Phillips for use in the Southeast is considered to be too formal and rigid. While it attempts to serve the same functions as the currently used concepts of type and variety, the proposed new system would be considerably more complex in its application. The ceramic type, as currently defined and used, is well adapted for establishing skeletal chronicle. Any modification would lessen its usefulness. A greater emphasis on including descriptive classes in reports is offered as more valuable than the adoption of a formal taxonomy. The content of the classes cannot be determined prior to description, whereas the formal taxonomy prescribes the content of each taxonomic unit. These classes would increase the utility of sherd collections by making available data which can be applied to problems, such as those of process, for which neither the type nor the proposed new varieties are suitable.

Excavations in the Western Mound at this prehistoric Hopi pueblo provide 13 adjacent columns of refuse in masonry rooms which yielded 21,569 painted sherds. Stratigraphic analysis of these ceramic profiles has resulted in a relative chronology of five color classes of locally made painted pottery which will serve as a control for future ceramic studies at the site. Black-onwhite, black-on-orange, and orange-paste polychrome were made from about A.r>. 1200 to 1300 when they were abruptly replaced by black-on-yellow and yellow-paste polychrome. The differences between trash deposited in rooms and that dumped in the open, the anomalies of sherd and vessel quantities, and the well documented nature of this large sherd collection make possible observations on the problems of stratigraphic interpretation. Numerical comparison of painted sherds with vessels restored from them demonstrates the hazards of interpretation based solely on limited sherd samples. The fact that one of the rooms produced a sequence exactly the reverse of the situation in the other 12 rooms emphasizes the need for more extensive testing in room blocks than in trash dumps. Restoration of vessels from sherds found at different levels in different rooms shows the inadequacy of chronological inference based on stratigraphic position of unassembled sherds.

In 1955-56 the Arizona State Museum excavated an elephant-kill site on the Lehner ranch in the San Pedro valley, near Hereford, Arizona, and found 13 projectiles, mainly Clovis fluted points, eight butchering tools, and charcoal from two fires among the remains of nine immature mammoths and elements of horse, bison, and tapir. Bones and artifacts occurred on and in gravels of a former perennial stream exposed in the modern arroyo bank. Most or all of the animals were probably killed over a comparatively short period by hunters identified with the Llano complex by the Clovis points. The Lehner site and the nearby Naco site represent the southwesternmost extent of the presently known range of the Llano complex. The post-kill sequence of alluviation and erosion supports a geological age of 13,000 or more years for both bones and artifacts. Arizona, Michigan, and Copenhagen radiocarbon measurements of hearth charcoal indicate a date of 11,000 to 12,000 B.P. Since these dates are substantially older than the oldest radiocarbon assays for the Sulphur Spring stage of the Cochise culture, it is probable that the transition from big-game hunting to collecting is reflected in the change from Llano complex to Cochise culture, and that this shift in economic emphasis took place before the complete extinction of the late Pleistocene megafauna.

Inscriptions at Piedras Negras are shown to form a pattern of discrete sets of records, each inscribed on a group of consecutive monuments beginning with a stela depicting the “ascension motif.” The earliest date in a series, identified by the upended frog glyph and called an “initial date” precedes the first dedicatory date by a number of years, falling within the span of an earlier series. A date in the first dedicatory hotun of each set is marked by a “toothache glyph” and is called the “inaugural date.” The intervals between these dates are such that no single series exceeds the span of a reasonable lifetime, and it is suggested that the initial date represents something in the nature of a birth or name day of a ruler who accedes to power on the inaugural date, and that each set of monuments records the history of a reign. The representations on monuments are interpreted as portraits of rulers and their families. Initial and inaugural dates at other sites are identified by their respective glyphs, but no articulated series of reigns has been found outside of Piedras Negras.

The variations of the upended frog and toothache glyphs suggest that they are essentially verbal action glyphs. Other action glyphs are correlated with motifs on Yaxchilan lintels, where they follow close upon date notations. Groups of glyphs following the action glyph are identified as appellatives, and are found to contain feminine head prefixes when they refer to robed or skirted figures of women. It is suggested that “ben-ich” katun notations occurring with appellatives of rulers are to be counted from their initial dates. Lunar and determinant meanings ascribed to dates are shown to have no relation to action glyphs accompanying them, and the historical approach is recommended as being more consistent with observed glyphic patterns.

This graphical technique utilizes only three types of artifacts from the collection to the seriated. The relationship between the three selected types is plotted on three-pole graph paper. The points on the graph are clustered along a line representing change through time; hence the archaeological materials are arranged in their correct temporal sequence. Data from Paragonah, Utah, and Pindi, New Mexico, two Southwestern sites for which the time sequence is known, are used for empirical tests of the seriational technique. In both cases there is close agreement between the results of the seriation and the time sequence revealed by field evidence.

The method being used to analyze pottery from Uaxactún and Barton Ramie by the application of the type-variety concept is offered as an analytical approach well suited to the classification of Maya ceramics. Types and varieties are seen as the best archaeological approximation of the ceramic abstractions which existed in the prehistoric cultural configuration. The systematic application of the type-variety concept will make it possible to establish analytical ceramic units which will be comparable throughout the Maya territory, to undertake detailed chronological and areal studies, especially in areas away from the ceremonial centers, and to use ceramics as a step toward cultural interpretation. Considerable attention is given to the procedure of analysis and to the problem of naming the resulting analytical ceramic units. The most desirable nomenclature is illustrated by Aguacate Orange [type]: Holha Variety. Place names have been used for the primary type term and for the variety name, but a descriptive term is used for the second part of the type name. The desirability of keeping the variety flexible and free of bias or prejudice stemming from the nomenclature is stressed. The variety is the smallest meaningful unit of classification in the type-variety method. Sorting, naming, and tabulating begin with varieties which, in turn, lead to the recognition, naming and description of types.

The late Pliocene basal clay of the region and remnants of later deposits are cut by a perennial stream of pluvial age. Bones and artifacts, including Clovis- fluted points, occur in gravel and other channel deposits in a meander bow of this stream. The bone bed is overlain by a black swamp deposit indicating a subhumid climate and by calichified silts indicating arid conditions, both cut by an Altithermal channel. The hunt, stratigraphically pre- Altithermal, is dated by the equation of the relatively warm and dry 14-to-12 foot level in the San Augustin Plains profile with the Allerod of northern Europe (12,500-10,800 B.P.). This semi-arid period, called the Datil Interval or Datil Drought, is believed to have caused the extinction of the mammoth in both the Southwest and the High Plains by 11,500 B.P. The Sulphur Spring stage Cochise deposit at Double Adobe, which is overlain by a bed containing a mammoth skull, is dated at more than 12,500 B.P. The mammoth hunts of the Lehner and Naco sites are assigned an age of 13,000 or more years.

A freshly exposed surface of obsidian will take up water from the atmosphere to form a hydrated surface layer. This layer has a different density and refractive index than does the remainder of the obsidian. Using special techniques, a thin section of the obsidian cut at right angles to the surface can be prepared. When examined under the microscope the hydrated layer is visible and its thickness can be measured. Photomicrographs of such thin sections are shown. Factors that determine the rate of hydration were considered. Using artifacts from archaeological sites of known age, the influence of temperature, relative humidity, chemical composition of the obsidian, burning and erosion of the obsidian on the rates of hydration was determined. Temperature and chemical composition are the main factors controlling the rate of hydration. Obsidian hydrates more rapidly at a higher temperature, and thus progresses at a faster rate in tropical than in arctic climates. Rhyolitic obsidian hydrates more slowly than does trachytic obsidian. Using archaeological data from various parts of the world, several tentative hydration rates were determined for tropical, temperate, and arctic climates. The method in its present state of development is especially suited to determine relative chronologies in layered sequences of artifacts from a single site, or region. It is also useful for detecting fake artifacts. Future work to refine the method is suggested.

This discussion deals with the theoretical reasoning that underlies the type-variety method of ceramic analysis. Not only do pottery "types" and “varieties” embody sets of recognizably distinct attributes and impart particular cultural, areal, and temporal connotations, but they are also meaningful entities of cultural interpretation.

1. 1. “Varieties” that have been tested by continued close study and by increases in knowledge concerning their nature and range of variation are close approximations and reliable indicators of original ceramic manifestations due to individual or small social group variation in a society.

2. 2. Ceramic "types" represent the combining of a number of attributes into abstract conceptions which, when executed in clay by potters, are acceptable to them and a majority of others within their cultural configuration. Types are summations of individual or small social group variation consistent with boundaries imposed by the interaction of individuals on a societal level and determined by the operative value system present in any society. Pottery types are therefore representative of cultural phenomena.

3. 3. Ceramic types are cultural derivatives and can be related one to another through space and time. Relationships of this kind are recognized as “ceramic systems” and “ceramic sequences.”

An algebraic explanation is offered for the graphical method of sedation proposed by Meighan. A suggested simplification of the graphing technique makes it possible to plot the seriation on ordinary graph paper rather than on three-pole graph paper.

The Lehner site fauna includes at least nine individuals of Mammuthus columbi and one each of Equus, Bison, and Tapirus. Mammoth material consists chiefly of jaws and teeth and shows a great range of individual variation. The tapir is represented by one of the largest fossil tapir jaws described from North America. The accumulation is considered to represent several kills over a period of several months. Climate at the time of the Lehner hunts was probably more humid than at present, but not tropical. The radiocarbon date of about 11,000 B.P. is considered reasonable. New genera reported from other early man faunas are Neotoma from the Ventana complex and Bison from the Naco site.

Dating archaeological sites, cultures or phases by the obsidian method is still experimental, but shows promise provided the archaeologists understand the present limitations. Two categories of factors cause possible dating errors: the technical or geological aspect discussed by Friedman and Smith, and the archaeological context. For the establishment of valid rates of hydration and for the archaeological evaluation of the method, preferred samples are those datable by independent means, such as radiocarbon, dendrochronology, historical records, rates of refuse accumulation, contemporary calendars, or correlated positively with complexes or seriated sequences that are so dated. A few samples used in the preliminary part of the study do not meet these rigid standards and make the method look poorer than it is, but a table contains the raw data on all specimens tested to date. The principal source of potential error at our present state of knowledge is the frequency with which artifacts of older manufacture were re-used by a younger (more recent) culture. Evaluations of the data presented in the table and most of the results are discussed by geographical area. For the tropical region where the annual temperature range is minimal and where large obsidian samples from village refuse are available, the hydration rate appears to be a fairly accurate method of dating. Lack of conformity of obsidian dates with archaeological dates for the Maya region and the Southwest, however, emphasizes the need for further research using larger series of artifacts and for a continued examination of technical factors. Objects of modern manufacture can be identified with little difficulty, offering a simple means of detecting fakes or copies.

In the upper Ohio Valley, Adena mounds and their burials are less complex than, but essentially similar to, those of the major Adena centers of Ohio and Kentucky. Chronologically, they belong in the middle and late Adena periods. Two Adena sites much farther east have been found on Chesapeake Bay; they are closer in trait inventories and in radiocarbon dates to upper Ohio Valley sites than to Adena sites farther west. A reappraisal of evidence from the Northeast, particularly the Middlesex focus of New York, strongly suggests the movement of Adena people as far as the St. Lawrence River, although the proportion of Adena traits diminishes as distance from the Ohio Valley increases. Still another Adena dispersal, probably contemporaneous with this one, has previously been postulated to account for the Copena complex of Tennessee and Alabama. The cause of these rapid and far-reaching movements was probably the arrival or growth of Hopewell people in Illinois and Indiana and soon after in Ohio.

Wilson Duff's tentative identification of several lower Fraser River artifacts as atlatl weights led the authors to examine 104 whole and fragmentary probable weights from the Northwest. They classify them on the basis of lashing grooves, notches, holes, or scars into three main types, each of which has variants. The weights are found in the lower Columbia and lower Fraser river valleys with a concentration in the Dalles-Deschutes region and range in time from the late Middle to the early Late periods of the Dalles Reservoir sequence, about 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400. Metallurgical analysis of a hollow copper bead found with two weights indicates that it is prehistoric and suggests connections to the east. The weights are often found paired in burials. Although ethnographic comparisons are disappointing, archaeological comparisons reveal possible relationships between the Northwest and California, the Great Basin and the Southwest, especially during Basketmaker II, and the eastern Woodlands. The possibility that the Northwest atlatl weights may be derived from eastern forms reinforces the previously presented idea that the Northwest participated in certain continent-wide developments.

The recent development of efficient free-diving apparatus has made possible underwater exploration for both sport and science. Human and cultural remains underwater are being extensively exploited. Although the term “underwater archaeology” is frequently applied to such activities, most are at the best only underwater salvage. Archaeological remains in lakes, springs, rivers, or the sea have considerable to offer. Perhaps their greatest value is the more complete condition of such artifacts in contrast to similar remains on land. However, they often suffer from decomposition, impregnation with minerals, or incrustation by algae or corals. Although context and sequential (or stratigraphic) position are not so easily found or recognized as on land, they are present in many cases. Any body of water is a possible site of study, but in practice, areas of potential importance are limited by location, depth, visibility, and bottom factors. There are four major types of underwater archaeological sites: (1) discarded refuse and “lost” material; (2) submerged sites of former human occupation; (3) shrines or places of offerings; and (4) shipwrecks.