Investigators in the western and northwestern areas of Mexico as well as in southern Arizona have for a long time been familiar with a rather curious type of artifact, the possible purpose of which has thus far defied even logical speculation. Moreover, in spite of the fact that these artifacts are of relatively wide distribution and are numerous enough to escape the designation “rare,” there is only the most meager reference to them in the literature. This artifact is a cross, usually quite well made, of obsidian, chalcedony, serpentine, or other stone and there is even one reported of moonstone (Kelly 1945, Fig. 47 a). One of similar form but made of coarse lava was found at Topolobampo, Sinaloa (Ekholm 1942). The size of the crosses varies from quite small ones to larger ones measuring as much as 5 inches diagonally tip to tip.

A body of literature has grown up on the archaeology of the American Arctic region in recent years concerning a core and blade industry. Nelson (1937) and Rainey (1939), who were among the first writers to note the evidences there of this industry, called attention to the occurrence of “prismatic flakes” in association with prepared flint cores. The first use in the Eskimo area of the equally singular term, “lamellar flake,” to my knowledge appears in Wintemberg's (1939: 89-91) paper on the Dorset Culture, wherein we find the term “lamellar flakes” used in ostensibly the same descriptive sense as “prismatic flakes.” Leechman (1943: 370) discusses “laminate blades” at a later date in the Cape Dorset sites under the heading “narrow flaked blades.” Although Johnson (1946) still later refers to “prismatic flakes,” the die was cast and the term “lamellar flake” was adopted and accepted by some in Arctic archaeology.

Increasingly, Americanist archaeologists are tackling problems relating not only to broad ecological adaptations of the peoples whose cultures they study but also to more specific considerations such as dietary patterns. The amount of light which archaeological data can shed is unknown, but the potential is increasingly probed for enlightening clues. Current ethnographic work in New Guinea prompts the following comments concerning 1) degree of exploitation of available protein sources; and 2) social restrictions influencing protein intake.

Sources of concentrated protein available to the Agarabi are not large. However, they are exploited to such an extent that the diet is not as deficient in protein foods as a superficial view would suggest. Pigs, although highly valued, are not plentiful nor are they eaten in large quantities. Wild fowl and small mammals, again not abundant, are eagerly hunted and consumed. Finally, a wide variety of worms and insects are caught and eaten.

The custom of pressing textiles against the wet clay in the process of pottery making has a wide distribution, extending from the Eastern Woodlands in the United States to the heart of Asia. The archaeological specimens of this type of pottery enable us to reconstruct the textile technics where the textiles themselves no longer exist.

In my attempts to do such textile reconstructions from pottery impressions I have used a number of different methods: (1) water-based clay, (2) clay made with similar temper and color as the original pottery, (3) plasticene, and (4) latex mold. For the present I will limit myself to the last of these, the latex-mold method of textile reproduction. Due to the special qualities a of the latex the mold that is produced can be stretched to twice its original sire; this has the advantage of making the textile impression easier to study.

The state of Durango, Mexico, is situated almost in the middle of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Nearly the entire state is rocky and mountainous and there are fairly large areas which are almost inaccessible though there are numerous fertile valleys which serve to produce the grain and herbage for the cattle which are important in the economy of the state. In the mountains and in the valleys may be found abundant evidence of the activities of man over what was likely a rather long period of time; there is evidence of what appear to be several rather diverse cultures though relatively little archaeological study has been made of these cultures thus far.

In the mountains in the vicinity of Mezquital some 50 miles to the south of the city of Durango are numerous caves and rockshelters. It was in one of these caves that the writer discovered a bowl (Fig. 61) which conceivably may have been an “ancestor” of true pottery.

L. van der Pijl published an article with the above title in the Annates du Jardin Botanitjue de Buitenzorg (Vol. 68, Part 1, 1937, pp. 17-26, 6 plates). He has written to me to call my attention to it because of the striking way in which it corroborates O. F. Cook's idea that some useful American plants, among them the Hibiscus, were carried to Asia in pre-Columbian times. I have recently reviewed some of Cook's ideas (Carter 1950, 1953) on this subject and found them to have more merit than it has been customary to allow them. It is curious that Pijl seems not to have known of Cook's work, nor did I know of Pijl's. Yet these pieces of work are distintcly complementary and, of course, must be considered in relation to recent work by Ekholm, Heine-Geldern, Heyerdahl, Sauer, Burkhill, and others.

The role played by irrigation in the development of civilization in Mesoamerica has never been satisfactorily determined. Steward (1949: 12-13, 17) has assumed that it played a role in Mesoamerica similar to that which it played in the development of the earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, north China, and coastal Peru. In each of these other areas the first urban civilizations to develop were in regions requiring the control of water for the cultivation of crops, and the necessity for this control is generally accepted as having provided the basis for the development of these urban class societies. Yet in Mesoamerica the matter has actually never been established one way or the other. Armillas (1948: 109) states that rainfall is sufficient today during the rainy season in the highlands of central Mexico in general, and the Valley of Mexico in particular, to produce a crop of maize without irrigation, but that irrigation is necessary for the production of an additional crop in any year.