A study of the relationships between archaeological sites and the previous channels of the Ucayali River in eastern Peru supports the archaeological chronology already established on stratigraphic grounds. These relationships also suggest that the average duration of a meander loop from inception to cut-off is about 500 years. This 500-year cycle offers an explanation for, and a measure of, the temporal lacunae separating the various components of multicomponent sites on the bluffs adjoining the Ucayali flood plain. The extent and rapidity of geomorphological evolution in this region must be considered when one attempts to evaluate the data of site density and site location, since many archaeological sites are quickly destroyed or buried.

Radiocarbon determinations on a series of low-carbon-content ceramic and wattle-and-daub samples were made to determine the validity of radiocarbon dates based on these types of sample materials. Good agreement between radiocarbon dates obtained from the ceramic samples and from charcoal samples stratigraphically associated with the ceramics suggests that radiocarbon dates obtained on low-carbon-content ceramic materials are reliable if appropriate precautions are observed. The confidence which can be placed on radiocarbon dates obtained on wattle-and-daub sample materials is, at present, somewhat less secure. Problems in the use of these sample materials are discussed.

The need for a more flexible index for radiocarbon dates with shorter retrieval times has led to a suggestion for the development of an electronic or punch-card data retrieval system. A suggested format for coding radiocarbon data on punch cards and two techniques for the rapid retrieval of desired information are discussed.

Recent excavation by the Museum of Northern Arizona has provided a basis for a review of the prehistory of the poorly known region of the central Little Colorado basin of northeastern Arizona. A regional sequence of considerable complexity is established beginning with a Clovis-Folsom horizon and culminating in Pueblo IV (see Table 1). An amalgam of Anasazi and Mogollon traditions with a dominant Kayenta base is apparent as early as Basketmaker III. The introduction of Little Colorado White ware, beginning about A.D. 1075, signals the beginning of the Winslow branch, a distinguishable regional Anasazi variant, lasting until the abandonment of much of this desert region in the mid-13th century. The archaeological distinctiveness of the region is apparently due to its location between the Anasazi and Mogollon area and the necessary adaptations to the arid, basin environment.

The content and interpretation of the Olmec bas-reliefs at Chalcatzingo are discussed in this paper. This reanalysis shows that some of the most important carvings have apparently been misinterpreted in the past. Information concerning a new carving, previously unreported, is presented, and a reaffirmation of the contemporaneity of the Chalcatzingo carvings with Olmec Gulf Coast reliefs is made. Chalcatzingo is suggested as an important Middle Preclassic religious and trade center.

An effort is made to give readers a good idea of what the techniques of factor, cluster, and proximity analyses are; of what are their good features and their limitations; and where one should look for further information. Archaeological uses of these techniques which are discussed include those of Hodson on La Tene brooches and on Mousterian assemblages, L. and S. Binford on Mousterian assemblages, Freeman and Brown on the Carter Ranch Pueblo, and the author on data from Teotihuacan, Mexico. The dangers of using correlations based on inadequate samples are stressed, and one necessary (though not sufficient) condition for sample adequacy is suggested. It is argued that proximity analysis, among other applications, is probably better than the Brainerd-Robinson approach for seriation.

Recent observations on the Central and North Coasts of Peru indicate the previously unrealized importance of a prehispanic agricultural technique (mahamaes) which permits effective cultivation of sizable areas without canal irrigation. Mahamaes cultivation may well have been significant in the origins of agriculture on the coast, and as a supplement to canal irrigation in later prehispanic times. Its apparent ability to support relatively large, sophisticated political structures suggests some reorganization of our thinking about the utility of the hydraulic agriculture model for coastal Peru.

A three-sided female figurine body was found in Preclassic mound fill during excavations by the BYU-New World Archaeological Foundation at Izapa, Chiapas, Mexico. A suggested partial reconstruction is given. Stratigraphically the figurine dates from the Conchas 2-Mamom phase or earlier. Stylistically it seems best associated with the Conchas 2 figurines of La Victoria, Guatemala. Though double figures are well known from Mesoamerica, this example and a triple-sided Olmec figurine head from Veracruz are the only known triple-sided examples. The multiple figures show a wide spread in southern Mesoamerica, but few have been reported and their significance is unknown.

The increased costs of processing artifacts can be substantially reduced by the use of labor-saving devices in the laboratory. A standard washing machine has been modified for washing historic-period artifacts with minimal breakage. Forty-five man-hours of hand washing can be accomplished in one hour by machine, with comparable standards of cleanliness. The numbering of artifacts, using rubber stamps, can represent time savings of 80 per cent on certain classes of material. Use of a sandblaster for cleaning iron artifacts triples the output of the conventional electrolytic treatment. A ceramic pantograph and a modified diagraph show promise of reducing the time required to draw pottery sections.

Using data from a 100-room 13th-century Pueblo ruin in east-central Arizona, it is tentatively demonstrated that pollen evidence can be useful in dating areas within “single-component” sites and in determining the within-site locations of prehistoric activities or functions.

Chance discoveries in recent years in British Honduras have produced four pottery vessels of considerable interest, ranging in date from late Preclassic to Late Classic. Three of the vessels suggest relationship between British Honduran sites and Tikal, while the fourth is decorated with a complex scene not elsewhere recorded in the Maya area.

Three marine-shell masks, one with a removable nose and two with nonremovable noses, were excavated by two local residents from a location in the Mississippi River Valley in Pike County, Illinois. These were found in association with other items. Information pertaining to the reported provenience of the artifacts is discussed, and the typological characteristics of the masks are described. It is suggested that the masks and associated materials were part of a ceremonial kit and that they date from the same time level as similar finds reported in the eastern United States.

Very few stone fishing sinkers are reported in the archaeological literature pertaining to the western Great Basin. It has been apparent for quite some time, however, that stone fishing sinkers are frequently found by amateurs surface collecting in the Lahontan Basin. This paper describes 17 such specimens from a private collection of nearly 300. All 17, of which there are five major types, were collected on the shores of Pyramid Lake, a living remnant of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan, located about 30 mi. northeast of Reno, Nevada. Pending further study of excavated types, it is suggested that the five types reported in this paper are referable to either the Lovelock (ca. 2000 B.C. to A.D. 1400) or to Paiute (post-A.D. 1400) horizons in western Nevada.

Excavations in four sites on the central part of the Gulf of Chiriqui, in Panama, have yielded a series of ceramic types and ceramic modes which serve to establish a sequence of phases covering the period between A.D. 300 and the “Classic” Chiriqui culture. An attempt is made in this article to relate this sequence to previous occupations in Chiriqui and to other sequences in the Central Panamanian provinces and in Costa Rica.

Lafitau's 1724 engraving of Huron agriculture, previously taken as evidence for triangular stone hoes in the Northeast, actually is a copy of de Bry"s engraving of Timucua agriculture, and the hoes shown are a European type.

A plea is made for more careful and less involved and pompous writing on the part of archaeologists. It is pointed out that the so-called scientific-scholarly writing, at its worst, inhibits both expression and comprehension.

An investigation of the relationship between water-level fluctuations and Northern Ojibwa community life has led to the discovery of a pictograph which offers useful evidence for dating.