1942: Archaeology

Near East.

Even an approach to a relatively complete summary of archaeological research in 1942 must in large measure be confined to reports of accomplishments in the Americas. The all encompassing global war has curtailed, if it has not entirely stopped, such work in most areas and since the cessation of communication between many nations, only scattering reports are available. However, wartime duties have themselves occasionally been the indirect source of archaeological finds, as in the Nahr-Kelb, Dog River, Lebanon, where Australian engineers engaged in a war-construction project found a large stone statue of a wolf which has been identified as one which for many centuries guarded the pass at Ras-el-Kelb and then was thrown into the river by Mohammedan Arabs, in accordance with their religious antagonism to images of any kind. The statute will now be placed in the National Museum at Beirut.

Excavating in Palestine, in caves along the seacoast near Jaffa, on the west side of Mount Carmel, near the Crusader castle at Athlit, M. Stekelis (sponsored by the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Hebrew University) has found evidence of an early neolithic culture estimated to have flourished some seven or eight thousand years ago and which in other localities has been called late Natufian. Wooden sickles with fliut blades found here suggest that these cave-dwellers were agriculturists.

While repairing a road to the western wall in the old city of Jerusalem, a Roman aqueduct, nine meters wide and made of flagstones, and a house wall, with niches containing pottery, were found. The material has been tentatively identified as either Byzantine or of the Second Temple period. The Palestinean Department of Antiquities plans to continue excavations in this area. Railway workers, building a line between Haifa in Palestine and Tripoli in Lebanon have also found Roman ruins, Phoenician glass, and marble coffins, dated at about 1000 bc.

During excavations in Syria at the site of Wachukani, the old capital of the Mitanni kingdom, on the Turkish-Syrian border at Ras al Ain, clay tablets with cuneiform writing dated between 1500 and 1300 bc were uncovered. This excavation was under the direction of Calvin McEwan, and was part of the Theodore Marriner Memorial Expedition of the Oriental Institute of Chicago, jointly with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Oriental.

From Russia, it is reported that excavations have been carried on at the palace of Ulug Beg, grandson of Tamerlane, or Timur I Leng, at the foot of a mountain near Samarkand. The palace has long been noted for its Chinese ceramic decoration.

The Buryat Mongolian State Institute of Language, Literature and Art announces that an archaeological expedition has discovered 400 very old Mongolian and Tibetan wooden tablets which are said to record important data on the history of Buddhistic lamasaries.

In the Sabarmati Valley in the State of Baroda, India, an expedition from the Archaeological Department of the Government of India has found many Early Stone Age quartzite implements embedded in a pebble conglomerate formation in a river bed, as well as some microlithic implements. It is proposed to extend the work of this expedition to the lower Narmade and its tributaries, to determine the full range of distribution of these implements.

United States.

With the United States at war during the period covered by this brief survey, there has been an enormous curtailment of institutional anthropological activity, paralleled by the rather unusual number of anthropologists engaged in special government service.

The fifteen-hundred mile route of the highway recently constructed by the U. S. Army between Fort St. John, British Columbia, and Fairbanks, Alaska, apparently offered an unrivaled opportunity for an archaeological reconnaissance. Although Dr. Froelich G. Rainey, working under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History, spent the summer in an effort to locate archaeological deposits along the route, no evidence of human occupation of this entire area was found, despite the earnest search made not only by Dr. Rainey, but by the cooperating officers and men of the construction crews.

Dr. L. H. Cressman of the University of Oregon reported evidence in Oregon of human occupation from five to ten thousand years ago, and antedating the formation of Crater Lake. In caves in the eastern part of the state, he found campfires and refuse, chipped obsidian tools, horse and camel bones, covered with pumice from the volcanic eruption which formed this well-known lake. Here he also found evidence of the transition from the early use of the wooden spear thrower to the use of the bow and arrow.

In continuation of its project to study the ethno-history and archaeology of Missouri, the Academy of Sciences of St. Louis, in cooperation with the WPA has excavated a wet rock-shelter in Jefferson County. This seems to correlate stratigraphically with the Hidden Valley rock-shelter previously studied. The greatest mass of occupational débris was found at a depth of from four to eight feet, while Woodland cord-marked pottery disappeared at a depth of three feet. A fortified site with a ceremonial area within the enclosure was also excavated in New Madrid County. Here both clay-tempered cord-marked pottery and plain shell-tempered pottery were found intermingled. Also, in this area a primary truncate mound has been uncovered in what has been designated as a ceremonial mound.

In Arizona the State Museum has concentrated its archaeological survey on two sites in the Forestdale Valley on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. During the three seasons devoted to this survey over fifty village sites were found. Three of these have been excavated. The oldest of the village sites; which was excavated in part, proved to belong to the Mogollon culture.

In cooperation with the anthropological department of the University of Arizona the state museum completed its fourth year of work at Papaguera in the southern part of the state. Excavations at Ventana Cave, a rock-shelter near Santa Rosa, revealed an important stratigraphic sequence. The deposits were divisible into two major culture layers, each containing sub-layers. The top levels of the uppermost layer, which consisted of midden refuse, contained a full range of Hohokam pottery types as well as other ceramics beneath which were many grooved and chipped stone tools related to the Cochise culture as well as to early Californian desert groups. The animal remains were of modern species. The deepest part of the lowermost layer was a natural, and not a man-made, deposit. Obviously the cave had been repeatedly used as a shelter by man so that tools, charcoal, and various animal bones were mixed with water-deposited volcanic débris which was cemented together with lime. The fauna identified included the horse, bison, sloth, and tapir. As represented by the implements, the deposit resembles the Folsom culture more closely than any other known early culture. There appears to have been a considerable lapse of time between the midden layer and the volcanic débris, with perhaps one or more culture stages not represented.

An expedition from the Smithsonian Institution excavating in four Mexican caves and sixteen other sites found skeletons and other remains of a group of cave dwellers. Woven rush sandals, matting, stone points for weapons and arrow-shafts, but no pottery, were found in the cave. The indications are that these cave-dwellers were seed gatherers, and not agriculturists. It is assumed that this primitive culture, first noted in the Big Bend region in Texas by F. M. Setzler, spread over a considerable area several thousand years ago.

Central and South America.

The field-work of a major archaeological project briefly noted last year was completed during 1942. The Institute of Andean Research, financially assisted by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (U. S. State Department) in 1941, sent field parties to Mexico, Cuba, San Salvador, Venezuela and the West Indies, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. In every country the work was carried on in close cooperation with local archaeologists and with local government sanction. Final publications on these projects have not yet been issued.

1941: Archaeology

A worldwide review of archaeological excavations and investigations during the year 1941 seems impossible under existing conditions. We know that all American participation in Old World projects has been withdrawn. Even if we assume that some work has continued there, even under the most adverse possible conditions, the records of accomplishment, due to discontinuation of publication or transportation difficulties have failed to reach us, except in a few cases.

Third Wall of Jerusalem.

World conditions have not deterred two archaeologists in Jerusalem, Professors E. L. Sukenek and L. A. Mayer of the Hebrew University, with the cooperation of the American School of Oriental Research, from continuing their excavations to solve the mystery of the third wall of Jerusalem built by Herod Agrippa after the death of Christ. They brought to light the course of a wall and tower built as a fortification to the cast of the present location of the American School of Oriental Research. This will make it possible to use the wall and tower as an orientation point to establish the location of adjacent ancient sites.

Cretan Sign Language.

The numerous clay tablets found in ancient Crete have long been an unsolved puzzle to students of language who believed that many were accounting records. Cretan writing was assumed to have originated in picture writing about 2000 bc and some centuries later evolved into a running script. Recently, Dr. John Franklin Daniel of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, announced that by relating the tablets to the writings of Cyprus, a few ancient Cretan words are now decipherable. About 1450 bc, the people of Cyprus borrowed the Cretan forms of letters, producing a hybrid script which eventually evolved into the Classic style of Cyprus, long deciphered. Working from this it has been possible to trace many of the signs to Crete. The sound values of about one third of the Minoan signs are now known. With these clues it is possible to read many Minoan words and it is hoped eventually by this means to reconstruct the ancient economics of Crete.

Cave Paintings.

L'Abb‚ Henry Breuil has authenticated the discovery of a large series of prehistoric cave paintings in the Lescaux Cave near Montignac in southwestern France. These paintings, when fully described and illustrated, should add much to our knowledge of palaeolithic art. Innumerable human figures, bulls, horses, birds, a rhinoceros, as well as geometric patterns have been reported. Older than the murals in the famous Altamira Cave which have been dated at 20,000 years, these paintings in the Lescaux Cave are said to be of the late Aurignacian age or Perigordian epoch of palaeolithic time.

United States Excavations and Surveys.

In Eastern and Central United States many new excavations have been begun and other long term projects continued. A few of these follows: At Ocmulgee National Monument, Georgia, digging was confined to areas near historic trading posts. To make the results of these excavations more vivid, the burials, some of which were identified as Creek, while others obviously belonged to a preceding cultural occupation, were prepared as field exhibits. A rock shelter near the Trailside Museum, Bear Mountain, New York, excavated under the direction of James D. Burggraf of the museum, contained a stratified deposit, in three different levels: the uppermost level contained early 18th century English material; the middle layer, Late Algonkin period objects; and the lowermost level, Early Algonkin artifacts. Scattered Iroquois sherds bear evidence of the Iroquois invasion. It is estimate that the cave was occupied for 1,500 years.

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard University has initiated a long range survey in the territory covering the northern half of the Mississippi alluvial plain, approximately from Cape Girardeau to the Arkansas-Louisiana line. This is a joint enterprise of the University of Michigan, the Louisiana State University, and the above. The first season's work, in 1940, mainly in Arkansas, north of the Arkansas River, consisted of an initial survey and testing of surface material. Surface collections were made from 154 sites. The next step will be to test the largest possible number of sites strati-graphically, and to excavate the most important of these.

Under the direction of Dr. Fay-Cooper Cole, the University of Chicago completed its eighth year of excavation at the Kincaid Mound Site near Metropolis, Ill. Six large mounds consisting of clay pyramids with wood and thatch temples, stone box burials, numerous artifacts, and examples of pottery were uncovered. It is hoped that an exact chronology for the mound may be established by the tree-ring method, that is, to date it by correlating any timbers found in the mound with a known cycle of tree growth.

The Illinois State Museum and the Illinois State Parks Division in cooperation with the WPA are jointly making every effort to conserve the records of any archaeological sites about to undergo destruction through Federal, state. or commercial construction, a principle which is followed now in many other states. Thus a mound and village site opposite the great pyramid of the famous Cahokia mound was excavated prior to its destruction for house construction.

R. G. Morgan and H. H. Ellis of the Ohio State Museum at Columbus have almost completed the excavation of the Dunlap Mound near Chillicothe, Ohio. Assisted by the WPA, the Indiana Historical Society began its third year of excavation of the Angel Mound in Vanderburgh County.

The University of Missouri has initiated a long range program to study the archaeology and ethno-history of the Siouan tribes of Missouri, especially in the location and excavation of their villages along the Missouri. Under the leadership of Mr. Robert McCormick Adams, the Academy of Sciences of St. Louis and the WPA are working in two counties along the sand ridges of the Mississippi flood plains in the southeastern section of the state. In New Madrid County, particularly at a Middle Mississippi village site of rather late date, pit houses have been uncovered in association with extended burials. This site was investigated by the Academy in 1878; the present effort is an attempt to make comparisons with results reported in the past.

A presumably relatively recent village site marking occupation by Plains Indians has been excavated on a farm near Clinton, Okla., under the supervision of Dr. Forrest E. Clements of the University of Oklahoma and the WPA.

In Southwestern United States archaeological investigation is in the hands of a numerous personnel and is spread over a wide area. The Colorado Museum is making a survey which has as its goal the establishment of a chronological outline for the non-Pueblo cultures of the state. The work is carried on under the direction of Betty H. and Harold A. Huscher. In the La Garita Mountains of Southern Colorado, a deep site revealed two occupational levels divided by a thick limonite stratum. The lower of these two levels contained crude percussion flaked tools; the upper, slab-lined cists and hearths, and two types of dart points.

Emil Haury of the University of Arizona excavated a cave on the Papago Indian Reservation where the debris appeared to be in chronological strata ranging in time from about 5000 bc to 400 ad, and later more scattered deposits. There was an equally great range in the artifacts recovered: the bottom layer contained stone age implements while the topmost was a contemporary Papago layer. Mummies, probably attributable to the Hohokam peoples, were accompanied by cotton textiles, human hair cord, fur blankets, and sandals.

Directed by Dr. Paul S. Martin of the Field Museum of Natural History, excavations were conducted at the Su ruins, the site of a Mogollon village in Central New Mexico, where eight pit houses were found and many artifacts, potsherds, and skeletons recovered.

The excavation of a cave in the Winchester Mountains by the Amerind Foundation revealed an important series of ceremonial materials associated with an interesting potsherd series of Hohokam, Mimbres Classic, Dragoon, Tucson Ware, and some additional wares from areas to the northward.

In an effort to establish the sequence of the old cultures found there, the Desert Laboratory of the Southwest Museum has continued the study of two large sites at Twenty-nine Palms, California. A plane table survey is being made, and the relation of the geological situation to past climatic conditions is being studied in cooperation with Dr. Ernst Antevs. Phil C. Orr of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History excavated four village sites of the Canalino group on Mescalititlan Island (California), as well as four cemeteries in which several burial types were represented.

To make for a better understanding of the former Indian occupation, the Los Angeles Museum, under the direction of Arthur Woodward, is attempting to integrate all forms of life in a general reconnaissance of sites on San Clemente, Santa Barbara, Anacapa, Santa Catalina, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz Islands. This is reported as the first time such a correlation of botany, entomology, mammalogy, ornithology, and archaeology has been attempted in an island survey.

Dr. F. G. Rainey, of the University of Alaska, accompanied by Dr. H. L. Shapiro of the American Museum of Natural History, returned to Point Hope. Alaska, to continue excavations at the ancient Ipiutak culture site, where a unique un-Eskimo like form of culture was discovered in 1939. This season the excavations were concentrated on the six-mile long burial site, resulting in the recovery of some 500 skeletons, and many additional artifacts. It is believed the collections cover a time range of some 2,000 years. Excavations at Tigara, the modern Eskimo town at Point Hope, indicate a continuous occupation since the abandonment of the Ipiutak village.

Mexico and Central America.

At Cerro de las Mesas, on the Rio Blanco, in southern Vera Cruz, a joint expedition of the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution, under the direction of Dr. M. W. Stirling assisted by Dr. Philip Drucker, found that three sixteen-foot deep stratigraphic trenches revealed that the occupation period followed that at Tres Zapotes and continued closer to the historic period. Fifteen stela and eight carved monuments were found; one, four feet high, was an almost exact replica of the famous Tuxtla statuette, but differed from it in that it bore no glyphs. The most outstanding find here was an offering of 782 finely carved jade objects of a variety of types.

Under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, a number of projects were continued; Dr. S. G. Morley examined the so-called Stela Platform at Uxmal, in Yucatan, reassembling many stela to study the glyphs. Mr. John Dimick, assisted by Mr. Stanley Boggs, continued excavations at Campana San Andres, west of San Salvador. The principal mound here consisted of several superimposed structures, all of mould-made adobe bricks. At Copan in Honduras, Mr. Gustav Stromsvik continued excavations and repairs. Mr. Robert Burgh mapped a large number of small ruins in the Copan Valley. At Kaminaljuyu near Guatemala City (Guatemala) Mr. A. Ledyard Smith excavated some narrow enclosed courts and found them to be additional examples of the well known Maya ball-court. One of these courts contained stone parrot heads like those at the Ball Court at Copan. Excavating near Managua, in Nicaragua, Mr. F. B. Richardson found a number of human footprints in deeply buried ancient volcanic strata. With the cooperation of President Somosa of Nicaragua, a series of these footprints will be uncovered and a permanent shelter will be built, to preserve them in situ.

South America.

Edward N. Ferdon, Jr., on behalf of the School of American Research and the University of Southern California, excavated at a site near the town of La Labertad in Ecuador. This region was chosen, because with the exception of the late G. A. Dorsey's work on the island of La Plata, no other systematic excavations have been made on the Ecuadorean coast. A collection of potsherds made by Dr. Jijon y Caamano indicated the presence of several pottery types not hitherto recorded.

From Peru, that land of many pre-Spanish ruined cities and temples, Dr. Luis E. Valcarcel, director of the National Museum of Peru, reports that two ancient cities were discovered by Dr. Paul Tejos. These resemble in plan and structure and may be contemporaneous with the famous Machu Picchu discovered by H. V. Bingham in 1911, and are probably contemporaneous. A road from the newly discovered ruins leads to Machu Picchu suggesting that the Inca cities were connected by a road system. The Peruvian Government has continued its archaeological work; ruins near Lima, particularly Pachacamac, are being cleared under the direction of Dr. Valcarcel and Dr. Albert Giesecke. Dr. Julio Tello also continued his work at Pachacamac uncovering fine dressed stone masonry. This is the third coastal site where this masonry is known, the other two are at Tambo Colorado in Pisco and a Nazca Valley site.

1940: Archaeology

Effect of the War.

The European catastrophe has inevitably curtailed, where it has not completely stopped, archaeological work in the Old World. Even where, during the past year, work has continued, complete information as to what has been accomplished is not available. However, the present status of certain long continued projects is known and some new discoveries can be reported.

At Athens, Professor T. Leslie Shear's ten years' excavations at the Agora, conducted under the American School of Classical Research, have been suspended. The collections have been stored, the expedition records placed in bomb proof shelters, and a small staff left to guard the site.

Excavations in the Near East.

In an effort to throw some light on the history of the practically unknown kingdom of Mitanni, a group from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago is excavating a mound in the Khabir River Valley, in Syria, near the Turkish border. The mound is said to cover an important city of this era, during which the powerful militaristic Mitanni kingdom was allied with the Egyptian and Hittite empires. An interesting discovery there, attributed to a Mittanian workshop, is a steel battle ax, the oldest known steel weapon, dated as of 1500 bc.

From the palaces, temples, statues, and pottery thus far excavated at the ancient site of Alalakh, near Atchana, Syria, it has been possible to demonstrate seven stages of ancient history, as well as to give some insight into the Hittite era. Digging recently at a royal palace, 25 feet below the surface of Alalakh, Sir Leonard Woolley uncovered a flight of stairs descending to a basement level, closed off by a cracked stone hinged door. Behind this was found a collapsed wooden box containing four skeletons. In the corner of the room were wood fire ashes, and near by, animal bones, stone and clay vessels. All the surrounding rooms were presumably for secular use.

Conducting excavations for Strasbourg University at San El-Hagar, the site of ancient Tanis in Egypt, Pierre Montet opened the sarcophagus of King Psousennes, which contained many inscriptions. Of solid silver, the sarcophagus contained the bones of a mummy, covered with silver gilt, wearing a quantity of elaborate gold jewelry.

Professor Nelson Glueck, of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, has just completed his excavation at Ezion-Gober, the industrial center and seaport of King Solomon's time.

In Palestine, the Hebrew University has continued digging at a site called Napoleon's Hill, so named because Napoleon made his headquarters there in 1799 when at war with the Turks. The town near the Yarkon River was a river port readily reached from the sea and had been fortified during the different eras of occupation. At this site, now called Tell Jerisheh, Professor Eliezar L. Sukenik, assisted by students, has worked during four seasons tracing back its history to the days of Abraham, between 2000 and 3000 bc. The last inhabitants appear to be Israelites.

Eastern Macedonia was in ancient days a melting pot of civilization. Here many early tribes wandered back and forth, mingling with one another, so that, in time, and with the archaeologist's patient dissecting of the evidence produced by his tools, many facts leading to the solution of problems dealing with the beginnings of Greek civilization should become known. It is interesting to note in this connection that Doctor George E. Mylonas, working for Washington University at St. Louis has reported the excavation of a New Stone Age settlement at Akropotamus in Eastern Macedonia. The site has been dated as approximately 3000 bc. Many New Stone Age implements were found, bone pins and needles, pottery, clay figurines, and stone celts, and most unique of all, a clay amulet in the shape of a foot.

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago has reported the discovery, on burial walls near royal Persian tombs in Iran, of inscribed stones which it is expected will prove a valuable 'Rosetta Stone' for solving difficulties in Pahlavi or Middle Persian language. These inscriptions provide versions of similar date in Greek, Persian, and Middle Persian to enable scholars to translate Middle Persian, just as the famous Rosetta Stone with its duplicated inscriptions in Greek, hieroglyphic and demotic Egyptian helped to solve the one-time mystery of Egyptian writing.

A translation of the inscriptions from Iran, recently published by Doctor Martin Sprengling of the University of Chicago, throws new light on the old Zoroastrian religion showing that even as late as 3 ad this religion had no sacred book like the Bible or Koran, but that ritual forms and songs were used.

Excavations in the United States.

In the United States many archaeological projects have been carried on, in some cases with the assistance of WPA funds and personnel. Among these are the following: the excavation of a mound on the west side of the Illinois River near Peoria by the Illinois State Museum in cooperation with the owners of the mound and the Illinois Department of Highways. Since 1934, the University of Tennessee under T. M. N. Lewis has been trying to retrieve all archaeological knowledge of the areas affected by TVA dam construction. Although only a small proportion of the sites in these basins has been studied, the more significant sites have been selected for excavation. In the Chickamauga Basin near Chattanooga, work was carried on for three years. Two years' work has been done in the Tennessee part of the Kentucky dam basin. It is estimated that several more years' work is necessary for the completion of the record of the prehistoric cultures once flourishing in that area. A year's work has been finished in the Watts Bar basin near Rockwood, Tennessee. A similar archaeological survey has been directed from the University of Kentucky led by William G. Haag. Excavations were conducted at four sites: a shell-heap on Green River in Butler County, a shell-heap called 'Indian Knoll' in Ohio County; a village of the Mississippi phase in Hopkins County; and a large earth mound of the Adena Aspect in Boone County.

In Oklahoma also Indian village sites lying in the path of the Grand River Dam are being studied by WPA personnel under the direction of Doctor Forrest E. Clements of the University of Oklahoma before inundation. An interesting result of these excavations is evidence of prehistoric trade with tribes as far away as those once living on the Gulf of Mexico.

In various other states archaeological projects of greater or lesser significance have been carried on during the year. In Arizona, a ball court, one of twelve known within a radius of fifty miles of Flagstaff, was uncovered by Milton Wetherill of the Museum of Northern Arizona near Doney Park. It is very similar to seven others in the region, its dimensions being about 90 by 45 feet. Ball courts, until the recent discoveries in the Southwestern area, were known only in the Maya area.

Data on life in prehistoric America, in the form of superb murals, are revealed in a series of such wall paintings recently uncovered in the ruins at Awotovi, Arizona, by a group of archaeologists from the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. Twenty to thirty layers of paintings were noted on some of the buried walls. They are rich in detail depicting costume, pottery, and decorative art, many of them obviously related to the modern secular and ceremonial life of the Hopi.

In northwestern Colorado, in the Yampa River Canyon, the University of Colorado Museum has made a preliminary survey and is excavating a large cave which apparently has been occupied during several culture stages.

Several archaeological field trips from the San Diego Museum were made to the Chocolate Mountains in eastern Imperial County, California, to complete the mapping and collecting on an ancient Indian trail between the Colorado River and the extinct lake of Imperial Valley.

During an archaeological survey of the High Plains in Wyoming, Doctor E. B. Renaud of the University of Denver found on the surface of three sites in a terraced river valley, some 7,000 crude stone tools, made with the same technique and said to be strikingly similar to early implements of the European Old Stone Age (some 500,000 years old). No evidence of the age of these tools is as yet available, nor is there any evidence that they are as old as those of the European Old Stone Age.

A detailed examination of the old village site within the famous Fort Ancient in Warren County, Ohio, as well as the wall and moat enclosing it, was made by Richard G. Morgan and H. Holmes Ellis, under the joint auspices of the Ohio State Museum and the Ohio State University.

An archaeological survey of the Hudson Valley under the auspices of Vassar College and under the direction of Mary Butler of the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania reports a successful second season's work. Four Indian camp sites were tested in Dutchess County, fifteen in Westchester County, and four in Orange County. The excavations and the resulting collections make it possible to compare the cultures of the Lower Hudson with those of Connecticut and Long Island. The plan is to continue the survey northward along the Hudson River in order to throw some light on the connections between these people and their neighbors in prehistoric western New York and New England.

Excavating in collaboration in 1939, at a village site named Ipiutak at Point Hope, Alaska, Froelich Rainey and Louis Giddings of the University of Alaska and Helge Larsen of the Danish National Museum, found an Eskimo culture which apparently did not fit any of the five successive known Eskimo cultures. Neither in form nor structure did the house ruins resemble the well known Eskimo house type. Of the fifty types of implements found, only about half are typically Eskimo, the remainder are unidentifiable. Flint and not the typical slate was used for stone tools. Though not yet actually placed chronologically, the site is undoubtedly an early one.

Doctor Rainey returned to Point Hope in 1940 on behalf of the University of Alaska and the American Museum of Natural History to continue excavating this site. He found this ancient village to have contained 625 square houses arranged in five east to west avenues. Of these, twenty-three were completely excavated. The objects found showed that the people lived by hunting sea birds, walrus, seals, and caribou. Many implements, as in the first excavations, were not identifiable. In the adjacent burial ground, where 65 graves were located, were found many implements like those in the house remains, carved and engraved objects, twisted or spiral objects with chain links, elaborately carved and engraved ivory, bearing no resemblance to Eskimo or any hitherto known cultures of the area. Many skeletons were obtained, including three skulls with ivory eyes set deep in the eye sockets. It is hoped that a study of the collection will make it possible to place this culture chronologically.

Mexico, Central and South America.

Outside of the United States, in the field of Mexican and Central American archaeology, some important new discoveries have been made. Under the leadership of M. W. Stirling, the second season's joint expedition of the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian reports the discovery of artifacts at different cultural levels at Tres Zapotes in Vera Cruz. These consist of elaborate figurines and painted pottery vessels. At Cerra de Mesa, twenty carved stones, twelve stelae, and eight other carved monuments were found. One of the stelae contains an early Initial Series date in the Maya calendar. At La Venta in Tabasco, they found two large altars, elaborately carved, five great stone heads, each weighing more than twenty tons, and two stelae. An interesting problem is to find the source of these great basalt boulders since the nearest supply of basalt is said to be 100 miles distant. No determination of the age of these stone heads has been made.

A two-year archaeological survey of Ecuador has been begun by Edward N. Ferdon, Jr., for the School of American Research and the Academic Nacional de Historia of Ecuador. The Mosquito District of Honduras has been explored by an expedition of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, and the American Geographical Society under the direction of Theodore A. Morde. He located the so-called Lost City of the Monkey God, which it is planned to excavate next season.

1939: Archaeology

Excavations in the Near East.

Archaeological activities in the Old World are so numerous as to preclude mentioning even all the places where work was carried on. In Bulgaria, the 1938 expedition of the American School of Prehistoric Research, under the direction of Dorothy A. E. Garrod of Cambridge University, excavated in the cave of Batcho Kiro, near Drenovo, and found a stratified paleolithic sequence of Mousterian and Aurignacian cultures, surrounded by a later deposit containing pottery and recent fauna.

On the northeastern shore of the Red Sea, the site of a fortified industrial city of the time of King Solomon has been uncovered through excavations conducted by Doctor Nelson Glueck, director of the American School for Oriental Research in Jerusalem. The smelting and refining plants were well equipped with a system of wall flues. The wall fortifications, their tops flush with the desert, were graduated in tiers. Some of the foundations lay on the natural hard clay bed. Many of the building walls were so well constructed that the excavators found them still standing at their original height.

Through his excavations for the British Museum at Atchana near Antioch, Syria, Sir Leonard Woolley has succeeded in filling another gap in our knowledge of the ever-intriguing Hittites for the period between 1650 and 1400 bc, the interval between the two great empires. The palace at Atchana had been gutted by fire, but nevertheless Sir Leonard's excavations brought to light much information on Hittite habits of life. He was able to identity suites of rooms obviously once occupied by women, to judge by the combs, trinkets, and toilet boxes unearthed in the debris; other rooms containing only clay tablets and wine jars are said to have been the quarters of clerks. In an annex was a suite of rooms determined to have belonged to the archivist. Here were found 300 clay tablets which await decipherment.

Many archaeological projects continue to be carried on in Palestine. The most important seaport of ancient Palestine, Ezion-Geber in the Bible, according to Doctor Nelson Glueck, was built in 10 bc. Explorations near Akabah uncovered this site, now called Tell el-Kheleifeh by the Arabs. Though excavations are still far from completion, from the portions of the site already uncovered, it is clear that the city had an elaborate system of smelting and refining plants, with an extensive arrangement of flues and air channels. So we have here the site of a great fortified factory city, traditionally believed to have been planned and constructed by King Solomon.

The Palestine Department of Antiquities has excavated the uncompleted palace of the Caliph Hisham in the Valley of the Jordan, north of Jericho. The palace contained a throne room, banquet hall, swimming pool, and mosque. Foundations, columns, and walls were ornamented with mosaics, frescoes, and carving.

Digging in Palestine near Nazareth, the Academy of Inscriptions of Paris, found a series of catacombs containing 400 tombs with inscriptions in Greek and Hebrew, as well as the foundations of a large synagogue bearing evidence of having been burned in 4 ad.

At the site of ancient Armageddon at Megiddo, the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, under the direction of Gordon Loud, completed another season's work. In the fourteenth century bc level, was uncovered a carved ivory wand, the first to be reported in this area; similar ivory objects are known from Egypt in about the 19th century bc

In its ninth season of excavation the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, under the direction of Doctor T. Leslie Shear, digging in the Agora, found a royal tomb of the 14th century bc containing thin leaves and rosettes of gold as well as ivory boxes. Excavating wells on the slope of the Acropolis, they found five Neolithic vases and two skulls said to be of a primitive type.

New World Archaeological Excavations.

In the Americas, as in the Old World, it is impossible to give even brief mention to all the archaeological work now in progress. The chief centers of activity, as in the past, are in Mexico and Central America, and in Southwestern United States. However, due in part to an awakening interest and in part to WPA support of archaeological projects which might otherwise have been carried on very modestly, most of the states east of the Mississippi are delving into their prehistoric past.

Archaic, Toltec and Aztec Cultures of Mexico.

From Mexico, Doctor Alfonso Caso, director of excavations at Monte Alban in Oaxaca, where a few years ago he excavated a tomb containing unusual treasures, reports that the builders of the city of Monte Alban and the not far distant city of Mitla were people of the same culture. At Monte Alban he finds three culture stages, each of which correlates with those of Mexico — an Archaic, a Teotihuacan or Toltec culture, and an Aztec culture.

The Carnegie Institution of Washington, under the direction of Doctor A. V. Kidder, investigated pit tombs near Guatemala City. These tombs were built during the middle stage of Monte Alban, or during the period of the decline of the Toltecs in Central Mexico. The basis of this correlation is the similarity in pottery which, as in other areas, is the best time marker for culture sequences.

Mayan Civilization.

Doctor Karl Ruppert of the Carnegie Institution reports finding a stadium seating about 8,000 people in the moat-circled ruins of a town in the impassable jungles of Campeche in Southern Mexico. In all, ruins of 12 towns were located here, presumably built by peoples closely related to the Mayas and flourishing in prehistoric times. Most of the towns were small, containing few buildings, that containing the stadium was an exception. The Maya played a ball game with a solid rubber ball, the object of which was to throw a ball through a ring in a wall, and this stadium was in all probability used for ceremonies and such ball games.

At Copan, another ancient Maya city in Honduras, G. Stromsvik of the Carnegie Institution, also found a large ball court, the third one reported for this site. The rectangular area was bounded by a low bench from which sloping surfaces rose to a second wall. Each wall was decorated with three stone parrot heads. The most interesting feature of this ball court is a series of hieroglyphs along one wall from which, after they are deciphered, it is hoped to establish the approximate construction date of the stadium.

Dating of Mexican Sites.

Relative or actual dating of sites or objects is the goal of the archaeologist, not only in the Old World but in America. A joint expedition from the Smithsonian Institution and the National Geographic Society under the leadership of Doctor Matthew W. Stirling of the Bureau of American Ethnology centered its attention at an ancient site near the village of Tres Zapotes in the Tuxtla region of Vera Cruz. More than fifty mounds were found, many of which were trenched. A collection of pottery vessels and clay figurines obtained in a cemetery suggests two culture horizons. Nine sculptured stelae were found. Of especial interest and importance is one fragment bearing a well marked date in bar and dot numerals (in the so-called short count form) which has been deciphered as November 4, 291 bc in the Spinden correlation, or 31 bc in the Goodman-Thompson correlation. The earliest hitherto known Maya date, that of May 16, 18 bc occurs on the famous Tuxtla statuette in the United States National Museum. This newly discovered monument is therefore the oldest dated monument in the New World. This and related finds extend the Maya area 150 miles west of Comalcalco, which was previously the westernmost-known Maya site.

Mr. Gordon Ekholm of the American Museum of Natural History has spent two field seasons in reconnaissance and excavation in an archaeologically unknown area in Sinaloa, Mexico, extending from the Culiacan River northward to the international border. Mr. Ekholm finds that the painted and incised pottery of Sinaloa does not extend into Sonora. A mound was cleared at a site near the town of Guasave on the Sinaloa River. The culture here represented apparently is related to what other workers in this general area have named the Aztatlan Complex and found by Doctor Isabel Kelly to be the earliest of four culture periods at Culiacan.

Excavations in the United States.

In Colorado the excavation of a rock-shelter southwest of Delta, in a region investigated two previous seasons, by the Colorado Museum of Natural History, revealed some evidence of a previously unreported people. Though stone and bone artifacts were obtained, there were no evidences of masonry nor of the practice of agriculture. The same institution also excavated a village site at the Book Cliffs near Cisco, Utah, where crude masonry, slab-lined cists, pottery, stone and bone artifacts, and two human skeletons were uncovered.

Accompanied by a group of students, Paul H. Nesbitt of the Logan Museum, Beloit, Wisconsin, excavated at the Wheatley Ridge village site near Reserve, New Mexico. The village was apparently occupied by carriers of the Mogollon culture who settled this area before the advent of the Pueblo people. From the materials brought to light it has been possible to assign this site chronologically to the Three-Circle phase of Mogollon culture. All houses were of the pit type. The burials were unaccompanied by mortuary offerings, confirming the previously stated belief that this absence of mortuary offerings is a diagnostic of the Mogollon culture.

Near Durango, Colorado, Earl H. Morris of the Carnegie Institution has been investigating sites of a Basket Maker II culture stage. These dwelling sites appear to have been abandoned about 300 ad.

Excavation of small sites in the Jedito Valley and on Antelope Mesa, Arizona, under the direction of J. O. Brew of the Peabody Museum has carried the chronology of this area back to the Basket Maker III period, so that we have a time sequence here ending in the Spanish occupation.

In Eastern United States, there is renewed archaeological interest and activity. Under a five year grant from the Carnegie Corporation. Vassar College has begun an archaeological survey of the Hudson River Valley in New York. The objective is to make Vassar College a center for information on the archaeological sites and collections of the area. In Connecticut, the Peabody Museum at Yale University excavated a shell-heap near Old Lyme, but found no stratigraphic sequence. The Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences excavated a village and burial site on Frontenac Island in Cayuga Lake, New York. W. A. Ritchie tentatively reports finding three types of burials, entended, flexed, bundle, and cremation. This site seems to be affiliated with the Laurentian culture. In Delaware the Archaeological Society of that state has begun its first excavation near Wilmington.

In Southeastern United States, the University of Kentucky and Louisiana State University appear to be most active. The University of Kentucky excavating mounds, shell heaps, and house sites has determined that these are closely related to types well-defined in Ohio such as the Adena and Fort Ancient. One village site contained historic trade materials proving that the Fort Ancient culture was flourishing in Kentucky in historic times. In Louisiana three sites have been excavated: the Crooks in Catahoula Parish, the Greenhouse in Avoyelles Parish, and the Little Woods in Orleans Parish. The first two proved to be dwelling sites, the last a shell midden, contained artifacts which appear to be the earliest thus far known in Louisiana.

T. D. Stewart of the Smithsonian Institution has completed the excavation of an Indian village at Patawomeke, Stafford County, Virginia. Based on the many finds which included bones, arrow heads, and pottery, it has been possible to date it as early 17th century. See also ANTHROPOLOGY.

1938: Archaeology

There are three kinds of Archaeology: Prehistoric, Protohistoric and Historic. We usually think of the last as Classical Archaeology. Protohistoric archaeology is the borderland between the historic and the prehistoric. Chronologically we think of all these as enveloping deposits, which are thicker in some parts of the world than in others. The field of archaeology is so vast, both chronologically and geographically that, in this article, we shall confine ourselves to the Old World and to prehistory.

The Old World field of prehistoric archaeology is chosen because the records there go back much farther into the past than do those of the New World. These oldest records reveal not only what man's culture was but also what he was like physically; they likewise reveal the character of the associated fauna and flora.

Physical Remains.

Several fossil man-like apes have recently been found in South Africa. In 1925, in bone-bearing breccia at Taungs, near Kimberly, the skull of a young ape was discovered to which Raymond Dart gave the name Australopithecus africanus. The skull is somewhat smaller than that of a human infant of like age; but the palate is more like that of a human than of a chimpanzee baby. The milk teeth and first permanent molars are quite large. The deposit from which the skull came is Lower Pleistocene.

In 1936 Dr. Robert Broom of the Transvaal Museum, Pretoria, discovered at Sterkfontein the brain cast of a large anthropoid. Comparing this with the specimen previously discovered by Professor Dart, Dr. Broom found differences enough to place the Sterkfontein ape in a distinct group, to which he gave the name Australopithecus transvaalensis. It is allied to the chimpanzee and gorilla, and only a little larger than the former.

Two years later at Kromdraai, near Sterkfontein, Dr. Broom discovered a skull not unlike that of a female gorilla; it has very prominent brow ridges. The dentition shows a remarkable mixture of human and ape characteristics. The canines are smaller than in the gorilla; the premolars are more human than ape-like, having only one root. The molars have several human characteristics, especially in method of wear, and cusp six is prominent as in man. To this new species Dr. Broom has given the name Paranthropus robustus. It dates from the Middle Pleistocene. All these South African man-like apes resemble man more closely than do either chimpanzee or gorilla. Recent finds of long bones at Kromdraai and Sterkfontein seem to indicate that Broom's two new species were bipedal.

Sites Excavated.

Asia and Africa.

During the past ten years southeastern Asia has yielded much evidence bearing on the physical characteristics of early man. The principal sites involved are: the caves of Choukoutien, not far from Peiping; Ngandong on the Solo river, Java, and the Trinil deposits, also in Java. It will be recalled that it was in the Trinil deposits that Eugene Dubois discovered Pithecanthropus (1891). In 1937 Dr. G. H. R. von Königswald discovered, in the Trinil formation, an almost complete brain case of Pithecanthropus erectus. In July 1938, from the same area he collected a large fragment of an additional skull. The new material consists of a cranium with three upper teeth and right half of the lower jaw with four teeth. The prominent flattening of the cranial cap, so specific for the two Pithecanthropus skulls known hitherto, is completely lacking in the case of this new cranium. On the other hand the latter has the following peculiarities in common with both Sinanthropus and Pithecanthropus skulls: lowness of the entire cranial cap and the position of the greatest transverse diameter, the latter undoubtedly having been situated above the origin of the zygomatic arch, as is the case with all Sinanthropus and Pithecanthropus skulls.

According to von Königswald these new finds prove definitely 'that Pithecanthropus is human. Lacking well developed mastoid processes and having such a low brain capacity and an unreduced third lower molar, Pithecanthropus is more primitive than Sinanthropus, and is the most primitive fossil man now known.'

Dr. Franz Weidenreich agrees with von Königswald that Pithecanthropus is human and not ape. However, he differs from von Königswald in that he believes Sinanthropus to be more primitive than Pithecanthropus, although both belong to the same group of hominids when compared with other human forms. Sinanthropus remains recently found in the caves of Choukouten, China, reveal that there exists a great variability ranging from small and low skulls of about 850 c.c., to larger and higher skulls with a cranial capacity of 1,200 c.c., thereby connecting these primitive forms with those of the Neanderthal group. 'One of the most striking facts disclosed by the Sinanthropus series is that very primitive and far advanced features occur side by side, either in the same individual or in different ones.' Weidenreich believes Pithecanthropus to be closely related to the Ngandong man, Javanthropus soloensis.

Next in importance to the discoveries in Africa and southeastern Asia are those recently made near the foot of Mount Carmel, Palestine (in the Wady Mughara), by joint expeditions of the American School of Prehistoric Research and the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Parts of more than a dozen individuals of Neanderthal man and several more skeletons of a Mesolithic (Natufian) race were unearthed. Preliminary reports of these finds have already been made in the Bulletin of the American School. The final report on the Neanderthal reunions, entitled: 'The Stone Age Races of Mount Carmel' will appear early in 1939; the authors are Sir Arthur Keith and Theodore D. McCown. The Memoir on the Natufian will by McCown.

England and France.

Marston's discovery of parts of a human skull, deep in the gravels of the 100-foot terrace of the Lower Thames valley, at Swanscombe (Kent), has again brought to the fore the problem of the relatively great antiquity of the Homo sapiens type of man. On archaeological and geological grounds the skull has been referred to the Lower Paleolithic Period (Acheulian). The skull is of the modern type.

In 1938 J. Maury, S. Blanc and Prof. H. Breuil unearthed three well preserved skeletons from the station of Laugerie-Haute-Ouest, at Les Eyzies-de-Tayac (Dordogne). They are probably Early Magdalenian.

Was the average life period of early man very much shorter, if any, than that of modern man? Professor Henri Vallois has just completed a study of all available skulls of the Neanderthal race and arrives at the following figures: 55 per cent died before the age of 20; 40 per cent died between the ages of 20 and 40; 5 per cent died between the ages of 40 and 50.

Cultural Remains.

Near East.

Geographically and in other respects the Near East might well have been an important gateway of prehistoric migration. Recent researches in this area prove conclusively that it was. A number of institutions have contributed to these researches, including the American School of Prehistoric Research, the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, the Sladen Fund (British), the Field Museum of Chicago and the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris.

Practically the entire gamut of Old Stone Age culture has already been found here, although much still remains to be done. The most complete studies have been made in the coastal region. For example, the three caves in the Wady Mughara, near the foot of Mount Carmel, combined, reveal the following sequence, beginning with the oldest: Tayacian, Upper Acheulian, Lower Levalloiso-Mousterian, Upper Levalloiso-Mousterian. Lower Aurignacian, Middle Aurignacian, Upper Aurignacian, Lower Natufian (Mesolithic), Upper Natufian, Bronze Age and Recent.

A joint British-American expedition in Iraq excavated two caves in southern Kurdistan, which contained the remains of a Levalloiso-Mousterian, resembling the Upper Levalloiso-Mousterian of Palestine, also a blade industry of the Upper Aurignacian type with shouldered points and many small notched blades; this industry resembles that found at Kostienki, Gagarino and other stations of the south Russian plain, rather than the Palestine Aurignacian.

During the summer of 1938, an expedition of the American School of Prehistoric Research made excavations in the cave of Batcho Kiro, near Drenovo, Bulgaria. The section contained Paleolithic deposits (Mousterian and Aurignacian), surmounted by layers containing pottery and a recent fauna.

India.

In a preliminary report the American Southeast Asiatic Expedition gives interesting geological results by the Director, Hellmut de Terra, and archaeological results by Hallam L. Movius, Jr., a member of the Expedition. For Burma, Movius reports the finding of Lower and Upper Paleolithic, as well as Neolithic cultural remains; he did not find anything that could be classed as Mesolithic. Regarding correlations the Lower Paleolithic of Burma seems to fit into the same Middle Pleistocene horizon as the Trinil beds, Choukoutien, the basal Narbada, and the Abbevillean from Madras and the Punjab. Typologically it displays few analogies with India.

Those who are interested in the recent progress of prehistory in Soviet Russia should consult articles by Henry Field and Eugene Prostov (Amer. Anthrop. vols. 38, 39, and 40, 1936, '37, '38); also by Eugene A. Golomshtok (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XIX. Pt. II, 1938).

Middle Stone Age.

Much is being done to fill the gap between the Old Stone Age and the New Stone Age. This gap, once supposed to be a real hiatus, is being filled by a Middle Stone Age, variously known as Mesolithic, Azilian-Tardenoisian (France), and Natufian (Palestine); in Denmark the term Maglemosean is also employed.

Germany.

Prior to 1932 the Upper Paleolithic was unknown in northern Germany. In 1933 work was begun by Alfred Rust and others at a site between Meiendorf and Ahrensburg, northeast of Hamburg. This site, known as Meiendorf, has yielded a great quantity of reindeer antlers and bones (71 individuals). The evidence now goes to show that this was a summer camp of hunters who in winter must have lived farther south. The cultural remains of flints, bone and antler are of Magdalenian type. Meiendorf has now become the type station for the so-called Hamburg culture. Rust next turned his attention to the nearby station of Stellmoor, which is throwing a flood of light, not only on the Upper Paleolithic but also on the Mesolithic: for it reveals a layer of Hamburg culture at the bottom of the section, some three meters above which is a Mesolithic deposit (known locally as the Ahrensburg culture). The Stellmoor section thus bridges the gap between the Upper Paleolithic tundra and the Maglemose forest culture (Mesolithic).

J. G. D. Clark believes the Maglemose culture to be a composite of three strains: (1) microlithic, (2) heavy element (antler, bone, stone and flint axes, adzes and clubs), reflecting adaptation to forest conditions, (3) certain reminiscences from the Upper Paleolithic traditions. This goes largely to substantiate what G. Schwantes, in a measure, foresaw as early as 1925.

Holland.

A Paleolithic horizon has just been reported for the first time in Holland. The station is Koerhuisbeck, near Deventer. A section, some 8 meters in thickness, at the top contained a layer with many human and animal bones, also a kind of paddle, or side rudder, like those used in Viking ships. Below this layer were layers of gravel. Between the second and third level of gravels were found horns of Cervus elaphus worked by man, human bones and those of horse, ox and deer, a hammer-ax, etc. (Maglemose or probably later). Under the third layer of gravel, in grey sand, parts of three human skulls were unearthed (probably Upper Paleolithic). The finds in the fourth layer of gravel included: remains of Elephas primigenius, Bos primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Cervus megaceros and Sus scrofa. This level is certainly not later than Upper Paleolithic.