Excavations at the Airport site, Springfield, Illinois, recently provided a rare opportunity to examine lateral displacement that has occurred due to plowing. Measurements of relative displacement of sections of reconstructed bifaces are given. These measurements suggest that plow drag may not be as great as is sometimes supposed.

Late prehistoric sites on the Central Plains contain both grit/grog- (mineral-) tempered pottery and shell-tempered pottery. This appearance of shell-tempered pottery around cal A.D. 1000 has traditionally been explained as a colonization from the Mississippi River valley with further dispersal via trade. As a result, very little is known about the role of this material in the region. We report the results of a provenance analysis of shell-tempered pottery from seven sites extending from the Missouri River valley to north-central Kansas. We use petrography and oxidation analysis to compare the shell-tempered pottery across these localities and the shell-tempered to the mineral-tempered pottery from each locality, and we compare mineral inclusions and clay characteristics in all pottery with published geological and pedological information for each locality. The results demonstrate that shell-tempered pottery was locally produced throughout at least a portion of the Central Plains. Differences in firing technology are apparent across the study area and may play a role in the distribution of shell-tempered pottery. Two other results are the identification of composite temper in a notable proportion of the sherds studied, and indications of from where on the landscape Central Plains potters were procuring their raw materials.

ABSTRACT. Age offsets of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) assays on food residue taken from pottery vessels are well-documented in Europe and Asia in cultural contexts were freshwater aquatic products are attested, but are less well studied in North America. The present study examines a series of residue dates from the late prehistoric Central Plains of North America, comparing them with context dates run on annual plant remains. At least 13 of 23 assays are either incongruent with ages on annual plant remains, inconsistent among themselves within a site, or not credible for their cultural context. The conclusion is that food residue from ceramics does not produce consistently accurate dates. Some possible factors that may serve to introduce old carbon to residue samples are discussed. It also is noted that one's conclusions about the reliability of residue may be conditioned by the precision of the age determinations and by the goals of a specific chronology-building effort.

No abstract

Red ochre is one of nine traits common to Paleoindian and Upper Paleolithic complexes. The similarity goes beyond simple presence, however, and encompasses virtual identity of the context in which ochre appears. These include burials, non-mortuary ritual context, and domestic context. Data are assembled here comparing the use of ochre in each context in the Upper Paleolithic and the Paleoindian periods. Particular attention is given to the Upper Paleolithic sites in the Soviet Union and the Paleoindian sites on the Plains. The earlier prehistory of ochre use is overviewed, and the possibility of ochre having symbolic significance in the Upper Paleolithic and Paleoindian periods is discussed.