An archaeological sequence for the Sinaloa coastal strip of western Mexico had previously been developed by Sauer and Brand, Isabel Kelly, and Gordon Ekholm. Investigations carried out by Southern Illinois University and associates from 1952 to 1958 in Durango, across the Sierra Madre Occidental to the east of Sinaloa, have established an independent archaeological sequence. The presence of trade pottery and other artifacts from Sinaloa in the Durango sites makes possible an independent check of the Sinaloa sequence. This cross correlation essentially confirms the basic Sinaloa sequence of (early to late) Chametla, Aztatlan, and Culiacan periods, but indicates that there is some overlap between these major horizons and that the Aztatlan period is actually divisible into three more or less sequent phases: an early Lolandis phase, an intermediate Acaponeta phase, and a terminal Guasave phase. Re-examination of the Sinaloa sequence confirms and expands these conclusions, resulting in this revision of the archaeological sequence for Sinaloa. For consistency, a revised terminology for the various phases is also presented.
The author has made an important contribution to the scanty literature on stone box graves. Of particular value for demographic purposes are the 70 handsomely illustrated pages of detailed burial descriptions. There are also sections devoted LO discussion and description of stone, pottery, and historic ceramic and metal artifacts. Other sections deal with variations in burial type, demographic interpretation, temporal placement, and comparison with other Kentucky sites. Schwartz utilizes these data to make inferences about the nature of the activities taking place a t the burial area and their meaning to the historic Chickasaw, to whom the author attributes the construction of the stone box graves.In discussing burial type variation, the author examines various hypotheses to explain the variation. In one of these, he suggests that over or under size graves may indicate re-use of the stone box after removal of the occupant. An alternative hypothesis bascd on the reviewer's excavations at a stone box cemetery in Massac County, Illinois, is that numbers of stone box graves may have been prepared without particular individuals in mind. It appears that the Fort Massac cemetery had been prepared, complete to stone slab grave covers, and then never utilized.The author was faced with a dilemma in his analysis of temporal placement of the site. In addition to large quantities of Mississippian sherds and stone artifacts, there were 15 modern sherds, 32 pieces of modern metal, and three miscellaneous modern items, Schwartz considers the possibility that the presence of these items, in or near the graves, may indicate that the burials themselves were historic. However, Hume's analysis of the modern ceramics indicates a probable range ca. 1840-80, a date much too late for any Indian tribe on the lower Cumberland. Apparently, the historic items must remain for interpretative purposes a variable independent of the other cultural data from the site.One minor defect was the lack of illustration of the sherds or vessels and a few of the stone artifacts. But such an omission is trivial, indeed, in a very fine report.
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