The partial dog skeleton comes from site SJo-68 (formerly C68) near Thornton, California. The remains consist of the cranium and mandible, the atlas and several cervicals, pelves, tail vertebrae, and two femora. These parts lay in anatomical articulation so that we may assume that the partly dismembered skeleton, still bound by integument, was buried. The archaeology of the site as known in 1948 has been published. (Heizer, 1949, p. 7.) The dog remains lay at a depth of thirtyfour inches from the surface, solidly imbedded in calcareous hardpan, and in proximity to human burials. Indeed, the whole deposit was heavily charged with human skeletons, and it is reasonable to assume that the dog had been intentionally buried. Animal burials are not uncommon in later culture horizons in the same area (Heizer and Hewes, 1940).

Interest in the prehistory of America is hardly more than two centuries old, but it is within the last half-century that our concern for preservation and salvage has bloomed. Prior to that time there were individual voices urging study and protection of archaeological sites, but no grass-roots sentiment for protection. This may be largely because most of our antecedents came from the Old World; New World archaeology concerned our past not at all.

No archaeological remains which the majority of specialists will accept as Archaic have been found in the Mississippi Valley from the mouth of Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico. Despite this, the literature reflects a general acceptance of the belief that the Archaic stage is well represented in the Lower Valley. The presence of concentrated Archaic populations in northern Alabama and western Tennessee and Kentucky has given comparative support to these expectations and has provided part of the source for some of the hypothetical statements in the literature of what the Lower Valley Archaic ought to be like. Although the failure of writers to agree on a definition of Archaic which will satisfy the evidence in all of the areas of Eastern United States has contributed to the problem of identifying Archaic materials in the Lower Valley, the lack of these remains can best be explained by the geology of the region. The cutting and filling of the Alluvial Valley during the Pleistocene changes in sea level have removed or buried all of the surfaces that might have been occupied by Archaic peoples. The surface of the Alluvial Valley is everywhere less than 5000 years old. Possible Late Archaic sites are located on old stable beach ridges or near enough to the Pleistocene terraces not to have been included in the general pattern of Recent coastal subsidence. It is concluded that Archaic or earlier materials are absent in the Lower Alluvial Valley of the Mississippi River. Neither Tchefuncte nor Copell are accepted as Archaic; Poverty Point is viewed as transitional from an Upper Archaic tradition to some phase of the Formative stage. Poverty Point materials may not be expected to be found in quantity along the Gulf Coast of the Mississippi Delta region.

Until the past few years the Poverty Point horizon was known solely through its manifestation at the type site, Poverty Point Plantation, on Bayou Macon, West Carroll Parish, Louisiana. Webb (1944), in connection with the description of a cache of stone vessel fragments found near the large Poverty Point mound, pointed out the apparent cultural content of the site, which had previously been mentioned in archaeological literature by Moore (1913), Fowke (1928) and Ford (1936). In 1948, in a description of nonpottery cultures in the state, a further attempt was made (Webb, 1948) to clarify the Poverty Point cultural period as expressed at this site.

Many animal wound-healing models measure the progression of healing over time, resulting in counts of fully healed wounds from different treatments at several time points. Data from these models are usually analyzed using contingency table methods. However, pooling data from multiple animals without appropriate correction for animal-to-animal variability results in pseudoreplication. Kaiser and colleagues, overcame pseudoreplication by adjusting the estimate of healing variation to account for the interanimal covariance. This solution nevertheless is limited by the ability to accurately estimate the adjustment factor due to the small number of animals used. An improved method is described that both overcomes pseudoreplication and increases power. It involves estimating the time for half of the wounds within each animal to be completely healed (TCH(50)), rather than a pooled estimate for all animals (HT(50)). Subsequent ANOVA testing of the individual TCH(50) values, using a model with fixed treatments and random animals, generates unbiased estimates of treatment means and differences between means, and accurate p-values for these differences and for the overall model. This method has sufficient power to detect treatment differences with fewer animals. Furthermore, it is fully applicable to analyses of results from human trials having similar data organization.