Patterning in procurement of obsidian in Chaco Canyon and in Chaco-era communities in New Mexico as revealed by X-ray fluorescence

X-ray fluorescence analysis of obsidian artifacts from sites located in Chaco Canyon and from three Chaco-era communities in New Mexico permits determination of their geological origin. These source data are used to describe patterning in obsidian procurement in sites located in Chaco Canyon dating from A.D. 500–1150, and in a three non-Canyon communities occupied during the period of Chaco Canyon's regional prominence (ca. A.D. 875–1150). These data demonstrate that the most proximate sources generally dominate the sourced obsidian assemblages from sites of all periods, but also suggest differences in procurement patterning both over time and across space. Within Chaco Canyon, there is a notable shift from Mount Taylor obsidian to use of Jemez Mountains sources over time. These data also suggest that earlier analyses of obsidian from sites in Chaco Canyon misidentified some obsidian artifact sources; these new data indicate the central areas of disagreement and provide a revision of procurement patterning. In the Chaco-era communities located outside Chaco Canyon, procurement patterning diverges. The Blue J community shows an increase in use of the nearby Mount Taylor source over time. Two communities located toward the southern extent of the Chaco great house distribution reveal a markedly distinct procurement pattern, obtaining nearly all of their obsidian from southern sources largely unrepresented at Chaco Canyon. Combined, these data provide new insights into raw material procurement and artifact production at sites in Chaco Canyon, and in communities occupied during the Chaco Phenomenon, the period of the Canyon's greatest regional influence.     

Louis D. Brandeis: Advocate Before and On the Bench

On January 3, 1916, members of the Chicago Bar Association listened attentively as one of the country's best-known attorneys and reformers rose to speak to them. No one in the audience, not even their guest of honor, knew that within a few days the President of the United States would nominate him to become a member of the United States Supreme Court. In his speech that day, Louis Dembitz Brandeis spelled out his views on the problems confronting law in a rapidly changing society, and placed much of the blame for social unrest and popular disrespect for the law on judges who refused to recognize the economic and social developments taking place all around them:     

THE PETROGRAPHY AND CHEMISTRY OF THIN‐WALLED WARE FROM AN HELLENISTIC– ROMAN SITE AT SEGESTA (SICILY)*

Samples of Roman thin‐walled ware from Segesta (northwestern Sicily), dating back to the early Imperial period, were studied by optical microscopy (OM) and Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA). Up to now, this class of Roman fine tableware has only occasionally been evaluated archaeometrically. Nevertheless, numerous production centres are believed to have been simultaneously active in the western Mediterranean area. Petrographic and chemical data seem to be in agreement with the archaeological hypothesis of local manufacture in Segesta for most of the analysed samples, through a comparison with kiln wasters and local raw materials. The effectiveness of thin‐section petrography for determining the provenance of such a tiny tempered class of pottery and the integrated use of two different grouping procedures (petrography and chemistry) were also tested.     

Educational

EUROPE

Flight into Portugal. By R. Bodley. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. xi+224. London : Jarrolds Ltd., 1941. Price 16s.

Heart of Spain. By G. G. King. Illustrated. 10×7. Pp. 179. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1941. Price $3.00.

Snowdonia through the Lens. By W. A. Poucher. Illustrated. Fcap. fol. Pp. 124. London : Chapman &; Hall Ltd., 1941. Price 18s.

The Land of Britain. Edited by L. D. Stamp. London : Geographical Publications, 1941. Price 1s. 6d each.

At Slieve Gullion's Foot. By W. J. Murphy. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp.115. 1940. Price 3s. 6d.

On Our Hill. By Annette Barlee. Illustrated. Small 4to. Pp. 100. Price 3s. 6d. Dundalgan Press, Dundalk.

English Woodland. By John Rodgers. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. xii+132. London : Batsford, 1942. Price 10s. 6d.

The Nazi New Order in Poland. By Jon Evans. Demy 8vo. Pp.184. London : Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1941. Price 6s.

Russia in Flux. By Sir John Maynard. Demy 8vo. Pp. 301. London : Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1941. Price 7s. 6d.

AMERICA

Ports of Piscataqua. By W. S. Saltonstall. Illustrated. 11×7#fr1/2>. Pp. viii+244. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1941. Price 20s.

Cape Horn. By F. Riesenberg. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 487. London : Robert Hale Ltd., 1941. Price 18s.

ASIA

Dawn Watch in China. By Joy Homer. Demy 8vo. Pp. 288. London : Collins Ltd., 1941. Price 12s. 6d.

Soviet Asia : Progress and Problems. By E. S. Bates. Map. Demy 8vo. Pp.191. London : Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1942. Price 8s. 6d.

GENERAL

After C.T. Studd. By N. Grubb. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp.185. London : R.T.S., 1941. Price 3s. 6d.

Economic Geography. By C. F. Jones. Illustrated. Crown fcap. Pp. xxii+626. New York : The Macmillan Company Ltd., 1941. Price $4.25.

Geography and World Power. By J. Fairgrieve. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 376. London : Univ. of London Press, 1941. Price 7s. 6d.

The Earth and its Resources. By Finch, Trewartha, and Shearer. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 634. New York and London: M'Graw‐Hill Book Co. Price 17s.

Wanderings with a Shotgun. By Sir Edward Durand. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 184. London : Jarrolds Ltd., 1942. Price 16s.

British Mountaineers. By F. S. Smythe. Illustrated. 9×6#fr1/2>. Pp.48. London : Collins Ltd. Price 4s. 6d.     

On Methods of Studying the Place of a City in the System of Cities of the USSR (as Illustrated by Odessa)

Odessa's role in the geographical division of labor is analyzed on the basis of the city's freight traffic structure. Use is made of freight statistics by weight and value. As a typical large manufacturing city, Odessa is found to ship in mainly low-value, high-bulk fuels and industrial raw materials and to send to other parts of the country high-value finished goods of relatively low weight. The areal distribution of the city's outgoing and incoming freight traffic is analyzed.     

Basic Methodological Problems in Ethnic Mapping

The following excerpt from a speech delivered October 18, 1963, before the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences USSR by a leading ideological spokesman of the Communist party is relevant to the discussion surrounding V. A. Anuchin's advocacy of a unified geography. Ilyichev denounces the Stalinist definition of the environment as a purely natural category. He charges that some Soviet scholars have used this definition as a “theoretical foundation” for erecting an insurmountable wall between the natural and social sciences. A briefer version of his remarks appeared in the journal Voprosy Filosofi, 1963, No. 11, pp. 6–7.     

Observations and Talks in the United States About Geomorphology and Paleogeography

The author discusses three specific areas in which he made personal observations: Lake Bonneville, Yellowstone National Park, and ancient soil formations near Washington, D. C., and reports the latest American findings on the paleogeography of these areas. He finds the teaching and applications of geomorphology in the United States to be at a lower stage than would appear from American Geography: Inventory and Prospect.     

MAN-INDUCED CHANGES IN OVERALL RUNOFF IN THE ARAL SEA BASIN

The article examines the prospects of using runoff characteristics and changes in runoff composition as a basis for predicting environmental modification. The technique is employed to assess changes in the circulation of matter that are taking place in the drainage basin of the Aral Sea as a result of the intensification of irrigation. Overall runoff, including its liquid, solid (suspended sediment) and chemical phases, is analyzed in connection with a shift in the deposition of material from the Aral Sea to the irrigated plains.     

The Effect of Climatic Fluctuation on the Physical Environment and Conditions of Economic Development of the Middle OB' District

Physical-geographic field work in the West Siberian plain has uncovered a peculiar stratification of peat bogs and other physical-geographic phenomena that are related to climatic fluctuation. These phenomena include local relief changes reported by old residents and evidence of differential tree growth based on study of annual rings. It is recommended that economic development of the Middle Ob' district, particularly the use of floodplain meadows, be sufficiently flexible to take account of the cyclical physical-geographic changes that appear to be typical of the area.