Stone-boiling maize with limestone: experimental results and implications for nutrition among SE Utah preceramic groups

Groups living on Cedar Mesa, SE Utah in the late Basketmaker II period (Grand Gulch phase, AD 200–400) were heavily maize-dependent, but lacked beans as a supplemental plant protein, and pottery vessels for cooking. Common occurrence of limestone fragments in their household middens suggests 1) limestone may have been used as the heating element for stone-boiling maize and 2) this practice might have made some maize proteins more available for human nutrition. Experiments examined these possibilities; results indicate that stone-boiling with Cedar Mesa limestone creates an alkaline cooking environment suitable for nixtamalization of maize kernels, and that maize cooked in this fashion shows significant increases in availability of lysine, tryptophan, and methionine. Archaeological limestone fragments from a Grand Gulch phase site show amounts of fragmentation and changes in density consistent with repeated heating. While not conclusive, these data indicate that further research (e.g., examination of archaeological limestone fragments for maize starch grains or phytoliths) is warranted. It is suggested that greater attention be paid to archaeological indications of stone-boiling with limestone among maize-dependent but pre-pottery societies.     

Cacao consumption during the 8th century at Alkali Ridge,southeastern Utah

Theobroma cacao was detected in the ceramic assemblage at the 8th century Site 13, Alkali Ridge, southeastern Utah. The presence of this Mesoamerican beverage during the Pueblo I period is the earliest reported use of cacao in the northern American Southwest, coming centuries earlier than the recently documented Pueblo II consumption of cacao in cylinder jars, sharp-shouldered pitchers and shallow bowls at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon. Analogous to the situation at Chaco, cacao was found at Site 13 in a new vessel form decorated with a distinctive design system that contrasted markedly with designs and vessel forms in the local black-on-white ceramic assemblage. We postulate that Abajo R/O at Site 13 represents a ceramic tradition brought by one of the many groups moving into the northern Southwest. The detection of cacao in their ceramic vessels represents new evidence for the migration model that for centuries brought people with Mesoamerican beliefs, ritual practices and a new subsistence lifeway into the American Southwest.     

Lessons Learned Along the Way: The Florida Public Archaeology Network after Ten Years

Created by the Florida Legislature in 2004, the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN) has grown into a positive force for preservation, public engagement, and community collaboration in archaeology. This article discusses the genesis of FPAN and how the organization has changed in scope, evolved in mission, and addressed challenges, ideally providing ideas and direction for similar programmes in other locations.     

The diary of William MacEwan: Part II

This instalment of the Diary describes the first stage of the journey from Quilimane to the interior, then the most convenient and practicable way to the British territory of Nyasaland, and the way by which both people and goods entered and left that country. This is all changed ; the route has been abandoned by the African Lakes Corporation, and Maruru, the first place where the Diarist saw African village life, probably no longer exists. When the Diary is completed, it is hoped to publish an article describing the country MacEwan saw as it is at the present day. Much has been done to improve the condition of the natives under British rule since then, but it is more difficult to ascertain their condition under the Portuguese ; much more, however, remains to be done. Transport, of course, has been improved out of all comparison, and it will be interesting to compare it with the means by which MacEwan entered the then Darkest Africa—improvement which has taken place well within a single lifetime.     

The Amundsen expedition to the magnetic pole

AFRICA

Behind God's Back. By N. Farson. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 448. London : Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1940. Price 10s. 6d.

EUROPE

The Place‐Names of Nottinghamshire. By J. E. B. Gover, Allen Mawer, and F. M. Stenton. Demy 8vo. Pp. xlii+348. London : Cambridge University Press Ltd., 1940. Price 21s.

Prehistoric England. By Grahame Clarke. Illustrated. Pp. viii+120. London : B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1940. Price 8s. 6d.

Lincolnshire in the 17th and 18th Centuries. By Charles Brears. Demy 8vo. Pp. xv+192. London : A. Brown and Sons Ltd., 1940. Price 7s. 6d.

AMERICA

The American Empire. A Study of the Outlying Territories of the United States. Edited by William H. Hass. Illustrated. Pp. xi+408. University of Chicago Press, 1940. (Published in Great Britain by the Cambridge University Press Ltd.) Price 24s.

I Lived with the Eskimos. By S. Montague. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. ix+223. London : Jarrolds Ltd., 1940. Price 12s. 6d.

Arctic Pilot. By Walter Gilbert, as told to Kathleen Shackleton. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 256. London : T. Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1940. Price 7s. 6d.

ASIA

Old Routes of Western Iran. By Sir Aurel Stein. Illustrated. Imperial 8vo. Pp. xxviii+432. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1940. Price 42s.

The New Burma. By W. J. Grant. Crown 8vo. Pp. 156. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1940. Price 7s. 6d.

AUSTRALASIA

Australia. By Griffith Taylor. Demy 8vo. Pp. xv+455. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1940. Price 21s.

GENERAL

The Story of the Pacific. By H. van Loon. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp.315. London : George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., 1940. Price 8s. 6d.

Coconut Quest. By J. S. Phillips. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 254. London : Jarrolds Ltd., 1940. Price 16s.

Ten Great Mountains. By R. L. G. Irvine. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. xii+213. London : J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1940. Price 12s. 6d.

Helvellyn to Himalaya. By F. S. Chapman. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. xv+285. London : Chatto and Windus, 1940. Price 18s.

A Long Look Back. By Two Victorians. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 256. London : Seeley Service Ltd., 1940. Price 12s. 6d.

I Married Adventure. By Osa Johnson. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 376. London: Hutchinson and Co. Ltd., 1940. Price 10s. 6d.

Rolling Home. By Surgeon‐Commander A. G. Bee. Demy 8vo. Pp. xi+495. London: Bale, 1940.

Savoy ! Corsica ! Tunis ! By Bernard Newman. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 282. London : Herbert Jenkins Ltd., 1940. Price 10s. 6d.

Courtship and Display among Birds. By C. D. Stonor. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp.xv+139. London: Country Life Ltd., 1940. Price 8s. 6d.

Old Morningside. By Wm. Mair. Illustrated. Pp. 40. Edinburgh : John Menzies and Co. Ltd., 1940. Price 1s.

English Lakeland. By Doreen Wallace. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. viii+120. London : B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1940. Price 8s. 6d.

Chiltern Country. By H. J. Massingham. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. viii + 120. London : B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1940. Price 8s. 6d.

Middlesex. By Arthur Mee. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. ix+232. London: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1940. Price 7s. 6d.

EDUCATIONAL

Map Approach to Modern Problems, tgig‐iggg. By W. E. Coysh and A. W. Brown. Small quarto. Pp. 64. London : University Tutorial Press, 1940. Price 2s. 3d.

Elements of Political Geography. By S. van Valkenburgh. With Maps. Imperial 8vo. Pp. xix+401. London: Pitmans Ltd., 1940. Price 18s.

Economic Geography. By C. Colby and A. Foster. Illustrated. Imperial 8vo. Boston (U.S.A.) : Ginn and Co., 1940. Price 10s. 6d.

Synopsis of the Mineral Resources of Scotland. By M. Macgregor and Others. Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain, Vol. xxxiii, 59 pages. One Text Figure. H.M. Stationery Office. Price 1s.

A Map Book of Africa and South America. By A. Ferriday. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1940. Price 1s. 9d.

Outlines of Structural Geology. By E. S. Hills. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Pp. x+172. London : Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1940. Price 6s. 6d.

Asia and Australia. By A. Mamour. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 348. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1940.

The World and Ourselves. By E. White. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. Pp. 207. Edinburgh: W. and A. K. Johnston Ltd., 1940. Price 2s. 9d.     

A botanical survey of Scotland

Gauged river runoff records extend only over limited timespans, mostly commencing post‐1940. Historical sources can provide additional material to assist in extending the hydrological record into the nineteenth century and earlier. Such sources vary, however, in the nature of the detail, in their reliability and in their potential use in hydrological reconstruction. This paper outlines the main categories of sources available, subdivided into those which have been authenticated and those of variable reliability.