40 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1963 



and, consequently, offering new leads for ethnological explorations. 

 As a result of this unusual approach, they concluded that orally trans- 

 mitted tradition has greater historical validity, at least m this area, 

 than is generally recognized by most anthropologists. 



After finishing their work on Ponape, Drs. Evans and Meggers 

 went to Japan and Taiwan to consult with Japanese and Chinese 

 archeologists and to examine sites and collections of the Early-Middle 

 Jomon Culture of Japan in order to determine the relationship be- 

 tween that potteiy complex and the pottery complexes relating to the 

 early Valdivia Culture of coastal Ecuador. The Valdivia Culture 

 has yielded the earliest dated pottery in the New World (5,000-4,050 

 years before the present, as determined by carbon-14 tests) . Not only 

 is this pottery unexpectedly early for the New World, but also it indi- 

 cates no relationship with any known New World culture. Since 

 the Jomon pottery shows suprisingly similar features, and is of about 

 the same antiquity, the records obtained during this trip open up 

 many doors to research on the problem of transpacific movements of 

 early populations. 



While in Japan, Di^. Evans and Meggers exammed the collections 

 made by staff members of the University of Tokyo during two arche- 

 ological expeditions to the northern Andes of Peru. Here also the 

 pottery was found to bear directly upon some of the cultures of 

 Ecuador. These rewarding contacts between American and Japanese 

 archeologists having mutual interests promise to ojDen up a fruitful 

 era of cooperation. 



Late in August Drs. Evans and Meggers, together with Dr. William 

 H. Crocker, associate curator of ethnology, attended the 35th Inter- 

 national Congress of Americanists in Mexico City, after wliicli they 

 examined collections and sites in various parts of Mexico, giving par- 

 ticular attention to those in Yucatan. 



Dr. Henry W. Setzer, associate curator of mammals, was engaged 

 during much of the year in organizing and supervising field j^arties 

 operating in Asia, Madagascar, and Mexico with the objective of mak- 

 ing collections of small mammals and their ectoparasites. Late in 

 August he went to London to study type and other specimens of 

 mammals in the British Museum (Natural History). After this he 

 spent brief periods with field parties in West Pakistan and along the 

 Afghanistan border in Iran, consulted with American officials in 

 Cairo, Egypt, and helped the Madagascar field party initiate work in 

 the vicinity of Ihosy. Another trip late in February and early in 

 March took him to Mexico, where he joined a field party on the 

 Mexican plateau. 



Col. Robert Traub, who in January was appointed honoraiy re- 

 search associate, worked closely with Dr. Setzer in organizing and 



