68 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



operate in assembling data, under the general direction of the Missouri 

 Basin Project staff members. Studies by Dr. Paul B. Sears of Yale 

 University on the pollen samples collected last year have continued 

 to progress, and at least one profile is being verified. Another group 

 of 11 radioactive carbon-14 samples has been submitted to the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan Memorial Phoenix Laboratory, under the direc- 

 tion of Professor II. R. Crane, to add to the 11 dates already obtained 

 on carbon-14 specimens. Plans for f uU-time participation by a dendro- 

 chronologist made little headway during the year but look promising 

 for next year. On a part-time basis, the dendrochronologist, Harry 

 E. Weakley, continued to prepare materials for study. Alan H. 

 Coogan, though no longer a member of the River Basin Surveys staff, 

 continued his studies of the geologic-climatic aspects of the chronology 

 of the terrace-situated sites in the Fort Thompson region of the Big 

 Bend Reservoir area. The 11 radiocarbon dates already obtained in 

 the Missouri Basin Chronology Program are given in their relative 

 temporal positions in table 1. The dendroclironological material is 

 illustrated in plate 2, figure 1, and the soil profile of a site near Fort 

 Thompson, S. Dak., is shown in plate 2, figure 2, to illustrate the 

 geologic-climatic approach to the dating of archeological materials. 



The laboratory and office staff spent its full effort during the year 

 in processing specimen materials for study, photographing and il- 

 lustrating specimens, preparing specimen records, and typing, filing, 

 and illustrating records and manuscript materials. The accomplish- 

 ments of the laboratory and office staff are listed in tables 2 and 3. 



As of June 30, 1960, the Missouri Basin Project laboratory had 

 cataloged 1,219,563 specimens from 2,097 numbered sites and 58 col- 

 lections not assigned site numbers in the 14 years of its operation. It 

 may be noted in table 2 that considerable material from the Chatta- 

 hoochee River Basin was processed in the Missouri Basin Project 

 laboratory this year. Tliis reflects collaboration for expediency and 

 economy between the archeological investigations outside the Mis- 

 souri River Basin and the facilities for work within the Missouri Basin 

 and constitutes a major contribution to the effectiveness of the salvage 

 program in the southeastern United States. In addition to the 

 processing of these specimens, the Missouri Basin Project facilities 

 were utilized for a portion of the year in the preparation of maps, 

 illustrations, and the three mimeographed appraisal reports resulting 

 from the work in the Chattahoochee Basin last year. Without the 

 aid of the Missouri Basin Project facilities these researches would 

 not have progressed so rapidly. 



Tlie Missouri Basin Project staff archeologists and archeologists of 

 the National Park Service and the cooperating State agencies working 

 in the Missouri Basin met on July 24 in a roundtable field conference 



