60 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1947 



ceramic and early ceramic horizons whose existence up to now has 

 only been suspected but never demonstrated. 



In the month of March, during the survey work, Dr. Drucker made 

 a brief visit to Guatemala City where, through the courtesy of Drs. 

 R. E. Smith and Edwin Shook of the Carnegie Institution, he was 

 permitted to study pottery collections from the Guatemala Highlands 

 and coast, in the Carnegie Institution Laboratory. 



From Tonala, Dr. Drucker proceeded to Mexico City to arrange for 

 the exportation of the collections. 



On Jane 9 Dr. Drucker arrived in Washington, D. C, where he 

 was detailed to the River Basin Surveys project, under the direction 

 of Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr., Associate Chief of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology. After a series of conferences with Dr. Roberts, 

 Dr. Drucker proceeded on June 16 to the Pacific coast to take charge of 

 archeological work in areas to be inundated by Bureau of Reclamation 

 and Corps of Engineers dams in that area. 



From July 1 through September 1 Dr. Gordon R. Willey, anthro- 

 pologist, continued his field investigations, begun in March of 1946, 

 as a member of the Viru Valley Expedition to northern Peru. The 

 Viru program was a cooperative attempt, on the part of a group of 

 anthropologists and a geographer, to study thoroughly a single valley 

 of the Peruvian coast as a living unit through some 3,000 years of time. 

 Archeological, geographical, and modern community studies were 

 embraced in the project, which was under the direction of a steering 

 committee of the Institute of Andean Research. As one of the major 

 participants, Dr. Willey represented the Bureau on the steering com- 

 mittee. His own share of the research consisted of a survey of the 

 prehistoric settlement patterns of the valley. 



At the close of field operations in August over 300 sites had been 

 studied from the point of view of community plan or settlement 

 pattern. These sites were selected from all sections of the valley, and 

 it is estimated that they represent a 25-percent sample of the total 

 sites in the valley. All types of sites were included in the sample — 

 cemeteries, dwelling units, fortifications, temples, and palaces. In 

 addition particular attention was paid to prehistoric irrigation canals, 

 evidences of past land utilization, and ancient roads. Preliminary 

 analysis shows eight cultural periods to be represented. The survey 

 was accomplished with the aid of jeep transportation and large-scale 

 air photo-maps. A technique of site mapping, involving the use of 

 an epidiascopic projector, was worked out with the air photos. The 

 final report on this survey is now in preparation. 



In addition to the settlement survey Willey also excavated at two 

 burial sites, one in the upper and one in the lower valley. A report 

 on the first of these sites has recently been published. 



Early in August Willey took part in the Conference on Peruvian 



