24 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1958 
accumulated at Hacienda Vicos, Callejon de Huaylas, North Central 
Sierra, Peru. 
The Museum’s new associate curator in Old World archeology, Dr. 
Ralph Solecki, attended an interdisciplinary symposium at the Uni- 
versity of Chicago’s Oriental Institute from May 8 to 11. This 
meeting emphasized the contributions that can be made by zoologists, 
agronomists, geologists, and other specialists in solving problems 
arising from the excavation of Neolithic and Paleolithic archeologi- 
cal sites. The Shanidar Cave, in Iraq, excavated by Dr. Solecki, pro- 
duced evidence of a very stable animal population over a period of 
100,000 years. He reported that the evidence from Shanidar Cave 
showed that the earliest animal and plant domestication probably 
took place within the past 12,000 years. 
Assistant Curator of Ethnology R. A. Elder, Jr., spent a day in 
February and one in April selecting and transporting an unusual col- 
lection of Asiatic and Far Eastern objects from Baltimore, Md., do- 
nated to the national collections by the Aaron and Lillie Straus 
Foundation, Inc. 
C. V. Morton, acting curator of cryptogams, again participated 
in the American Fern Society field trip, and from August 21 to 25 
collected ferns from Stanford University north along the Redwood 
highway to Eureka, Calif. He also attended the meetings of the 
American Institute of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. 
From October 8 to December 28, 1957, Dr. Egbert H. Walker, 
associate curator of phanerogams, traveled to Japan, Okinawa, 
Taiwan, Thailand, Viet Nam, and the Philippines. He participated 
in the Ninth Pacific Science Congress in Bangkok, and enroute ex- 
amined, studied, and collected plants in Japan, Okinawa, and Taiwan, 
in preparation of a manuscript on the flora of Okinawa and the 
southern Ryukyus. 
Dr. Mason E. Hale, associate curator of cryptogams, spent several 
days in October examining collections of West Indian lichens at 
Harvard University, Wellesley College, Yale University, and the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Dr. Hale also col- 
lected lichens in Virginia, North Carolina, and the coastal plain of 
Florida. While in Florida during April he participated in the an- 
nual meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists at 
Tallahassee. 
In August 1957 and again in May 1958, Dr. Richard S. Cowan, 
associate curator of phanerogams, spent several days at the New 
York Botanical Garden checking manuscripts with plant collections 
and completing his portion of the Index Nomina Genericorum. 
In September 1957, Dr. Herbert Friedmann, acting head curator of 
zoology, attended the annual meeting of the American Ornitholo- 
