Emilio Moran's book could reasonably be called the most recent definitive anthropological work on the Amazonian region. In addition to the ecological analysis, it encompasses a huge amount of secondary research. This book is meticulously detailed, and is also quite well written, but is not especially accessible to a general audience. Without a basic background in the Amazonian region or at least in ecology in general, the reader will have a hard time following Moran's arguments.

The "excavation" that Gramly conducted at the Sugarloaf site was not only irresponsable in terms of excavating a non-threatned site, but also is an excellent example of very poor excavation field methods and artifact analysis. Gramly took only four days to "excavate" the volume of dirt that it would take a responsible archaeologist excavating a Paleoindian site several weeks or months. His methods were both sloppy and were not sensitive to geologic context, soil structure and post-depositional processes. Because he only used 1/4" mesh for screening the soil for artifacts, those smaller than that have now been lost (such as microflakes). He did not map anything 'in situ' and excavated the "cache" horizontally rather than verticallly.

In addition to his horrendous field methods, his theoretical interpretation is out of touch with the current Paleoindian liturature and offers no insight into the context of the Paleoindian period. His lack of interesting analysis only adds to the overall irresponsability of the selfish nature of his 'excavation'. Because Paleoindian sites are so very rare, especially those with good stratagraphic context, most archaeologist realize that there is a responsability to help preserve them for the furture, when excavation methods are improved. Only those sites that are threatened, by things like looting or construction should be excavated. When they are, the archaeologists should always use the best, most careful and contextually sensative methods available. Obvoiusly in this case Gramley did not. Additionally, his lack of meaningful interpretation and analysis makes his endeavor useless. This book adds nothing to our understanding of Paleoindian occupation in the Northeast. Archaeology is a permanent, destructive process, once a site is gone, it is gone forever, professionals know and respect this, obvouisley Gramley does not.