The concept of a continent-wide Archaic cultural horizon in North America has been developing for over a decade. Recently, this concept has received considerable reinforcement in publications and in discussions at conferences. It now appears to have fairly general acceptance among American archaeologists who have concerned themselves with the problem. Basic to this concept is the identification of the southwestern Desert cultures as the cultural and temporal equivalent of the eastern Archaic, and the recognition of the Balcones phase of Texas as a cultural keystone uniting these western and eastern cultures into one continuous culture area on the same temporal level, forming the Archaic horizon in American prehistory.