HOPEWELLIAN KEMAINS NEAR KANSAS CITY — WEDEL 101 



Up to the present, no detailed studies of our findings have been 

 made. Since further investigations in the locality are now under 

 consideration, it is likely that the full report will be delayed for 

 some time. Meanwhile, a preliminary notice of the remains may be 

 of interest, especially to those concerned with determining the rela- 

 tionship between early Plains cultures and the archeological com- 

 plexes found in the Eastern United States. Such generalizations 

 as may be suggested here are subject to revision in the light of more 

 intensive analyses and further field investigations. 



Our excavations were confined to the remaining part of the site 

 lying east of the new road, between it and the creek bottoms. Here 

 over an area of about 3,000 square feet the cultural layer was 

 stripped off by troweling until subsoil was reached, at which level 

 the pits showed as dark trash-filled circular spots. Thirty-six of 

 these were opened, averaging about 3 feet in diameter and 2i/^ to 

 more than 5 feet in depth. Originally these were probably used for 

 storage of foodstuffs, but most of them yielded only refuse and a 

 few artifacts. Noteworthy among their contents, aside from artifact 

 materials, were charred maize, beans, pawpaw seeds, and several 

 species of nuts, as well as quantities of mammal, bird, and fish bones. 

 Bulk of the mammalian remains were apparently of the deer, but 

 there is evidence also of the bison. No postholes, firepits, or other 

 traces of houses were noted, although there were numerous large 

 and small chunks of baked brick-red clay of unknown purpose. It 

 is inferred that the habitations must have been entirely of perish- 

 able materials rather than of the substantial earthlodge type used 

 by many tribes and peoples of the Missouri Valley. There is 

 some slight evidence for the former existence of refuse mounds, but 

 mostly the detritus now occurs either in the pits or as admixture in 

 the old living surface of the village. 



Potsherds were found in great abundance everywhere on the site. 

 It was at first thought that these represented two distinct types, but 

 more careful scrutiny suggests the presence of intergrading speci- 

 mens. At one extreme are coarse, thick, gravel-tempered sherds with 

 cord-roughened exteriors. These apparently are from large pointed- 

 base jars, none of which have yet been actually reconstructed. Be- 

 low the squared lip is usually a row of embossed nodes, punched out- 

 ward from the interior, and above these may or may not be found 

 the vertical or diagonal imprints of a small cord-wrapped stick or 

 a dentate implement (pi. 3, G). Other large similarly shaped ves- 

 sels, also bearing the bosses but with plain neck and rocker-rough- 

 ened body decoration, are indicated (pi. 3, F, H, I). The heavy 

 gravel -tempered pointed-base jars, with cord-roughening and 

 punched bosses, are strikingly reminiscent of sherds found at sev- 



