102 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.86 



eral deeply buried sites in eastern Nebraska, where they appar- 

 ently represent the earliest known ceramic horizon. 



Greatly superior in quality and decorative technique are many 

 sherds of a type heretofore unrecorded this far west. Here gravel 

 or grit tempering is again universal, but it is more sparingly used 

 and of finer texture. Vessels were small to medium in size (up to 

 1 or possibly 2 gallons capacity), with thin walls and slightly con- 

 stricted necks. Rim profiles show a more or less pronounced chan- 

 nel or groove on the inside, an inward-beveled lip, with cross-hatched 

 (or rocker-marked) and punctate decoration on the outer surface 

 (pi. 3, A-D). This ornamentation also occurs on some fragments 

 of the larger, rougher jars of the preceding type, where the zones 

 of cross hatching and punctates are occasionally separated by a 

 row of embossed nodes. From the restorable vessels and larger 

 sherds it is evident that the neck in this second type of ware was 

 usually a plain smoothed band, separated by a wide incised line or 

 groove from the ornamented body. Decoration on the body usually 

 consisted of rocker-roughening, sometimes with scroll or other cur- 

 vilinear designs worked out in alternate smooth and roughened 

 bands separated by narrow to wide shallow grooves (pi. 6, B). 

 One incomplete jar was evidently square with rounded corners, each 

 of the latter being rocker-rougliened (pi. 5, //). A few sherds sug- 

 gest use of a dentate tool such as the roulette (pi. 3, E), but the 

 majority were im])ressed Avith a smooth rocker. Many body sherds 

 bear no decoration whatever. In most respects this ware closely 

 approaches the so-called Hopewellian type, but the body ornamenta- 

 tion is somewhat less intricate and the roulette or dentate stamp 

 technique apparently less common than on pottery from the classic 

 sites farther east.^ 



It is possible that detailed counts of the several thousand potsherds 

 recovered will reveal some variation in the relative frequency of the 

 several sherd types at different depths. Such variation, if it exists, 

 is not now apparent, and it was definitely noted that the various 

 types occurred together in a number of the pits as well as side by 

 side throughout the culture stratum. 



Of unusual interest is a portion of a smoothed bowl bearing 

 rocker-roughened designs suggestive of a conventionalized hand (pi. 

 6, ^). Originally there were apparently four of these decorative 

 units encircling the vessel, each inclosed by a broad incised line. 

 Miniature pottery, including the bowl of j\ tiny ladle, a crude bird 

 effigy (pi. 4, H), and a few pieces possibly representing human or 

 animal heads were found. 



" Setzler. Frank M.. Pottery of the Hopewell type from Louisiana. Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus., vol. 82, art. 22, pp. 1-21 and references under footnote 1. 1933. 



