RIVER BASIN SURVEYS — I^. H. II. ROBERTS 363 



were found in the village area. Six of them had been buried, while two 

 had been cremated. Apparently it was not customary to make funerary 

 offerings as in only one questionable case was an object found as- 

 sociated with the human remains. 



Evidence pertaining to the economy of the people suggests that 

 they were primarily dependent upon vegetal food although animal 

 bones found in the middens indicate that occasional deer, elk, hares, 

 and rabbits probably supplemented the diet. The people had both 

 pottery and steatite vessels. The potsherds indicate that the com- 

 mon ware was that known from ethnographic sources of the Yokuts 

 and INIono Indians. The fragments of steatite vessels from the site 

 are from a form that previously has only been reported from the 

 Santa Barbara coast. Numerous shell beads were found as well as 

 some made of steatite. The latter material was also used for making 

 pendants of a variety of forms. In addition there was some trade 

 material showing contact with the whites. A few glass beads and 

 a fragment of glazed pottery, probably of Mexican origin, as well 

 as steel prongs from a fish spear, make it possible to date the village 

 as having been occupied until about 1850. 



The results of the excavation are important because they provide an 

 opportunity to study the material culture left by a grouj) of people 

 who occupied the region in historic times and concerning whom there 

 is an unusually complete ethnographic record. Correlations of the 

 data from both the ethnological and archeological sources of infor- 

 mation will throw considerable light on the function and significance 

 of the artifacts and various features of the site. Items of the mate- 

 rial cultural previously known only through tradition are now repre- 

 sented by actiuil objects. The lower end of the Kaweali Canyon 

 was formerly occupied by a small band of the Yokut Indians and it 

 seems extremely probable that the village was inhabited by some 

 of the same or a closely related people. Information on other vil- 

 lage types was obtained elsewhere in California as the Archeologi- 

 cal Survey of the University of California at Berkeley dug some 

 village sites in the Pine Flat and Isabella Reservoir areas as 

 a cooperative project. 



At the Medicine Creek Eeservoir in western Nebraska a party from 

 the River Basin Surveys excavated in eight village sites. Six of them 

 belonged to what archeologically is known as the Upper Republican 

 Aspect, while two were a variant of the Woodland. Evidence at the 

 Upper Republican sites was that the houses generally were built in 

 clusters of two to four structures with considerable distance frequently 

 separating the groups. Because of that fact there is some question 

 as to whether they should be called villages or simply family 

 communities. In some cases it would be difficult to determine where 



