NOTES ON THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF BUTLER COUNTY. 



By J. R. Mead, Wichita. 

 Read before the Academy, at Manhattan, November 27, 1903, 



T N the summer of 1863 I noticed on the blufiPs along the Walnut 

 -^ and Whitewater rivers and their tributaries, in Butler county^ 

 Kansas, frequent low mounds from six inches to two feet in height 

 and from fifteen to twenty-five feet in diameter. They were usually 

 overgrown with the same coat of short buffalo-grass which at that 

 time covered the highlands and were as compact and solid as the sur- 

 rounding land ; originally they may have been higher. They evi- 

 dently were made long before historic times, as the Osages and other 

 Indians, who at times occupied the county since Kansas was known, 

 did not bury their dead in mounds. 



Some of these mounds have been explored, and proven to be burial- 

 places. Several bodies were sometimes found in one mound, and 

 with them were placed various articles of their belongings ; heavy 

 stone axes of granite or other stone not found in the vicinity, occa- 

 sionally flint spades, and always flint arrow- and spear-points, knives, 

 etc. ; sometimes bones of animals and shells. The writer opened one 

 of these mounds the past summer, situated on a rocky point of blufP 

 overlooking Four Mile creek. The earth and stone had been excavated 

 to a depth of two feet. There were found portions of the hard, dry 

 bones of three persons, two adults and a child, with them a buffalo 

 bone, and a few Unio ; the excellent drainage aiding in preserving 

 them. Some arrow- and spear- points were found, of dark bluish chert, 

 of fairly good workmanship, and covered with a hard lime deposit. 



It must be remembered that very few lA the articles which are 

 originally buried in a mound remain after the lapse of ages — usually 

 nothing but stone, bone, or pottery. Such articles as buckskin cloth- 

 ing, furs, buffalo-robes in which the dead were wrapped, head-dress, 

 the ornamented shafts of lances, bows and arrows, all disappear in 

 time ; so that what we find is but a small remainder of the orignal 

 burial, almost nothing remaining by which to judge of the dress, 

 food or customs of the people. Then, burrowing animals nearly al- 

 ways have invaded the mounds, and small articles, such as orna- 

 ments or beads of stone, bone, or shell, are scattered, mixed with 

 the earth, or thrown out, and difficult to find. In these mounds 

 everything had disappeared save some of the larger bones and what- 

 ever implements of stone or pottery may have been placed in them. 



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