NOETH WESTERN IOWA. 417 



ANCIEXT RELICS IN NOKTIIWESTERN IOWA. 



By J. B. CuTTS. 



During a recent journey over Northwestern Iowa I found some frag- 

 ments of ornamented pottery-ware under circumstances of sufficient 

 interest to induce me to forward to you a brief account of them. I 

 obtained these fragments from about three feet below the surface of the 

 ground, on the banks of Little Sioux River, in township 93, range 39. 



The valley of the river is about one mile in width between the line of 

 bluffs on each side, and through the middle of this valley the river has 

 cut its present channel, leaving a terrace on either side, the level of 

 which is from 10 to 12 feet above the water. 



A section of the bank presents a grayish clay at the bottom, covered 

 by 6 or 8 feet of alluvial soil, free from rocks or gravel, and composed 

 principally of transported loess. In this upper deposit I excavated and 

 obtained in the course of half an hour nearly half a peck of fragments, 

 in pieces from the size of an inch to several inches square, and from 

 one-eighth to one-half an inch in thickness. In many cases these frag- 

 ments were ornamented on the outside surface by cross and parallel 

 lines and indentations, the whole exhibiting considerable skill in fash- 

 ioning the material, as well as taste in its ornamentation. There were 

 evidently vessels of various size and degrees of ornament. They were 

 found, as before stated, about 3 feet below the surface. First, at the 

 bottom, occurred a row of stones, each about the size of a man's list, and 

 arranged in the form of a circle, as is often done in building fires to boil 

 one's coffee in the open air. From the center of this circle I obtained 

 several pieces of charcoal of the size of my thumb. Above this circle 

 of rocks were found the pieces of pottery, and above these the bones of 

 animals, which my companion j^ronounced to be those of the buffalo, elk, 

 and beaver. The order of arrangement at once suggested a fire built 

 within a small circle of rocks, on which rested the pottery vessels filled 

 with the flesh of animals, either for ordinary cookery or as a part of 

 that Indian custom which supplied the dead with provisions for their 

 long journey, the whole being then covered with earth, the weight of 

 which has broken the vessels and pressed itself into every interstice, 

 but lefc the order of succession plain. I could find no human remains 

 during my brief examination ; no traces of mounds or Indian residence 

 in the neighborhood. 



The depth below the surface at which these articles were found forbids 

 the supposition of their being of late date. 



The country has been settled by whites only within five or six years 

 past. 

 27 s 



