RIVER BASIN SALVAGE PROGRAM — ROBERTS 533 



third location, which was much hxrger than the other two and was 

 known locally as Sheep Cave, contained cultural sequences which 

 follow in general those at Pictograph Cave and Buzzard Shelter. 

 Sheep Cave contained, in addition to the material culture remains, 

 five flexed burials. Studies on the skeletons have not been completed 

 but it is expected that they will give a good indication of the relation- 

 ships of the people. As a whole the information and specimens from 

 the three sites give a much better understanding of the archeology 

 of that part of Texas, and when considered in conjunction with the 

 results of other investigations in the Wliitney Keservoir basin should 

 provide a satisfactory story of aboriginal activity in the area. 



VILLAGE REMAINS 



Most of the excavations made by River Basin Surveys parties and 

 cooperating institutions have been in village remains, the largest and 

 most extensive being in the Missouri Basin. At the Medicine Creek 

 Eeservoir in western Nebraska, where the early hunting sites pre- 

 viously described were located, 8 village sites were excavated by a 

 party from the River Basin Surveys, and 14 house remains in 6 dif- 

 ferent sites were dug by a party from the Nebraska State Historical 

 Society. Six of those investigated by the River Basin Surveys repre- 

 sent what is known archeologically as the Upper Republican Aspect, 

 while the other two were a variant of the Woodland Culture which 

 was widely distributed over areas farther east. The Upper Republi- 

 can sites showed that the people of that culture usually built their 

 roughly rectangular houses in clusters of two to four with the gi'oups 

 frequently located some distance apart. Because of that practice, 

 there is a question as to whether they might not more properly be 

 called family communities rather than villages. Often it was diffi- 

 cult to determine where one village stopped and another started, 

 although there were examples indicating that villages at times might 

 contain as many as 18 to 35 or 40 houses. 



Artifacts found in association with such houses consist of stone 

 and bone implements, objects of antler, potsherds and restorable pot- 

 tery vessels, and occasional shell ornaments. In the storage pits were 

 charred kernels of corn, corncobs, charred nuts, squash seeds and sun- 

 flower seeds, as well as bison bones, fish bones, crayfish, and fresh- 

 Mater mussel shells. The people who lived in such communities ob- 

 viously depended primarily on agriculture with hunting a secondary 

 occupation. 



The two village sites where the Woodland variant occurred showed 

 that the house type was not as well developed as that of the Upper 

 Republicant Culture. The houses were grouped fairly closely in clus- 

 ters of four to six. The superstructure appears to have been rather 



