RIVER BASIN SALVAGE PROGRAM — ROBERTS 541 



Columbia Kiver, in California, and various areas in the Southeast. 

 The skeletal remains showed that several dilferent methods of plac- 

 ing the body were followed. In most cases they were in a contracted 

 position with the knees drawn up and the arms folded across the 

 chest. There apparently was no preference with respect to the side, 

 as some were on the riglit side and others on the left. A few were 

 lying face downward. There seemingly was no particular preference 

 for the orientation of the head. Some of the graves contained mor- 

 tuary offerings, while others did not. The grave furniture consisted 

 of pottery vessels, bone and stone implements, shell, and in late hori- 

 zons, glass beads, and, depending on the locality, various forms of 

 shell ornaments. 



An interesting type of ossuary pit occurs in the Republican River 

 drainage in south-central Nebraska and northern Kansas. It has 

 been called "Shell-bead Ossuary" because of the large number of 

 beads made from fresh-water and marine shells which were used 

 as mortuary offerings accompanying the interments. In most cases 

 the human remains found in such pits represent secondary burials, 

 but occasionally a primary interment is present. One good example 

 of such an ossuary was excavated by a River Basin Surveys party in 

 the Harlan County Reservoir area in northern Kansas. Because of 

 the nature of the remains it was difficult to determine the total num- 

 ber of individuals represented. Skulls were few in number and in 

 most cases were in a poor state of preservation, being thus of little 

 help. From a study of the individual bones and a count of the man- 

 dibles present, it was apparent that not less than 61 people were rep- 

 resented. Of that number 56 could be identified with reasonable 

 certainty, and in that group 25 were infants and children while 31 

 were adults ranging from 25 to 55 years of age. 



The large nmnber.of finished disk beads as well as those in various 

 stages of manufacture which were scattered among the bones and 

 throughout the fill in the ossuary pit probably had been in the body 

 bundles at the time of their primary disposal and were gathered up 

 along with the other remains when the secondary intennent was made. 

 In addition to the beads there were also shell pendants of varying 

 shapes, bone implements, and some stone tools. The few potsherds 

 present definitely indicate a Woodland relationship. Charcoal and 

 twigs from the pit throw interesting light on the vegetation in the 

 district and have provided a carbon-14 date. Dr. ^Y. F. Libby, then 

 at the Institute of Nuclear Studies, University of Chicago, tested 

 some of the charcoal and reported in May 1954 that the age of the 

 material was 1,343=1=240 years before the present or A.D. 611±240 

 years. Tliat date indicated a somewhat earlier period for Woodland 

 materials in the Plains than had been previously estimated and also 

 suggested that pottery -making appeared in the Central Plains several 



