AN INTRODUCTION TO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY 



By WILLIAM DUNCAN STRONG 



Anthropologist, Bureau of American Ethnology 



(With 25 Plates) 



FOREWORD 



The present paper was completed in April 1932, but publication 

 at that time was not possible. It was revised and brought up to date 

 during the early part of 1935. Since at that time the bulk of the 

 manuscript was already written, it proved impractical to incorporate 

 throughout the new terminology and taxonomic method proposed by 

 McKern (1934) and others for Middle Western archeology. How- 

 ever, every effort has been made herein to present all the cultural 

 data (wherever possible in statistical form) from each individual site, 

 and it is hoped that the materials thus afforded may be fitted into 

 whatever system of cultural classification may be desired. 



Wedel (1935, IV) has prepared a " Preliminary Classification for 

 Nebraska and Kansas Cultures " along the lines suggested by McKern. 

 There follows a very similar classification for the cultural groupings 

 discussed in the present paper. This should be considered in rela- 

 tionship to the later section, " Grouping oi Sites and Summary of 

 Cultures Represented ". If it is remembered that in the present report 

 the much abused term " Culture " has been primarily employed to 

 designate what is implied by the newly proposed, and useful term, 

 "Aspect ", a major difference between the two terminologies will 

 disappear. The " Central Plains Phase " is tentatively introduced to 

 distinguish certain groupings of sites which, although similar in 

 many ways, differ in house types, ceramics, and certain other fea- 

 tures from Upper Mississippi Aspects. The " Woodland Phase " is 

 not given Basic Culture status because of its definite Mississippi Basic 

 Culture affiliations (see Setzler, 1933). A "Great Plains Basic Cul- 

 ture " and an " Early Hunting Phase " are introduced to include 

 those Plains sites which show no Basic Mississippi or other already 

 classified influences. The present groupings are purely tentative, and 

 certain of them will undoubtedly be revised in the light of fuller data. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 93, No. 10 



