64 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



menial significance. No such shrine or altar was found in the second 

 house excavated. Thus the protohistoric house type is practically 

 identical with that of the historic Pawnee save that the one house at 

 the Schuyler site is technically superior to any of the latter so far 

 excavated, and the earlier houses cling to the four-post central 

 foundation. 



Very little is known of the protohistoric Pawnee burial complex, 

 Wedel found a semiflexed adult skeleton in a cache pit at the Schuyler 



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'BEAM 



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^'/VTfiANCe PASSACe 



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 9 : 



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Fig. 3- — Floor plan of protohistoric Pawnee earth lodge, Burkett site, Nance 

 County. I-IV, central posts; 1-12, outer posts; A, burned buffalo skull shrine; 

 B, C, broken pots ; ?, extra post molds or pocket caches. 



site in June 1932 and mentions unverified reports of sitting burials 

 from the same place. Blackman (1924, p. 7) has described an ossuary 

 at the Burkett site which, if verified by future research, may prove 

 to be an important link with prehistoric cultures in Nebraska. So far 

 no hilltop burial grounds have been reported from the vicinity of 

 these sites. 



The ceramic remains from both the Burkett and Schuyler sites are 

 strikingly similar and of the finest type so far reported from Nebraska. 

 Both sites are astonishingly rich in broken pottery, which occurs in 

 abundance in house sites and refuse heaps. This pottery was first 



