NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 69 



promise of wider correlations. It is this evidence that is now pre- 

 sented. First, a series of village and ossuary sites in south-central 

 Nebraska are considered. Then a series of village and ossuary sites 

 in eastern Nebraska, all the latter belonging to the prehistoric " Ne- 

 braska culture " of Gilder and Sterns, are discussed. Next, the im- 

 portant Walker Gilmore site near Rock Bluffs, Cass County, where the 

 Nebraska culture is superimposed over an earlier and very different 

 horizon, is dealt with at some length. Following this, other sites not 

 fitting into any clearly distinguished culture group are referred to, 

 and, later still, sites incompletely known but important in this initial 

 attempt to trace the spread of known prehistoric cultures are men- 

 tioned. I^ast of all, recent finds revealing the earliest known evidence 

 of man in Nebraska will be considered. 



Reference to the map of sites (fig. i), coupled with the map of 

 geographic areas and tribal domains (fig. 2), will aid the reader in 

 following this necessarily incomplete account. We are here dealing 

 with a huge area of which a great, indeed the greater, part is still 

 unknown from the archeological standpoint. That the limited work 

 already accomplished will give a complete outline of Nebraska pre- 

 history is not to be expected, but perhaps the beginnings of such an 

 outline may emerge. 



Village on Lost Creek (Dooley Site), Franklin County 



On the south side of the Republican River near its junction with a 

 small stream known as Lost Creek is a large aboriginal village site of 

 prehistoric origin (fig. i, site 13; fig. 4). Traces of former occupa- 

 tion are to be found over many acres of creek bottom and hill slope, 

 and several similar sites occur farther south along Lost Creek. The 

 place where Lost Creek enters the Republican River is marked on 

 the west by steep walls culminating in bare river terraces. To the 

 east, however, the land gradually rises to a series of low, rounded 

 hills. These hills and the lower lands are nearly all under cultivation 

 at the present time, and the plowed fields are marked by abundant 

 potsherds, flint work, and other cultural detritus. Owing to its size 

 and the present state of cultivation, no detailed map of the entire 

 site was obtained, but a former population of considerable size is 

 indicated. The concentration of artifacts and camp debris in certain 

 small areas over the plowed fields marks the location of numerous 

 lodges, and the general similarity of the potsherds and other cultural 

 evidence over the entire site suggests an occupation more or less 

 uniform in composition and in time. The fact that no traces of white 



