NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 79 



Accounts of the amateur work across the draw rather suggest that they 

 dug out some outside caches, but there is no certainty in this regard. 

 Since comparatively few complete specimens were found in any of the 

 caches it seems probable that they were emptied by their owners when 

 the house was abandoned. 



Cache i was a bell-shaped storage pit, 6 feet 3 inches deep and 3 feet 

 6 inches in greatest diameter, located in the southwest corner of the 

 house. A cross-section and the position of the pit is shown in figs. 5 

 and 6. It had been carefully dug out of the hard magnesia-streaked 

 earth, and its narrow mouth opened just below the floor at a depth 

 of about 36 inches. There was much white ash in the opening, but the 

 lower soil in the cache was dark and much mixed with midden 

 material. This soil could be taken out with the bare hands, in marked 

 contrast to the walls which were extremely hard. 



To judge from the manner in which the walls scaled ofif to a depth of 

 I to 2 inches, the cache had evidently been originally lined with wet 

 clay. The fioor was flat with rounded edges. The following articles 

 were taken from this pit : i worked bison scapula, i hammerstone, 

 I antler shaft straightener, 4 bone awls, i antler flaking tool, 2 cut 

 antlers, potsherds, several fragments of incised antler ( ?) bracelet, 

 I bone fishhook, 3 flint hoes, several broken flint blades, and several 

 fragments of baked wattle and daub with imprints of grass or reed. 

 Two large flat slabs of low-grade jasper, many lumps of baked clay, 

 burned limestone, flint spalls, chips, pebbles, mollusk shells, and 

 various animal remains were also found. Although this was the richest 

 cache found in the house, it too appeared tohave been largely emptied 

 by its owners. 



Cache 2 was located directly north of cache i in the northwest corner 

 of the house (figs. 5, 6). It was shallower than cache i, being 5 feet 

 10 inches deep and 3 feet in greatest diameter. Unlike the former, it 

 had a wide mouth and contained very little material. The most striking 

 feature was the flooring of 12 large slabs of low-grade jasper (pi. 4, 

 fig. 3). These were arranged evenly over the floor of the cache, and 

 above the mouth of the cache, about floor level, were a considerable 

 number of other slabs, perhaps having served as a covering. One 

 chipped jasper celt, two bone awls, and some potsherds were the only 

 artifacts in the pit. There was much white ash at its opening but the 

 lower soil was soft, black, and much mixed. There was no clay lining, 

 though the rounded walls were distinct. 



According to G. P. Spence, of Franklin, a similar stone-lined cache 

 pit with very little in it was encountered in the older diggings across the 

 draw. Ralph Douglas, of Bloomington, while digging in a plowed field 



