NO. 10 NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG IO3 



in the vicinity of Lost Creek, the majority came from house 2, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Spence. The bone implements are Hkewise very similar to 

 those from house i. Two crude "picks" of almost unworked bison 

 ulna (pi. 21, fig. I, d) are interesting, since similar crude artifacts are 

 common in historic Pawnee sites. A fragment of bone or antler shaft 

 straightener with notches along one surface is also a new type. One 

 broken bone fishhook was found in house 2. Mr. Spence notes the 

 fact that in all the work carried on at this site no glass, metal, or other 

 Caucasian artifacts were found. This is in accord with our findings 

 in house i . 



DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD 



In spite of much searching by local archeologists and by our own 

 party, no burials pertaining to the prehistoric people of Lost Creek 

 have come to light. One intrusive burial was dug up by local men in 

 the refuse deposits along Lost Creek a short distance north of house i. 

 The artifacts with the skeleton, however, were in large part of Cauca- 

 sian origin and bore no relationship to the earlier culture. Our party 

 did considerable prospecting and trenching on likely points and hills, 

 with entirely negative results. From evidence shortly to be given it 

 appears certain that when these earlier burial places on Lost Creek 

 are located, they will be in the nature of ossuary pits on the higher 

 hills or points along the river or creek. 



Ossuary on Prairie Dog Creek, Harlan County 



Since our efforts to discover the burial places of the Lost Creek 

 people were unavailing, we transferred our activities to a site on the 

 Robert Graham farm across the Republican River from Republican 

 City (fig. T, site 14, fig. 8, site i). This site in Harlan County is 

 about ^o miles west of the Dooley farm on the same or south side 

 of the river. Earlier work here by C. B. Schultz, of Red Cloud, 

 Nebr., had revealed human bone mingled with pottery of a type sug- 

 gesting that from Lost Creek. Mr. Schultz kindly showed me the 

 site in November 1929, and thanks to the permission of Robert 

 Graham, the owner, we were able to work here from July 26 to 

 August 4, 1930. 



The burial site in question was located on the summit of a rolling 

 hill about if miles south of the Republican River and a short distance 

 south of Prairie Dog Creek, which enters the river just northeast of 

 this point (see fig. 8, and pi. 8, figs, i, 2). The site has an altitude 

 of some 2100 feet and w-ith other hills to the east and west forms 

 a line of blufifs bordering the river valley that is rather striking in 



