NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY — STRONG I23 



teeth, and other skeletal parts were found to the number of 49. All 

 were disarticulated, and no indication of any complete skeletons or 

 bundle burials were observed. 



The artifacts included 30 pieces of pottery, 3 small shell pendants, 

 5 columnar shell beads, 3 disk shell beads, 4 bone beads, 2 five-notched 

 arrowpoints (NBa3), fragments of flint, pebbles, some yellow paint 

 (limonite ?), mussel shells, a conch shell fragment, and some burnt 

 clay. The pot rims are mainly of the collared type, with incised hori- 

 zontal line decoration or with regular notching around the lowest and 

 widest portion of the collar (compare pis. 5 and 9) . The shell pendants 

 are identical with those from the Graham site (pi. 9, fig. 2, i, j, I, m, 11). 

 The arrowpoints are thin, beautifully chipped examples of the NBa3 

 type (see table 2 and compare pi. 7, fig. i, c). A comparison of these 

 artifacts with the findings in the Graham ossuary can leave little doubt 

 that the culture represented in both is practically identical, 



Mr. Hill adds that although no village has yet been located at the 

 Marshall site, there is a village site, as yet unexcavated, close by the 

 Alma site. He finds no indication of pit burials in the Alma ossuary, 

 stating, " While we have not excavated the Alma site fully, I do not 

 believe that we will find any pit or bundle burials. Everything in this 

 ossuary seems to be evenly distributed and well scattered. As you 

 will note in the drawing I sent you, the artificial material is about as 

 thick one place as another." (Letter of December 17, 1931.) 



Ossuary on Munson Creek, Howard County 



In the letter just quoted Mr. Plill also mentions a rather unique 

 type of ossuary pit located in the North Loup River drainage 3 miles 

 west of the town of Elba (map, fig. i, site 16). 



At the Lehn site on Munson Creek in the ossuary, which is one-fourth of a 

 mile south of the village, I found a very peculiar situation. We cleaned off a 

 space of ground about 16 feet east and west and about the same dimensions north 

 and south and found charcoal, bones, flint, and pottery. We started to clean 

 this out and found that it had been originally dug down from 18 inches to 26 

 inches and was not level but declined toward the center. Three feet north of 

 the exact center of this 16-foot square we found an ossuary pit that was 53 

 inches deep, 78 inches long, and 60 inches wide with rounded corners. We 

 cleaned this out very carefully and found two fairly good skulls and fragments 

 of three others, also found four shell beads of the disk type, three shell beads 

 of the tubular type, two of the three notched arrows [NBa2], one Harahey type 

 knife [NCa], one bone pendant, one thumb scraper, a part of a cedar pole (that 

 had been standing upright and extended up about 2 feet from the bottom of the 

 hole), charcoal, and numerous potsherds. There were human bones of at least 

 eight different skeletons in this hole, scattered from the top of the ground to 

 the entire bottom. One of the skull fragments which was the top part of the 



