NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG I4I 



might say most of the pottery — from Nebraska suggests lump model- 

 ing and the use of the paddle and anvil method, this is the only 

 definite artifact of the latter type so far recorded from the State. It 

 calls to mind a somewhat similar artifact (pi. 17, fig. i, b), also pre- 

 sented by Dr. Gilmore, which came from the surface on the Joe F. 

 Behrns farm near Nehawka, Cass County (see map, fig. 27). The 

 latter object is ground from a soft blue-gray indurated clay and has 

 a rounded horizontal handle and a slightly swelling concave disk on 

 the bottom. The artifact shows the patination of long use and sug- 

 gests a tool for shaping the outside of pottery while using a rounded 

 stone or usual pottery anvil on the inside. The material of which it is 

 made is too soft for use as a pestle or hammer. The type is unique 

 not only for Nebraska but for North America generally, at least so 

 far as my own observations go." This matter of pottery techniques in 

 the prehistoric cultures of Nebraska will be referred to later. 



Two pairs of red sandstone shaft polishers came from house 5. 

 The first pair (pi. 17, fig. i, c, g) were found in association in the 

 cache pit. They are oval in form, 60 mm long and 40 mm wide, and 

 each has a single lo-mm groove running lengthwise. The two arti- 

 facts are rather thin and could easily be held in one hand enclosing a 

 wooden arrow shaft to be polished by an up-and-down motion. The 

 other two artifacts were found separately and may or may not have 

 been used together. One is of the " nail bufifer " type with a broken 

 end, being 70 mm long and 26 mm broad. It has a single broad, deep 

 groove 17 mm wide. The other polisher is rounded on one end, broken 

 on the other, and has a single groove 10 mm wide on the flat lower 

 surface. It is 95 mm long and 35 mm wide. 



As was true in house 2, a considerable amount of slaked lime was 

 found in house 5. Besides three lumps of white slaked lime, there 

 was a large flat slab (125 by 75 by 25 mm) of this material. These 

 pieces are powdery on the surface and whiten a dark surface like 

 chalk. Two lumps of a disintegrating red rock each containing a 

 considerable amount of mica and much battered suggest the applica- 

 tion of extreme heat to break them down for use as tempering material. 

 A large lump of tempered but unbaked clay is also reported from 

 this house by Dr. Gilmore. It was not available for examination. 

 There is also a piece of very porous dark gray material strongly sug- 

 gesting pumice stone. It is extremely light and rough on its surface, 

 one side flattened, perhaps from use as a grinding implement. The 



" The " trowels " or modeling implements from the Middle Mississippi Valley 

 group, figured by Holmes, 1903, pi. 34, seem to be rather close analogues and 

 may have served the same purpose. 

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