NO. 10 NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 143 



long. The other is a slender, slightly rounded bone awl split from a 

 section of large bone (pi. i8, fig. i, n) . It is broken at the point, only 

 slightly tempered, and measures 200 mm in length. In addition, an un- 

 worked but brown and well-tempered cannon bone of a deer comes 

 from this house. This tempered raw material suggests that heat was 

 applied to the bone before it was worked, at least in some cases. 

 The heating seems too evenly applied to be the result of ordinary 

 cooking or burning. 



Vegetal Remains 



No animal detritus was preserved in the Gilmore collection, but 

 several fragments of charred wooden posts are present. These show 

 t!ie annular rings of growth in cross-section, but the latter are too 

 evenly spaced to promise much in regard to dating. Casual examina- 

 tion of the wood suggests oak or elm, but it has not been accurately 

 identified. Similar post fragments, 2 to 5 inches in diameter, came 

 from house i. They seem to be identical with those from house 5. 



Unusually interesting are five lumps of yellow amberlike resin 

 which were recovered from the cache in house 5. These were sub- 

 mitted to Dr. M. R. Gilmore, of the University of Michigan, for 

 examination. His conclusions are as follows (letter of April 29, 

 1931): 



(i) This resin is from the western yellow pine (Pinus pondcrosus Douglas). 

 The easternmost arm of the range of this tree extends along the course of the 

 Niobrara River as far as northwestern Holt County, Nebr. Its main range 

 is in the mountains to the west and southwestward in Arizona and New Mexico. 

 (2) The resin was probably valued for medicinal use and for chewing gum. 

 Possibly it also had its uses for incense. (3) This resin would be an incidental 

 commodity obtained and imported to the place where it was found in journeys 

 made mainly for other commodities. The journeys by which it was obtained 

 implied travel on foot to the Platte and then across to the Elkhorn to its 

 headwaters near the Niobrara, then over to the Niobrara. This journey would 

 be more than 400, probably 450 miles, going and returning. 



For chewing gum the most common and abundant source in all the region 

 of the Bluestem Prairies was the resin of the Compass Plant {Silphium bacini- 

 atum). But whenever the resins of pine and of spruce were found on journeys 

 into the Pine Ridge and the Black Hills they were gathered also. The resin of 

 Silphium is almost white while that of yellow pine is amber yellow, that of 

 white pine very light yellow, and spruce is darker than that of yellow pine. 



Village Between the Platte River and Papillion Creek 

 (Gates Site), Sarpy County 



On June 19, 1930, a scouting trip to locate the historic Omaha 

 village site at the main forks of Papillion Creek brought unexpected 

 results. No trace of the historic village could be found, but by ac- 



