154 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



HOUSE 2 



This house pit at the southeastern end of the village was completely 

 excavated. It was selected because it was far enough distant from 

 house I to furnish some indication as to whether all the houses on the 

 ridge were contemporaneous and actually part of one village. The 

 fact that the actual pit contained no trees was also in its favor. As 

 already indicated, the original pit was 30 feet in diameter and 15 

 inches deep in the central and deepest part. As in house pit i, the 

 hard, nodular soil could not be sliced smoothly and this combined 

 with the disturbance caused by roots, rodents, and insects, made the 

 determination of internal features difficult. 



The floor plan of house 2 was subrectangular, 21 feet 6 inches 

 long from north to south and 20 feet wide from east to west. It thus 

 formed almost a square with the four walls oriented to the cardinal 

 directions (fig. 19). Two clearly defined storage pits (caches i, 3, 

 fig. 19) and one rather indefinite subfloor excavation (cache 2, fig. 19) 

 were noted. Four post molds were located in the central part of the 

 house but only one of these showed any definite portion of the post 

 intact. This post mold (fig. 19, III) had a short, circular section of 

 charred wood in situ just below the floor line. Three of the posts 

 (fig. 19, I-III) evidently ranged from 6 to 9 inches in diameter: 

 the fourth post mold was about 4 inches across. It is possible that 

 posts I-III represent part of a four-pole central foundation, the fourth 

 post, presumably in the disturbed area of cache 2, not being noticed 

 by us. The function of the smaller post is unknown. The central 

 fireplace, about 3 feet 6 inches in diameter, consisted of 3 inches of 

 red baked clay and several inches of ash and charcoal. A number of 

 limestone slabs and nodules, several of the former coated with baked 

 clay, were on the floor near the fireplace (fig. 21). 



The passageway extending from the northwest corner of house 2 

 into the southwest corner of house 3 is exceptionally interesting. It 

 was 3 feet wide, 28 inches deep, and 17 feet long, extending from 

 east to west with a gradual curve toward the north (fig. 19). No 

 trace of any other entrance passage was discovered in house 2, nor, 

 so far as our excavations extended, in house 3. Either the people in 

 house 2 came in through house 3, through a roof entrance, or else 

 there was an exit for both houses midway between the two on the 

 south side of the passage. The presence of a large maple tree (fig. 19, 

 7) at this point prevented further excavation along the south wall 

 of the passage. The owner did not wish the larger trees cut down, 

 and even had we done so, the operation combined with the numerous 



