NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG I7I 



excavated. Since this was the first time members of the Archeo- 

 logical Survey had observed human interments in association with 

 potsherds of the Nebraska culture type, it seemed a noteworthy 

 occasion. 



" MOUND " 2 



On our second visit, May i6, we trenched another elevation about 

 100 yards north of " mound " i. " Mound " 2 consisted of a slight 

 crest or rise on the narrow ridge, being about 45 feet from north to 

 south and slightly less from east to west. Since its rise was continu- 

 ous with that of the ridge, it was impossible to estimate accurately 

 the height of the tip or " mound " apart from that of the ridge itself. 

 A 3-foot trench 45 feet long was run through the center of the eleva- 

 tion from north to south. No artificial material was encountered 

 except in a 3-foot area 9 feet from the north end of the mound. Here 

 at a depth of only 10 inches a few human bones were found and these 

 extended down to a depth of 2 feet i inch. Below this the clean sandy 

 soil showed no evidence of any mixture. The trench at this point was 

 carried to a depth of 4 feet and widened to 6 feet. The human bones 

 consisted of an adult pelvic girdle with all the leg bones in place, an 

 adult humerus, and above this the fragments of a child's skull with 

 some other broken bones. The pelvic girdle and leg bones suggested 

 the lower half of a flexed burial, but there was no trace of any of 

 the rest of the skeleton or of the skull. Either the lower part of the 

 body had been thrown into this shallow burial at a time when it was 

 still held together by ligaments, or else the entire body had been 

 buried here and the trunk and skull subsequently removed. Judging 

 from the small size of the disturbed area, the former of these two 

 explanations seems the most likely, especially since the great majority 

 of the foot bones were likewise missing. 



Two potsherds of the Nebraska culture type were found with the 

 bones, also a fragment of a small shell pendant closely similar to those 

 already figured from the Prairie Dog Creek ossuary (pi. 9, fig. 2, i), 

 except that the Saunders site specimen has two incised lines just below 

 the perforation. The pointed tip had been broken ofif and was missing. 



A cross-section of the entire elevation (mound 2) gave no evidence 

 that it was built up artificially ; rather there was a more or less uniform 

 layer of about 20 inches of dark moist soil over both the mound and 

 the nearby ridge. Below this dark layer the soil was light-colored 

 and sandy with numerous calcareous deposits. The bones had evidently 

 been buried in a very shallow excavation in the upper part of the 

 natural rise. No clearly defined pit could be discerned, however, since 



