NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG l8l 



to be referred to shortly. Owing to long plowing, the sherds are all 

 small, though they are quite adequate to establish their general type. 

 The sherds are composed generally of a well-mixed paste with fine grit 

 and in a few cases gravel used for tempering. They appear to have 

 come from small or medium-sized vessels molded by the paddle and 

 anvil rather than the coiling process. The ware is hard and in general 

 seems to have a flaking rather than crumbling texture. The majority are 

 smooth with some polish on the outer surface ; only 22 (including two 

 rim fragments) show partly eradicated cord-wrapped paddle marks. 

 Ten sherds have a gray-white stain on the inner surface, which sug- 

 gests a pseudoslip or chalky wash such as noted in the Rock Blufif 

 Cemetery and Gates site pottery. The color is predominantly a light 

 bufif, ranging in a small number of cases to a dark red, evidently the 

 result of variable firing. Much of the ware is blackish and smoke- 

 stained from use. Of the 10 rim fragments recovered, 2 are slightly 

 flaring and perfectly smooth, 4 are flaring with straight or diagonal 

 tool marks on the outer edge of the lip, i rim is cord marked with 

 diagonal incisions on the outer edge of the lip, and i is too battered 

 for classification. The 2 other rim sherds are somewhat aberrant and 

 will be referred to shortly. No lugs or handles occur in our collection, 

 but this is probably due to the frequently repeated breakage and earlier 

 collecting already referred to. Ten percent of the surface pottery col- 

 lection made by Sterns had lugs. This entire series of sherds agrees 

 very closely with the ceramic remains from rectangular earth lodges 

 in the Rock Blufif Cemetery and Gates sites. This is in agreement 

 with Sterns' conclusion regarding the bulk of the surface pottery 

 fragments (191 5 and 191 5 a, II, p. 182). 



However, in studying his surface material Sterns (1915 a, II, p. 

 182) came to the conclusion that a few of these sherds represented a 

 somewhat dift'erent culture. These sherds, about four in number, were 

 characterized by a marked collar which has heavily incised designs 

 on it. These designs were either in the form of three or four hori- 

 zontal lines below the rim or else simple patterns formed by incised 

 horizontal and diagonal lines. In our own collection, gathered in 1931, 

 are three sherds of this type. Two were found on the surface and 

 one on a gravel bar in the bed of Sterns Creek. All these rim sherds, 

 with one body sherd vertically marked with clear cord imprints, are 

 out of the ceramic pattern of the Nebraska culture but closely ap- 

 proximate the pottery from the Lost Creek and Prairie Dog Creek 

 sites on the Upper Republican River (pis. 5; 9, fig. i). It would 

 thus appear that in the surface occupation at the Walker Gilmore site 

 there had been either some intimate contact of the two cultures or 



