NO. TO NEBRASKA ARC UROLOGY STRONG 193 



Work in Shell 



We found no shell artifacts, though numerous crumbly moUusk 

 shells were encountered. Sterns (1915 a, II, p. 188) reports one piece 

 of notched shell from the lower strata. 



Work in Wood 



The abundance of elm and cotton wood bark, possibly the remains 

 of house walls, has already been mentioned. Fragments of twigs were 

 numerous, especially at exposure 10. Besides cottonwood and white 

 elm, twigs, charcoal, and bark of either the bur oak (Quercus macro- 

 carpa) or the white oak (Quercus alba) and twigs of the wild plum 

 tree (the latter infested with "black knot") were identified. One 

 worked piece of wood, round in cross-section and pointed, was also 

 recovered there but subsequently lost. It was the size of an arrovv 

 shaft and may indicate the use of pointed wooden arrows with or 

 without stone heads. At the same site a small worked piece of wood 

 90 mm long by 14 mm wide was recovered (pi. 18, fig. 2, o). The 

 top of this fragment was fuzzy as the result of hammering, one end 

 was cut ofif, and it had been cut in two, evidently with a stone tool. 

 From its size and hammered top it suggests a skin-stretching peg. 

 The other numerous wood fragments recovered showed no evidence 

 of having been worked. 



Vegetal Remains 



The most numerous plant remains in the deep strata were the seeds 

 of the bush summer squash {Cucurbita pepo type melopepo) and 

 those of the bottle gourd (Cuciirbita lagenaria) . Besides the seeds of 

 this last species many small and large fragments of the gourd shell 

 itself were encountered. These seeds and gourd shells were oc- 

 casionally found in the hearths but were especially numerous in the 

 refuse layers. In such deposits hundreds of seeds and gourd frag- 

 ments occurred in large pockets. Sterns (191 5 a, II, pp. 188-189) 

 mentions the abundance of squash seeds, stating that one-third of 

 all his material from the site consisted of these seeds. In identifying 

 squash seeds of the same species from a historic Pawnee village, 

 circa 1806, Dr. M. R. Gilmore " writes: 



This type of cucurbit was of coextensive distribution with corn in the ab- 

 original agriculture of North America. In later prehistoric and historic cultures 

 many tribes possessed Cucurbita maxima (winter squash), Cucurbita pepo 



"Letter of April 10, 1931. All of these tree and plant identifications were 

 made by Dr. M. R. Gilmore. 



