NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG IQS 



at least so far as present evidence is concerned. Deer, small mam- 

 mals, and birds were hunted, and fresh-water nioUusks were used for 

 food. Larger mammal remains, such as those of the bison, are ex- 

 tremely rare, and such animals seem to have been but little hunted. 



PROBABLE ANTIQUITY OF THE STERNS CREEK CULTURE 



Our later researches add very little to Sterns' conclusions regarding 

 a tentative chronology for the cultures at this site. This matter of 

 dating obviously calls for careful study by experts in matters of sedi- 

 mentation and soil deposition. On two different occasions our party 

 working at the site was accompanied by a field geologist and by a 

 geographer, but their available time was too brief to form definite 

 conclusions beyond confirming the general course of natural events 

 already set forth. 



Sterns (1915 a, II, p. 181 ; also 1915) pointed out the fact that box- 

 elder trees of more than 10 feet in circumference now grow on the 

 present level of the flat. He also found that in the streaked clay de- 

 posits just above the upper layer of the deep ash beds there were over 

 1,000 stratified bands. These bands appear to have been caused by 

 very heavy rains, and as there are not more than two or three of 

 these a year in this region we may have a clue to the time involved 

 in building up the first 4 feet of deposits above the lower living levels. 

 It may be added that above these deposits occurs some 6 feet of 

 washed-in secondary loess and about a foot of black organic soil. 

 Sterns concluded that 500 years would be a good minimum estimate 

 of the time required for such an accumulation. 



A historical approach to this problem rather tends to raise this 

 estimate. To date, more than 40 houses pertaining to the Nebraska 

 culture (i. e.. Sterns " rectangular earth-lodge culture ") have been 

 opened without any traces of Caucasian contacts being discovered. 

 If we take the date of Coronado's explorations in 1540-41 as the maxi- 

 mum date for the beginning of the historic period in this region, this 

 gives the Nebraska culture a minimum date of almost 400 years. It 

 may of course be much older than this, but it cannot be very much 

 younger. Our recent discovery in the protohistoric Pawnee village at 

 the Burkett site of glass beads apparently used prior to the acquisition 

 of the horse shows that artifacts of white origin were traded or 

 carried into Nebraska at a very early period. Hence, it seems to me, 

 we are safe in assuming that the Nebraska culture flourished at a 

 time prior to the Spanish or early French contacts. Therefore the 

 occurrence of Nebraska culture remains on the present surface of the 



