202 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



and the scanty artifacts occurred in the mixed gray earth above it. 

 It therefore seems probable that this level was prepared for mortuary 

 purposes by the building of extensive fires upon it, the removal of 

 these fires and the placing of the human bones in the slight pit and, last 

 of all. the heaping of earth and stone slabs over and around these 

 remains. 



The two definite artifacts from mound 2 are of interest. The first 

 of these is a rather heavy stemmed point of gray " Nehawka " flint 

 (pi. 7, fig. I, n). In type it is slightly shouldered and definitely barbed 

 with a convex base (SCbi), being the only point of this type found 

 in situ during our excavations in eastern Nebraska (table 3), 

 though it is similar to the predominant type in level II of Signal 

 Butte (pi. 24, fig. 2, e, f). The other artifact is a small, oval, flaked 

 knife or side scraper of the same material (pi. 7, fig. 2, /). As 

 indicated in table 3. similar artifact types were found in house pit 

 excavations at the Gates and Rock BluiT sites, in the Graham ossuary, 

 and rather commonly at the Lost Creek site (see pi. 7, fig. 2, k). 

 These correspondences, however, cannot be too heavily stressed, 

 because of the simple type and widespread occurrence of this sort 

 of artifact. The occurrence of one small flake of obsidian is interest- 

 ing. Obsidian, so far as my personal observations extend, was noted 

 solely at the surface sites on the Dismal River and at the stratified 

 Signal Butte site near Scottsblufif. The finding of numerous flakes 

 and fragments of the gray flecked " Nehawka " flint, in addition to 

 the artifacts of this material, has a definite bearing on the larger 

 problem concerning the utilization of the adjacent quarry pits, if such 

 they prove to be. No pottery was observed in the entire excavation, 

 though a careful watch was kept for any ceramic remains. 



Conditions at mound 2 closely resemble those described by Gilder " 

 at Long's Hill inasmuch as fragmentary human skeletal remains 

 occurred in an apparently artificial mound and on a layer of baked 

 clay. The Long's Hill findings differed, inasmuch as pottery frag- 

 ments and artifacts (apparently of the Nebraska culture type) 

 occurred with the burials above the burned clay stratum, while other 

 scattered human remains were found at considerable depths below this 

 stratum. So far as our excavations in mound 2 extended there were 

 no human remains below the burned soil, but, as already indicated, 

 more extensive work must be carried on here before this can be ac- 

 cepted as an established fact. The artifacts from mound 2 ofifer 

 little evidence as to the cultural affiliations of the burials. The 



" 1908, pp. 64, 65. Also footnote i, p. 65, for a similar occurrence in Iowa. 



