NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY — STRONG 21 5 



the uniform color of the sandy soil and the lack of time to dig an ade- 

 quate trench prevented any positive determination. It may be that this 

 is a remnant of the " breastworks " referred to by Omaha tradition, but 

 further work will be needed to verify such a conclusion. There is, 

 however, no doubt that there was a large camp at this site, and 

 from the few trade artifacts found here it may have been early 

 historic in time. Possibly the copper " danglers " and glass beads were 

 left here by later Indians, but they occur intermixed with the aboriginal 

 detritus. Shallow trenches penetrating the grass cover in this part of 

 the site might reveal untouched hearths, but time was lacking for ex- 

 tensive work and our few trial pits yielded no evidence of this sort. 



As already suggested, the pottery from these sites falls into two 

 main types. The first of these comes entirely from the downstream 

 site (Di), according to Mr. Hill. It is a very heavy ware, ranging 

 from one-quarter to three-eighths of an inch in thickness and of a 

 uniform grayish brown color (pi. 22, fig. i, a, b, c, e). Both surface 

 and cross-sections of these sherds show numerous holes, apparently 

 where some sort of vegetable tempering has been burned out, and in 

 this sense it is " hole-tempered ". In addition there is much very 

 fine white sand which probably also served for tempering. A very 

 heavy vertical ridging occurs on the outer surface which suggests 

 cord marking in general appearance but is more probably due to 

 vertical pressure from a straw-wrapped paddle or perhaps by scratch- 

 ing with a pointed stick. Lack of twisted fiber impressions argues 

 against the use of a cord-wrapped paddle. The vessels, to jucj^e from 

 the few rim sherds in Mr. Hill's collection, come to an abrupt edge 

 and have no flare nor any sort of a shoulder or handles (pi. 22, fig. i, 

 h, e). The inner surface has been left smooth, but the lip is marked 

 like the outside with triangular ridges succeeding each other around 

 the rim. One or two of the rare rim fragments have smooth lips. The 

 ware is surprisingly hard and light, though very thick and crumbly 

 in appearance. One large rim sherd (pi. 22, fig. i, e) shows a marked 

 curve below the rim as though it were part of an open-mouthed round- 

 bottomed bowl. This type of pottery is unique in Nebraska so far as 

 my own observations extend, and it is very scarce even at this site. 

 I have picked up sherds of this general type (thick " hole-" and 

 sand-tempered, ridged on the outside and gray brown in color, but 

 denser and heavier in composition of paste) at Kaighns Point on 

 the south side of the Wildcat Hills in Scotts Bluff County about 12 

 miles south of Minatare, Nebr. Some of Renaud's sherds from sur- 

 face sites in eastern Colorado also rather suggest this ware." Its 



*■' Renaud, E. B., 1931 a, plate p. 89. 



