240 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



located. Furthermore, in little-worked regions, especially where dis- 

 tinctive potsherds are not numerous, such maps are utterly meaning- 

 less from the cultural standpoint. Thanks to the central agencies 

 that now exist" there is a growing spirit of cooperation between all 

 those interested in preserving the past history of man in the New 

 World, and such preliminary survey maps, on file at central institu- 

 tions, are accessible to every qualified amateur and professional arche- 

 ologist. For the above reasons the following discussion will be con- 

 fined to those sites and regions which have either been thoroughly 

 excavated or have an important bearing on the sites already discussed 

 in detail. 



During the summer of 1931 the Nebraska Archeological Survey 

 excavated a prehistoric village near the modern town of Sweetwater, 

 on a small intermittent tributary of the South Loup River in north- 

 central Buffalo County (map, fig. i, site 17). A complete report on 

 this work will eventually be published but a brief consideration of 

 the outstanding cultural factors revealed may be given here. Three 

 earth lodges, all with a four-post central foundation, were excavated." 

 One of the houses was perfectly round, one intermediate in shape, 

 and one square in outline. In structure these houses resemble, or are 

 intermediate in form to, both the round historic Pawnee earth lodges 

 and the prehistoric square lodge discussed in connection with the 

 Lost Creek site. There were numerous cache pits both inside and out- 

 side the houses, and several small refuse heaps were also excavated. 

 The various houses, storage pits, and refuse heaps, as indicated by the 

 material they contained, all represented the same culture. The ceramic 

 remains are strikingly like those from Lost Creek and the Prairie 

 Dog Creek ossuary, except that the Sweetwater rim sherds are char- 

 acteristically decorated around the rim by impressed cords rather 

 than by incisions (pi. 21, fig. 2, c-ni). This feature alone sets the 

 Sweetwater ceramics apart as a subtype of the widespread Upper 

 Republican ware. In the preponderance of collars, horizontal and 

 angular rim designs, and cord marking on the body of pots, a close 

 resemblance to the Lost Creek or Upper Republican ware appears. 

 A small proportion of the potsherds likewise show a characteristic 



"' The Committee on State Archaeological Surveys (of the) National Research 

 Council, Washington, D. C. ; The Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian 

 Institution, Washington, D. C. ; and, for Nebraska particularly, the University 

 of Nebraska Archeological Survey, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and the 

 Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln. 



" Photographs of these houses, excavated and photographed by W. R. W'cdel, 

 have been published. See Strong, 1932, fig. 146. 



