NO. 10 NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 243 



Waldo R. Wedel and Lee Daniels to examine the site. According to 

 Mr. Wedel °* the Butte material came from a number of cache pits 

 situated on a high fiat terrace about 200 feet above Ponca Creek. 

 Artifacts occur over an area of some 10 to 15 acres, with numerous 

 cache pits strung along the edge of the terrace. The village site is 

 marked by low gravel-covered mounds, but whether these are lodge 

 sites, refuge heaps, or neither is not yet clear. According to Wedel, 

 the pottery, which is abundant, is similar in many respects to the 

 Upper Republican (Lost Creek, etc.) ware, having collared rims; 

 parallel incised-line rim decoration ; zones where the lower edge of the 

 collar has been pinched up between thumb and forefinger and, I pre- 

 sume, cord marking on the body of the vessel. On the other hand, 

 much of the ware has high, direct undecorated rims, wide lugs or tabs, 

 a yellowish color, and lacks cord marking, all of which features are 

 distinct from those of the Upper Republican pottery type and sug- 

 gestive of Nebraska Culture ceramics. Wedel and Daniels picked 

 up numerous surface sherds of both types and note that the local 

 collectors place both types in the same containers, claiming that they 

 come from the same pits. On the basis of limited excavation Wedel 

 is inclined to think that this is actually the case. It is possible that 

 stratification of two cultures each marked by a distinctive pottery 

 type occurs here, although from Wedel's observations it seems more 

 probable that there has been a partial cultural amalgamation. This 

 will be discussed in the concluding sections of the present paper, 

 the point here stressed being the fact that the Upper Republican type 

 of pottery, albeit mixed or amalgamated with pottery of another type, 

 occurs in the northeastern part of the State. 



In this regard a point already noted must be stressed, namely, the 

 occurrence of apparently numerous prehistoric village and burial sites 

 on the Upper Elkhorn River near the town of O'Neill, Holt County 

 (map, fig. I, site 30). Unfortunately, no members of the Survey have 

 had the opportunity of examining these remains, which have been 

 called to public attention by J. B. O'Sullivan, of O'Neill,'" From the 

 available descriptions numerous house pits mark these sites, some of 

 which yield only bone artifacts while others have considerable pot- 



** Letters of November 21 and December 7, 1931. Sites in this vicinity have 

 since been investigated by Dr. E. H. Bell, and detailed reports are being pre- 

 pared. The culture represented here seems to be a hybrid between what we 

 have called the Nebraska and the Upper Republican cultures. 



""Omaha World-Herald, Sunday, December 22, 1929. Mr. O'Sullivan has 

 also furnished the writer additional information, letters of January 7 and 

 August 5, 1930. 



