NO. 10 NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 247 



Our present knowledge of this culture (1932) depends on exca- 

 vations in two villages (fig. i, sites 13, 17), three ossuaries (fig. i, 

 sites 14, 15, 16), and other sites (fig. i, sites 18, 19), besides reports 

 on similar villages and ossuaries furnished by A. T. Hill, which are 

 not specifically listed here. Since ceramic remains seem particularly 

 significant in indicating the relationship between the various sites 

 grouped under the term Upper Republican culture, this character- 

 istic phase will be briefly outlined. This has already been done in 

 some detail in earlier sections dealing with the Lost Creek, Prairie 

 Dog Creek, Alma ossuary, Munson Creek ossuary, Sweetwater, Medi- 

 cine Creek, North Platte, Signal Butte, and Butte sites, hence only 

 a brief recapitulation of the salient characteristics is necessary at this 

 time. Briefly, then. Upper Republican pottery is a well-made, rather 

 hard ware with grit tempering. This tempering material is usually 

 a rather fine pulverized stone, though occasionally coarse sand and 

 gravel is employed. In color, a gray tone predominates, ranging to 

 a light buff in some cases. The surface of the ware is smoothed off 

 but never highly polished. It does not appear to have been treated 

 with oil, and with one exception a slip of any sort is absent. This 

 exception is the occurrence of a bright red hematite stain, often applied 

 prior to firing, on the inner surface of a small proportion of sherds at 

 nearly all such sites. Decorative effects are also secured by cord mark- 

 ings over the outer surface, apparently applied with cord-wrapped 

 paddles. The percentage of cord-marked ware as compared with plain 

 ware appears to be rather high (90 percent at Lost Creek, house i, 

 and 94 percent at the Prairie Dog Creek ossuary) . A similar pre- 

 dominance of cord-marked ware seems to occur at other sites of this 

 culture that have been investigated, but exact figures are not available. 

 There is no doubt as to the nature of these paddle marks, since the 

 impress of cords, often vertically applied, is clearly visible on many 

 sherds. 



Rims of this ware are characterized by a predominance of definite 

 collars, geometric incised designs confined to the collars, and incisions 

 across or along the top of the lip of many vessels. At the Lost Creek 

 site, house i, 82 percent of rims had definite collars and at the Prairie 

 Dog Creek ossuary slightly less than 50 percent. The rim forms and 

 incised decoration at two Lost Creek type sites in the Upper Re- 

 publican Valley are indicated in table 5 (p. 248), 



Incised decoration is confined to the collars or necks of vessels 

 and to the tops of rims, which are often notched. Handles or lugs 

 are almost lacking in such sites on the upper Republican River and 

 rare in those that have been investigated on the Loup River. Another 



