NO. 10 NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 249 



collections from the Sweetwater site have been intensively studied, 

 the degree of these and possibly other specializations may appear. 

 However, in general appearance and essential characteristics the two 

 ceramic phases are very similar. 



Not only do the sites included in the Upper Republican culture 

 have a common distinctive ceramic type, but they also possess a par- 

 ticular artifact complex. In brief outline this consists of rather abun- 

 dant elbow pipes cut from soft stone ; rare pottery pipes ; sandstone 

 shaft polishers with the elongate oval or " buffer " shape prevailing ; 

 small discoidal and ungrooved hammerstones ; two main types of 

 arrowpoints, a large (NBa) triangular point of rather rough work- 

 manship and a small (NBa, 1-4) type, very delicately chipped and 

 often notched (table 3) ; small planoconvex end scrapers; small ovoid 

 side scrapers ; oval, triangular, and diamond-shaped knives, the latter 

 type beveled and unbeveled in about equal proportions ; chipped celts ; 

 very rarely, polished celts ; excellent bone and antler work, including 

 incised bone and antler bracelets, awls, picks, scapula digging tools, 

 small bone fishhooks, bone beads, cylindrical antler tapping tools or 

 punches, perforated antler shaft straighteners and occasionally bison 

 rib shaft straighteners ; shell artifacts, including cylindrical shell beads ; 

 small, perforated, clawlike pendants, cut shell ornaments (including 

 molluscan species from the Gulf coast) ; and (at one ossuary site) 

 wooden disks covered with beaten copper. A majority of the above 

 artifact types were found in each site assigned to the Upper Re- 

 publican culture that has been intensively excavated. Their propor- 

 tion of occurrence also appears to be very uniform at all such sites. 



Although limited in amount, the evidence regarding the dwellings 

 of the Upper Republican culture is suggestive. So far only one house 

 at Lost Creek and three houses excavated by Wcdel at Sweetwater 

 are known in detail (1932). The first of these was practically square 

 with an eastern and a western entrance passageway and a four-post 

 central foundation. One of the houses at Sweetwater was perfectly 

 round, another was squared on three sides and rounded on the other, 

 and the third was perfectly square. All had central fireplaces, long 

 post-lined entrance passageways, and a four-post central foundation. 

 The available evidence therefore suggests that a subsurface earth 

 lodge was typical, and that these were predominantly square or rec- 

 tangvilar in outline, though the circular lodge was also in use. The 

 latter type is practically identical with the protohistoric Pawnee earth 

 lodge."" Storage pits are located both inside and outside the houses 



**This correspondence can be seen by comparing the diaRram of a protohistoric 

 Pawnee house, tig. 3, with the photograph of the round Sweetwater house 

 previously published, Strong, 1932, fig. 146, c. 



