NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY — STRONG 2$l 



Owing to the more abundant and occasionally contradictory nature of 

 the data, this cannot be done as concisely as it was for the less fully 

 investigated Upper Republican culture. 



The Nebraska culture has so far been revealed in a large number 

 of sites in eastern Nebraska and northeastern Kansas bordering the 

 Missouri River. Although its boundaries have been incompletely in- 

 vestigated, it is known to extend from Thurston County. Nebr., south 

 to Doniphan County, Kans. Apparently, it also occurs on the eastern 

 side of the Missouri River as the recently distinguished Glenwood 

 culture, which awaits full description by Dr. Keyes. The cultural 

 complex revealed in these eastern Nebraska sites was designated by 

 Sterns as the " rectangular earth-lodge culture," but since rectangu- 

 lar dwellings characterize the Upper Republican culture as well, 

 Gilder's term " Nebraska culture " seems preferable. 



The Nebraska culture is particularly characterized by abundant and 

 distinctive pottery remains. Examples of this pottery obtained by the 

 Survey, as well as certain pieces collected at an earlier date by Gilder 

 and now in the Nebraska State Museum, are illustrated in plates 13, 

 14, 15. The paste of the Nebraska culture ware is usually smooth 

 and well mixed and in the majority of specimens has a fiaking rather 

 than a crumbling texture. Grit tempering predominates, usually a 

 medium fine sand or pulverized rock, though gravel is occasionally 

 used. Sherds with the latter type of tempering represent the poorest 

 quality within the ware. Sparkling iron pyrites, a little-ground-up 

 limestone, hematite, and, in a few rather aberrant sherds, shell are 

 all occasionally used for tempering. When fine tempering material has 

 been used, the ware is rather hard, but when gravel has been em- 

 ployed, it is softer and more crumbling in texture. The prevailing 

 color is a reddish brown ranging from orange or brick-red to an 

 almost gray or black tone. Since the majority of this pottery has been 

 used for cooking, much of it is fire-stained or smoke-blackened. As 

 Sterns points out, this variation in color seems mainly to be the result 

 of somewhat different degrees of firing combined with slightly dif- 

 ferent clays locally employed. 



The surface of this ware is usually polished but rarely has a 

 lustrous appearance. In a few cases the complete vessel seems to have 

 been boiled in (maize?) oil, giving it a more shiny appearance (pi. 14, 

 fig. T, f, fig. 2, h). The nearest approach to a slip is a gray-white wash 

 on a few potsherds obtained by the Survey, which had evidently been 

 applied on inner and outer surfaces prior to firing. Sterns notes 

 that a few small vessels he collected contained red hematite paint on 

 the inside, as though used for paint pots. The surface is paddle- 



