252 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



marked in a number of cases, but this may be mentioned under the 

 heading of decoration. 



Decoration is mainly efifected by the modehng of rims and secondary 

 features. A few typical Nebraska culture pots have simple incised 

 designs on the body, but there are also a number of unique shell- 

 tempered and well-incised sherds in many of these sites which appear 

 to be intrusive. Clodding rather than incision typifies the ware. Ac- 

 cording to the Survey findings paddle marks appear on less than 50 

 percent of the Nebraska culture sherds (at Rock Blufifs site, house 2, 

 38 percent; at Gates site, house i, 18 percent; house 2, 20 percent, 

 and house 3. less than 50 percent). Thus, as far as the Survey finds 

 are concerned, polished and plain ware predominates. Of the paddle- 

 marked ware, some sherds show certain definite traces of cord im- 

 prints. The bulk of the paddle-marked ware, however, is too much 

 obscured by subsequent smoothing for one to be certain as to the 

 exact nature of the original paddle marks. Sterns makes a general 

 statement that nearly all his sherds show evidence of grass-wound 

 paddle markings, often almost obliterated by subsequent polishing. 

 Since he gives no statistics in this regard it remains for future analysis 

 to determine whether a predominance of paddle-marked ware as men- 

 tioned by Sterns, or a predominance of plain ware as occurs in the 

 Survey findings, is typical of Nebraska culture pottery. The same 

 must be said regarding the different classification of these marks in 

 the present paper as cord imprints or as imprints of grass-wrapped 

 paddles according to Sterns. The decorative effects obtained by 

 modeling of rims, lugs, and handles may be discussed under the 

 general heading of form. 



Pots are the most common form of vessels in this culture, though 

 open-mouthed bowls, a few bottle-necked vessels, and numbers of 

 irregularly shaped small vessels, possibly toys, are also found. Cer- 

 tain effigies and pottery tobacco pipes will be discussed separately. 

 To judge from the lack of any evidence of coiling combined with the 

 irregular, often indented interior surfaces of pots, the Nebraska cul- 

 ture pottery appears to have been lump modeled, probably with paddle 

 and anvil stone, (ilobular vessels with nnmd bottoms predominate, 

 and the majority seem to have had either lugs or handles. Rim types 

 are variable, as table 6 indicates. 



From this table it can be seen that collars are rare in this type 

 of war'=', whereas straight or slightly flaring, unmarked rims are 

 most abundant. Where decoration occurs on rims, it takes the form 

 of " piecrust scallops," i. e., pressed between thumb and forefinger, 

 or else a series of diagonal incisions around the outer lip made with 



