256 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



by the Survey, 13 sherds from house 2. Rock Bkiffs, 4 sherds from 

 house I, I small pot and 35 sherds from house 2, and 3 sherds from 

 house 3, at the Gates site, were of this thin, dark, and neatly incised 

 ware. Although certain of these sherds suggested a fine shell temper- 

 ing, two black, lustrous sherds with a gray-butif interior surface and 

 abundant shell tempering also came from house 2, Gates site. In 

 addition to this shell-tempered and often incised ware Sterns also 

 found a fragmentary incised vessel or dipper with a solid cylindrical 

 handle. Both this latter type of vessel and the lustrous black shell- 

 tempered ware are found at the important Cahokia site in Illinois "" 

 and represent northern extensions of common Middle Mississippi 

 ceramic types. 



Two explanations are possil)]e for the occurrence of such ware in 

 small amounts in Nebraska culture sites : either there were direct trade 

 relations between the people of the Nebraska culture and {peoples to 

 the south and east or else there were outposts of the latter culture 

 (or cultures) in eastern Nebraska. That the latter may have been the 

 case is suggested by the fact that Sterns partially excavated earth 

 lodges near Peru, Nel)r., in which a dark, neatly incised and often 

 shell-tempered pottery was tiie predominant type, and he suggests 

 that these were the people who traded with the Nebraska culture 

 people, thus introducing small amounts of such ware into an otherwise 

 homogeneous ceramic complex. Such an explanation would account 

 not only for the occasional a])i)earance of such alien sherds or vessels 

 in Nebraska culture sites, but also, if the cultures were contempo- 

 raneous, for the occurrence of a few poorly executed designs of this 

 incised type on otherwise typical Nebraska culture vessels (pis. 14, 

 figs. I, c, 2, li; 15, T, d, 2, /). The writer has also been told by Dr. 

 Gilder of certain sites in the vicinity of Omaha excavated by the 

 latter which contained only incised ware. It thus seems highly probable 

 that in southeastern Nebraska there were one or more peoples con- 

 temporaneous with the Nebraska culture but ai)])arently somewhat 

 more advanced in ceramic technique. Both Gilder and Sterns ap- 

 parently excavated in sites of this latter type, but none of these has 

 been completely worked or reported on. 



The discussion of Nebraska culture pottery may be concluded with 

 a brief consideration of the most striking differences that set it apart 

 from Upper Republican culture ceramics. These may be summed up 

 by the statement that, although the Upper Republican culture ceramics 

 are characteristically gray in color, have a high percentage of clear, 

 evenly applied cord markings on exterior surfaces, are predominantly 



"' Shetrone, 1930, see pot illustrated in tig. .219; Moorehead, 1928, pi. 17, no. 3. 



