NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 257 



without handles or lugs, have a great predominance of collared rims 

 decorated with geometric incisions or heavy cord marks, often have 

 lips of vessels incised or notched across the top, and, in a rather uni- 

 formly small percentage, are stained on the inner surface with red 

 hematite, the Nebraska culture pottery lacks all of these characteris- 

 tics. The few cases where Nebraska culture and Upper Republican 

 culture sherds have been found intermingled will be discussed later. 



Before leaving the general subject of ceramics, however, the abun- 

 dant tobacco pipes and the unusual human effigy heads of pottery must 

 be considered. So far 14 of these effigy heads are known to have been 

 recovered from Nebraska culture sites (fig. 30)."" Suggestive of the 

 human effigy heads recovered by Gilder and by Sterns is the face pipe 

 (pi. 16, fig. I, a, h) recovered by the Survey party in house 2 at the 

 Gates site. These objects are different from anything yet reported 

 from Neljraska and suggest the human effigy pots and pipes of the 

 Arkansas region. Their use in the Nebraska culture is unknown, al- 

 though Sterns in his unpublished work suggests that, judging from 

 the roughly rounded necks of those he recovered, they may have been 

 inserted into something, for example a doll bundle. The majority of 

 the heads are broken oft' at the neck, and most of them seem too large 

 to have ever formed part of a pot. They average around 2 to 3 inches 

 in height and about an inch in thickness. With the exception of the 

 Survey piece, they do not seem to have been used as pipes. The sketch 

 (fig. 30) only suggests the great variation in technique and realism 

 in the dift'erent specimens. With the exception of one small, beautifully 

 carved piece of pink soapstone (fig. 30, e) all^are modeled of pottery. 

 One of them (fig. 30, /) has a fine white tempering suggesting ground 

 shell; the tempering material of the others is not known to the writer. 

 Whatever their function may have been, they represent an extremely 

 interesting study in realistic and crudely conventional or symbolic art 

 and indicate both the modeling abilities of the Nebraska culture people 

 and their possible down-river affiliations. All 14 effigy heads so far 

 recovered appear to have come from Nebraska culture house sites in 

 eastern Nebraska. Sterns' five rather crude effigy heads (fig. 30, i-m) 

 come from eastern Sarpy County, whereas the majority of Gilder's 

 specimens come from cache pits in such houses in Douglas and north- 

 eastern Sarpy Counties. 



"'^This figure is based on photographs published by R. F. Gilder, 1911, pp. 250, 

 254, and on simple sketches of these artifacts in Gilder's private collection and 

 in the Sterns collection at the Peabody Museum, Cambridge. In his unpublished 

 work, 1915 a, pi. 23, Sterns illustrates nos. 9-13. Gilder, 1909, pi. 5, fig. 2, c, 

 shows another pottery head very similar to one here figured (fig. 30, /;), except 

 that the eyes are raised instead of incised. 



