NO. lO NEBRASKA ARCHEOLOGY STRONG 265 



Small pits about i foot deep and i foot in diameter averaged three 

 to a lodge (range 0-6). They occurred in any part of the floor and 

 contained a few broken artifacts. Large pits averaging 3^ feet deep 

 by 3I feet in diameter (range 2|-6 feet in diameter and 2-5 feet deep) 

 averaged 4 to a house, although one house had 10. About half these 

 large pits were cylindrical and half were expanded at the bottom. The 

 majority of artifacts recovered came from such pits, but to Sterns 

 they do not appear as " caches ", i. e., storage pits, but rather as rubbish 

 pits. Gilder (1926, p. 19), who has probably dug in more of these pits 

 than any other person, regards them primarily as storage places, and 

 the writer is inclined to believe that such was their primary purpose, 

 since the preparation of an interior pit for refuse deposition when the 

 whole outdoor was available seems a pointless procedure. The occur- 

 rence of large deposits of clear white ash and numerous unbroken 

 artifacts in such pits furthers this idea, as does their use by historic 

 tribes as granaries and deposit places. It is certain that, when empty, 

 they were often filled with refuse. 



Sterns encountered only three lodges, in a group of six on Papillion 

 Creek in Sarpy County, that were not square or rectangular. Two 

 were circular, with diameters of 16 and 20 feet, and the third was 

 elliptical, averaging 18 feet in diameter, all being rather small. The 

 other lodges at the Papillion Creek site were not excavated by Sterns. 

 Aside from their shape they were similar to the rectangular lodges and 

 contained the same types of artifacts. It was in one of these houses that 

 Gilder and Sterns encountered numerous cracked and scorched human 

 bones on the floor and in cache pits, and in a cracked pot were frag- 

 ments of human rib bones which had the appearance of having been 

 boiled. (Gilder, 1913, pp. 107-116.) The small elliptical house com- 

 bined with the presence of mutilated human bones calls very strongly to 

 mind the lodge at the Saunders site partially excavated by the Survey. 

 Further investigation at these two sites should go far toward clearing 

 up this matter of ceremonial cannibalism or strange mortuary rites, 

 whichever it may be. One other interesting feature of the round and 

 oval houses reported by Sterns is the fact that this was the only site 

 where bison bones were more numerous than those of deer. Sterns 

 states that the form of these dwellings may represent a transitional 

 stage in the development of the round historic earth lodge of the 

 region or may merely be a modification resulting from their small size. 



From the above condensed account of Sterns' findings it appears that 

 the earth lodge of the Nebraska culture is characteristically rectangular 

 or square, is semisubterranean, and may or may not have a long 

 entrance passage. The occurrence of a few round lodges, in one case 



