270 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. QT, 



is also noteworthy. Plano-conve.x end scrapers are extremely numer- 

 ous, and of three types, those with rough backs comprise 59 percent, 

 those with retouched backs 31 percent, and those with definite stems 

 10 percent. Side scrapers are even more common, and of these 33 

 percent are planoconvex and 67 percent are retouched on both sides. 

 Flake knives, always planoconvex, are very abundant and range from 

 simple flakes with a use retouch on one or more edges, to a definite 

 type of fllat knife with a well-retouched back, a delicately retouched 

 edge, and a curved (plane of fracture) under surface (pi. 25, fig. i, 

 7v-s). Workshop materials are abundant in this level, and a wide 

 range of materials are represented. Bone work is not overly abundant, 

 but several rather distinctive types are present, including an awl made 

 of split bone or antler with a short, shouldered point ; large split 

 bone knapping tools ; heavy, crude bone gouges ; and polished bone 

 fragments with incised geometric designs. Some worked shell oc- 

 curs. Small, potshaped storage pits and round, often stone-fired fire- 

 places are the only structural features. This, very briefly, sums up 

 the salient characteristics of the Signal Butte I culture. In the next 

 section the sequence of artifact types from level to level on Signal 

 Butte will be touched upon. 



Other Sites 



In regard to the three sites on the Dismal River oiu- present knowl- 

 edge is too scanty to determine whether a distinct culture is repre- 

 sented here or not. Two distinctive potters- types occur at these sites, 

 (a) a thick brown hole-tempered ware with deep markings on the 

 outer surface (pi. 22, fig. i, a. h, c, e), and (b) a rather thin gray-black 

 smooth ware which is tempered with fine sand (pi. 22, fig. i. (/. /-;;/). 

 On the Dismal River a number of European objects have been foimd 

 associated with both these types of pottery on the surface, but 

 whether all three are contemporaneous is uncertain. In western Ne- 

 braska, at Kaighns Point, 100 miles to the west, the two ceramic 

 types were again found associated, and the gray-black ware (b) oc- 

 curs in association with more abundant Upper Republican type pot- 

 tery in the third level (III) at Signal Butte, where it is prehistoric 

 (pi. 24, fig. 2, b). It has been suggested, on the basis of historical 

 and traditional evidence, that the Dismal River sites were occupied 

 by the Comanche in early historic or protohistoric times and that one 

 or both of these ceramic types may pertain to that tribe. Since no 

 records of Comanche pottery-making exist, the point is interesting. 



All of the Nebraska cultures so far distinguished have now been 

 mentioned. Obviously many of these, indeed most of them, are very 



