286 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



it is globular or ovoid with a rounded bottom. Small loop handles for 

 cords, and, on the larger pots, larger handles occur. They are often 

 strengthened and ornamented by a rib on the outside and were often 

 made separately from the pots, being put on after the pot was finished. 

 Decoration is achieved by incised lines running from the bottom of 

 the flaring lip down over the upper part of the body. Punctate in- 

 cisions, a few simple incised patterns, and occasionally individual 

 cord markings are also employed. For rim decoration finger impres- 

 sions of the " pie crust " technique are rather characteristic. The 

 decoration on the small mortuary pots is rather regular, whereas that 

 on the larger vessels is very haphazard. Tiny pots of no particular 

 shape and without handles sometimes occur with children's burials. 

 The remaining artifact complex is characterized by catlinite pipes, 

 often of the disk type ; by heavy grooved hammers, polished celts 

 (grooved axes are both rare and crude), mullers, metates, sandstone 

 rubbing stones, small triangular arrowpoints, flake scrapers, numerous 

 bone implements, and tubular copper beads. Petroglyphs on nearby 

 clififs of sandstone and incised pictographs on small polished slabs of 

 catlinite also appear to belong to the Oneota culture. Although the 

 exact historical affiliations of this culture have not yet been deter- 

 mined, it is generally regarded as pertaining to a Siouan people. 



A fourth prehistoric culture in northwestern low^a shows many 

 resemblances to the Oneota, but the pottery of the two is dififerent. 

 The Mill Creek culture, as this fourth type has been designated, 

 occurs in village sites located along the second terraces of the Little 

 Sioux River and two of its tributaries. The villages consist of earth- 

 lodge depressions surrounded by a broad shallow ditch. Refuse de- 

 posits are both large and deep. A considerable number of conical 

 mounds occur on neighboring ridges, but whether these pertain to 

 this culture is as yet uncertain. Although the artifact types generally 

 corres])ond to those of the Oneota culture, the small Mill Creek arrow- 

 points are are more often notched, the stone celt more completely 

 displaces the grooved ax, bone implements are even more abundant, 

 discoidal stones and a few shell and pottery effigies occur. The type 

 of tobacco pipe employed is uncertain, since very few of these have 

 been found. Mill Creek culture ceramics are distinctive and have a 

 hard, fine texture. Finely crushed granite is used for tempering, and the 

 ware is gray or black in color. Globular bowls of small or medium 

 size often show polish on one or both surfaces. The rims are vertical 

 or flaring and are often surmounted with animal-head effigies and 

 handles. Decoration on the rim also takes the form of crosshatching. 

 shallow notching, and the incising of diagonal and horizontal lines on 



