ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN JVnSSOURI 79 



■when the vessel was comj)lete probably held it upright on a flat surface. 

 It is sparingly tempered with fine shell fragments. 



It is perhaps unnecessary to stress the fact that the heavy proportion 

 of plain sherds (nearly 85 percent) is not necessarily indicative of the 

 preponderance of plain ware over decorated pots. It has already been 

 noted that incising occurs only on a relatively limited part of a typical 

 pot, viz., the upperbody. Such a pot if broken would yield probably 

 three or four times as many plain as decorated sherds. Also, it can 

 be seen that incised rimsherds are only a trifle less common than plain. 

 It is a safe assumption that not all pots were decorated, also that many 

 were, but in what proportion the two groups existed cannot even be 

 safely guessed. 



Grit-tempered sherds differ somewhat in appearance from those 

 containing shell. Tempering is of sand, less commonly of angular 

 siliceous particles rather generously used. It is possible that the clay 

 used contained some fine sand, since the surfaces almost invariably are 

 gritty to the touch. Sherds are usually a dull brick red, sufficiently 

 distinctive to be easily picked out from the more common shell-tem- 

 pered fragments. Where present, decoration was by incising, identical 

 in all details to that employed on the shell-tempered pottery. As the 

 table shows, most of the grit-tempered pieces were from pit 8, where 

 the usual proportions of shell to grit were reversed. Vessel forms are 

 difficult to define, but the rims present do not appear to differ from 

 those of the larger shouldered shell tempered jars. One large handled 

 sherd, containing both grit and shell tempering, suggests a pear- 

 shaped jar with low converging neck; the handle, milike any others 

 from the site, has its upper end well below the lip of the vessel. Ex- 

 cept for the slightly pitted surface, it closely resembles the grit-tem- 

 pered type generalh^ Six sherds were grit-tempered and had cord- 

 roughened surfaces. None seems to have been from a large vessel. 



Aside from receptacles, work in baked clay was of negligible 

 amount. From pit 8 came part of a heavy pottery pipe, thickly sand- 

 tempered, and of bent tubular type (pi. 22, e). The bowl cavity, 

 burned black, was 18 mm. in diameter, and its walls were 5-9 mm. thick. 

 Length of the bowl is unknown. The stem end has a slightly damaged 

 tip ; a hole 4 mm. in diameter and ca. 25 mm. long opens suddenly and 

 at an obtuse angle into the rounding lower end of the bowl opening. 

 Presumably a reed or thin wooden stem was inserted into the smaller 

 end. There is no sign of decoration. 



WORK IN ANTLER, BONE, AND SHELL 



Awls, three in number, were made from mammal bone. Two com- 

 plete specimens made from the ulna of the deer came out of pits 1 

 and 2. Each measured 116 mm. long by 35 mm. wide. Both have well- 

 worn tips, with the unaltered coronoid process left as a handle (pi. 



