ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN MISSOURI 87 



wise fashion, into a cord about 2 mm. in diameter (pi. 20, e). There 

 are no knots, nor did we find any traces of weaving. 



The Burial Groxmd 



The hills overlooking the Steed-Kisker village site from the north 

 thrust a sloping spur southward across the road toward house 1. 

 About 450 yards north and slightly to the east of the house the spur 

 levels off for a short distance before resuming its fall. The point 

 where the slope begins again, viewed from any point farther down 

 the ridge or from the village site, has the appearance of a small arti- 

 ficial mound. For this reason, some surreptitious digging had been 

 carried on here in a search for graves. This had consisted of a 

 T-shaped trench about 3 feet wide; the top of the T, 15 feet long, 

 ran east and west across the peak of the "mound," with a shorter cut 

 ca. 4 feet long extending toward the south. The results of this work 

 could not be ascertained, but at the beginning of our investigations a 

 few small sherds and bits of clamshell were found on and near the 

 filled trenches. The "mound" lay 120 yards north of the half-section 

 line road and 250 yards east by north of the Herman Kisker residence; 

 its elevation was 875-880 feet above sea level, or about 90 feet higher 

 than house 1. From its summit may be gained a splendid view of the 

 lower Platte and Missouri Valleys and the bordering bluffs. 



To determine the extent and nature of the "mound," if actually 

 man-made, we drove through it two trenches intersecting at the 

 highest point. The east-west trench was 70 feet long, the north- 

 south trench 95 feet, and both were 5 feet wide. At the point of 

 intersection the former was 5 feet deep, whence all the trenches be- 

 came shallower toward the ends. Careful examination of the 

 smoothed walls east, north, and west from the crossing showed only 

 one slight color change attributable to human agency, and that rela- 

 tively recent. The profile consisted of a gray topsoil about 8 inches 

 deep, unquestionably due to modern cultivation, below which was 

 the undisturbed light-buff or dun-colored loess of the hill itself. 

 Local darker areas lost their distinctive appearance on drying out. 

 Occasional bits of charcoal were seen below plow sole, but there 

 was no proof of their introduction by man. It was concluded that 

 the "mound" was in no sense artificial or man-made but was entirely 

 due to erosion and natural agencies. 



The north and west arms of the crossed trenches disclosed no evi- 

 dence whatever of former human activity. Near the outer end of 

 the east arm, however, about 25 feet down the slope from the summit, 

 were encountered two poorly preserved extended skeletons. These 

 were subsequently shown to be at the northeast end of a burial 

 ground most of which lay on the south slope of the hill. Our south 

 trench, from a point beginning 20 feet below the intersection and 



