186 BULLETIN 183, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



than a small fraction of the area of aboriginal occupation. The 

 greater share of the available time and manpower was given over 

 to excavation ; hence it was impossible to make a complete surface sur- 

 vey of the antiquities of the Kansas City area or to follow up all the 

 leads given us by visitors to the diggings and by local collectors. Since 

 there is good reason to believe that archeological horizons other than 

 those examined exist locally, it is not yet possible to outline in detail 

 the story of native occupation in this part of the Missouri Valley. 

 As an initial step toward this ultimate goal, however, we may set 

 forth the salient features of the two newly defined prehistoric 

 manifestations whose presence here at the eastern edge of the plains 

 area was hinted only vaguely or not at all a few years ago. 



The Renner site on Line Creek was inhabited by a relatively small 

 group — small, that is, when compared with some of the historic 

 villages of the Pawnee and their Siouan contemporaries in the eastern 

 Great Plains. At the same time, the depth of village debris — some- 

 times exceeding 2 feet — and the occurrence of numerous old storage 

 pits indicate an occupation of some permanence. The type of habita- 

 tion is unknown, but there is no evidence of pithouses or earthlodges. 

 This would suggest that surface structures, perhaps bark or mat- 

 covered, were used and that all traces of these have been obliterated 

 by modern agriculture. The native subsistence economy involved 

 horticulture, hunting, and gathering. Maize and beans, of which 

 there is direct archeological evidence, were probably cultivated on the 

 Line Creek bottoms and at the mouths of ravines and draws near 

 the village. The bone hoe, so typical of most Plains corn-growing 

 peoples, is absent, but there are chipped stone artifacts that may 

 have served the same purpose. Mealing slabs and mullers were not 

 found, and the type of milling implement remains conjectural. Of 

 the numerous wild fruits available, only two were represented in our 

 collections. These include the hickory nut and the papaw. Hunting 

 was important, with the deer overwhelmingly preferred to all other 

 forms. Birds, fish, and shellfish were of minor importance. There 

 is evidence that a small form of domestic dog was present. 



Lnplements of warfare and the chase probably included the bow 

 and arrow, the latter tipped with large-stemmed or corner-notched 

 stone points or with conical socketed antler points ; the three-quarter 

 grooved polished ax; the ground celt; and numerous chipped tri- 

 anguloid and delicate flake knives. For skin-working there were 

 stemmed and unstemmed planoconvex scrapers of varied sizes and 

 forms ; cylindrical antler rubbing tools ; bone beamers made from the 

 metapodial or the ilium of the deer ; occasional eyed sewing needles ; 

 awls of turkey bone and punches of deer ulna; and, perhaps used in 

 hide dressing, woni lumps of pumice. A large flat needle of split 



