ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN MISSOURI 189 



stemmed planoconvex scrapers, a cylindrical antler rubbing tool, deer 

 ulna awls, and knifelike objects fashioned from scapula blades. To- 

 bacco pipes included a large limestone effigy (lizard head?) speci- 

 men, one of disk bowl type, and a subrectanguiar sandstone form. 

 Other items found are a pierced deer phalange, a worked deer man- 

 dible, a socketed antler tip (handle?), gravers and drill points, a 

 ground stone gouge, a circular sandstone ornament with pierced tab 

 for suspension, hammerstones, pecking stones, hematite, pumice frag- 

 ments, and twisted 2-ply vegetal-fiber cordage. 



Pottery remains from Steed-Kisker have almost nothing in com- 

 mon with those from the Renner site. About 90 percent of the sherds 

 recovered are shell-tempered; the remainder consist of sand- or 

 gravel-tempered fragments. The ware is about equal in hardness to 

 that at Eenner, but it has a more flaky appearance in cross section, a 

 more regular and smoother fracture, and does not crumble as readily 

 when immersed in water. Surface color is variable with grays, 

 browns, and buff predominant; the core in nearly all sherds is a 

 slaty gray. Surfaces are smoothed, rarely polished, slipped, or cord- 

 roughened. The characteristic vessel form is a medium to large 

 ■jar with hemispherical underbody, round or angular shoulder, flat- 

 tish upperbody, constricted neck, low vertical or recurved rim, plain 

 round lip, and, often, two loop handles attached vertically to the lip 

 and upperbody. Less common are vertical-walled bowls with flat 

 bottoms, sometimes with small effigies or effigy heads attached to 

 the rim ; round bottomed bowls with curved walls converging toward 

 the mouth; miniature vessels; possibly water bottles and other un- 

 determined shapes. Decoration, other than rim effigies, consists of 

 simple incised rectilinear and curvilinear designs placed usually on 

 and above the shoulders of jars. Other than receptacles, the only 

 fired clay artifact was a broken sand-tempered pipe of bent tubular 

 form. 



The dead were buried just below the top of a lofty hill overlooking 

 the village site. Interment was evidently in the flesh, usually in the 

 extended supine position ; sometimes flexion or bundle burial of dis- 

 articulated bones was practiced. Among the closely massed burials 

 were found a flat-bottomed rim effigy bowl, shell-tempered plain and 

 incised sherds, and several restorable miniature pots which, in all 

 particulars except size, resemble the large utilitarian jars found in 

 the nearby village. Other artifacts included a poorly preserved frag- 

 ment of Bu^ycon shell, possibly the weathered remains of an orna- 

 ment, and a few small chipped points and other chert objects. 



Judged from the few measurable skeletal parts salvaged at this burial 

 ground, the people were more round-headed than those who erected 

 the stone vaults in the Kansas City area. Like the latter, though, 



