190 BULLETIN 18 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



they were of short or medium stature. Head deformation was evi- 

 denced and syphilis seems to have been present. 



Pottery vessels, potsherds, and other artifacts clearly indicating 

 a basic relationship to the antiquities at Steed-Kisker were noted by 

 us at several other points in Platte County. So far as actual habita- 

 tion sites are concerned we can mention only the scattered traces 

 along Pearl Branch and on the Missouri bottoms just outside its 

 exit from the bluffs zone. Of more interest are certain inferred 

 mound connections. As stated elsewhere, I regard the large earth 

 mounds of this locality as the product of a native gi'oup distinct 

 from the builders of the stone vault mounds. This view is based 

 on the structural dissimilarity between the two types; on the fact 

 that the vaults seem to occur characteristically in groups whereas 

 the earth mounds are about as often found singly ; and on the mark- 

 edly unlike character of the contents from the earth mounds as com- 

 pared to the vaults. The material reported by Fowke (1910, p. 72) 

 from the Klamm mound, by Curtiss (Putnam, 1880, p. 717) from 

 an earth mound in nearby Clay County, by Shippee (letter of March 

 30, 1940) from the Avondale south mound, and by myself from the 

 Shepherd Mound (see above, p. 137) is, in each case, relatively far 

 more abundant than anything yet reported reliably from local stone 

 vaults. From the information available concerning the Klamm, 

 Avondale, and Shepherd mounds, moreover, the included pottery did 

 not resemble that at Renner or the extant vault pottery, but it does 

 show very strong similarities to the Steed-Kisker ware. It would 

 be interesting indeed to know more of the "well made pottery" 

 found by Curtiss. 



In my opinion, then, the large well-furnished earth burial mounds 

 in the Kansas City locale, such as Klamm, Avondale, Shepherd, and 

 probably that opened by Curtiss, may be tentatively considered as 

 belonging to the general archeological horizon represented by the 

 Steed-Kisker and related local village and camp sites. At Steed- 

 Kisker, however, the burials were not associated with a mound. 

 This may mean that the broader similarities noted indicate a general 

 horizon on which local specializations have arisen. In this case, 

 the custom of erecting mounds over the dead may have been prac- 

 ticed by comm.unities belonging to a slightly variant manifestation — 

 or, in classificatory terms, to a different "focus"— from that disclosed 

 at Steed-Kisker. 



Our data, as just outlined, indicate the existence of two fairly 

 distinct major archeological horizons in the Platte-Clay County 

 area. On the one hand is the Remier site, with several little-known 

 but culturally related stations scattered up and down the great bend 

 of the Missouri Valley, and perhaps the grouped stone- vault mounds. 



