ARCHEOLOOICAL IN\'ESTIGATIONS IN" MISSOURI 213 



Photographs of much of the pottery recovered by us at Middle 

 Mississippi sites in Platte County have been submitted to Kelly, 

 whose observations at Powell mound led to recognition of two occupa- 

 tions at Cahokia. In Kelly's opinion (personal communication, 

 February 2, 1942), the Platte County materials are assignable to the 

 later Cahokia horizon originally labeled — from its most distinctive 

 vessel forms — the "Beanpot-duck effigy bowd culture." The pottery of 

 this level is said to be somewhat inferior to that from the earlier "Old 

 Village culture" ; associated artifact types have not been defined. Grif- 

 fin (Griffin et al., 1942, p. 331) states that the Beanpot-duck effigy bowl 

 culture — renamed the Trappist focus — is very closely related to the 

 Spoon River focus of central Illinois. 



As matters stand today, it thus appears that Steed-Kisker represents 

 a local variant of late Middle Mississippi culture, which, perhaps 

 partly by reason of its marginal position, lacks many of the character- 

 istic elements and customs found at such large and no doubt longer 

 lived northern centers as Cahokia and Aztalan. Its direct antecedents, 

 we may suppose, are to be sought in or near the Cahokia region by 

 way of the Missouri Valley ; and among the presumably contemporary 

 related peoples to the eastward can be included those responsible for 

 the Spoon River and Kingston foci. 



In view of its Middle Mississippi affiliations, the Steed-Kisker site 

 bears directly on certain previous archeological findings in the eastern 

 plains area. Gilder (1926, p. 32), Sterns (see Strong, 1935, p. 255), 

 Strong (1935, p. 255 and pi. 14, c, ^), Hill and Cooper (1937, p. 237 and 

 pi. 5, i-?), and Cooper (1940, pi. 6 upper) have repeatedly called atten- 

 tion to the presence in Nebraska Culture sites of small amounts of dark, 

 frequently polished, shell-tempered and incised sherds. These are 

 quite distinct from the usual Nebraska Culture wares ; they appear to 

 be most plentiful in sites lying along the Missouri below Omaha but 

 have been reported as far west as the Schrader site in Lancaster County 

 (Hill and Cooper, 1937). Strong (1935, p. 256; see also Hill and 

 Cooper, 1938, p. 351) has noted the similarity of this ware to Cahokia 

 pottery and suggests that its presence in Nebraska Culture sites may 

 be due either to direct trade connections between these early Nebraskans 

 and peoples to the southeast or else to the presence of outposts of the 

 latter peoples in eastern Nebraska. Sterns's discovery of sites near 

 Peru, Nebr., which yielded predominantly these dark incised and shell- 

 tempered sherds, lent support to the second alternative, though limited 

 subsequent excavations in the same and nearby sites suggest that they 

 are still closer to Nebraska Culture than to Middle Mississippi (Hill 

 and Cooper, 1938, p. 323). The Steed-Kisker site, on the other hand, 

 yields pottery of unquestioned Middle Mississippi, not Nebraska Cul- 

 ture, types, and so far as my information goes it is the westernmost 



