ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESfTIGATTONS IN MISSOURI 



217 



Wisconsin McKern (1939, p. 4) observes that Aztalan (Middle 

 Mississippi) pottery types occur "on or very near the surface strati- 

 graphically above the old Woodland deposits." At one stratified 

 site he reports (McKern, 1933, p. 86) "evidence of an original Hope- 

 well camp probably contemporaneous with and later followed by 

 Lake Michigan [Woodland] culture. The latter was finally con- 

 temporaneous with Upper Mississippi culture before disappearing to 

 leave only Upper Mississippi culture." Setzler (1940, table 1) 

 places the Middle Mississippi horizon in Indiana above the Hope- 

 wellian; Ford and Willey (1941) consistently do the same in their 

 archeological profiles for the eastern United States. 



Table 10. — Chronological correlation of certain sites in Platte County, Mo., with 

 archeological horizons in the central Great Plains 



GENERAL DISCUSSION AND SPECULATIONS 



Apart from the fact that the present study demonstrates the ex- 

 istence in western Missouri of two archeological horizons previously 

 undefined for the Missouri Valley, its chief significance lies in the 

 light thrown on the nature of these two easterly complexes, which 

 are here near the western margin of their known range. Because of 

 this peripheral location it is not likely that the sites will be of crucial 

 importance in unraveling the main developmental processes followed 

 by either the Hopewellian or the Middle Mississippi cultures. At 

 the same time, sketchy as the data still are, they may offer some clues 

 toward partial solution of the still vexing problem of what became 

 of these highly advanced prehistoric groups — or at any rate, of such 

 of their representatives as reached the western fringes of the wood- 

 lands and looked out upon the Great Plains. 



There is general agreement that the Hoi3ewell and related liope- 



497261 — 43 15 



