220 BULLETIN 183, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



how closely the Platte County Hopewellians resembled those of 

 Illinois, but at present there appears to be no indication of a brachy- 

 cranial element in the Missouri series and the undeformed males are 

 strongly dolicocranic. This suggests that while the Platte County 

 Hopewellian material culture may prove to parallel closely that from 

 the Illinois Valley, it was carried by a physical stock differing in some 

 degree from that in Illinois. We have as yet no proof that there was 

 in Platte County a pre-Hopewellian long-headed group that may have 

 persisted into, and taken over an inventory typical of, a Hopewellian 

 culture period. It would be interesting to know the cultural affilia- 

 tions of Poynter's (1915, pp. 512-515) Plattsniouth and Fort Lisa, 

 Nebr., crania, and their relationship, if any, to the long-headed peoples 

 who buried in the stone-chambered mounds of Platte County, Mo.^'' 



The insularity of the Platte County Hopewellian remains, separated 

 by more than 200 miles from the nearest known Hopewellian area to 

 the east, is probably more apparent than real. It is still uncertain 

 whether there was an actual migration of peoples from east to west 

 or, alternatively, a slower diffusion of cultural and perhaps also 

 physical elements. Virtually nothing is on record concerning the 

 archeology of northern Missouri and southern Iowa, but any move- 

 ment of peoples across this region from the Mississippi and Illinois 

 Valleys would have had to be overland rather than along the major 

 watercourses. If, as I believe, the antecedents of the Platte County 

 Hopewellians are to be sought in or near the Illinois Valley, I would 

 suggest an examination of the possibilities of a cultural or populational 

 dispersion across the Mississippi somewhere in the region between 

 Hannibal, Mo., and Alton, 111., and a route thence westvv-ard up the 

 Salt and/or Missouri River Valleys. 



The presence near Kansas City of additional village sites somewhat 

 akin to Renner, but, to judge from surface finds, seemingly with a 

 greater proportion of cruder stamped ware (supra, p. 98) reminiscent 

 of Cole and Deuel's type 2, raises other puzzling questions. Are 

 these to be regarded as an earlier developmental stage in a sequence 

 culminating at Renner, as a less advanced contemporary variant, or 

 as a decadent phase? Thorough investigations here might show 

 whether the Hopewellian peoples were migrants as such from the east, 

 or indigenes who acquired Hopewellian culture and took part in a 

 cultural development more or less general throughout the eastern 

 United States. I have no convictions on this score at present, and 

 my information on the sites is too meager to justify further speculation. 



There is no hint in our evidence as to the ultimate fate of the 



*3 Poynter's Plattsmouth crania, including presumably both males and females, are assigned 

 an average length-breadth index of 75.9, a mean height index (see Stewart, infra, p. 263) 

 of 89.7. For the male skulls from Copell, Coliins (1941, table 1) gives corresponding 

 Indices of 75.90 and 89.60. The Copell skulls appear to be slightly larger and somewhat 

 more variable. 



