70 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1959 
Reservoir during July and August. Two small parties were at work 
during December and January, respectively, in brief investigations 
in the Merritt and Big Bend Reservoir areas. One party was at work 
in the Big Bend Reservoir area and a second (mobile) party was 
working in the general Missouri Basin area in June. 
Other fieldwork in the Missouri Basin during the year included 
10 parties from State institutions operating under cooperative agree- 
ments with the National Park Service and in cooperation with the 
Smithsonian Institution in the Inter-Agency Archeological Salvage 
Program. 
At the beginning of the fiscal year, in the Oahe Reservoir area, 
Dr. Robert L. Stephenson and a crew of 20 men were engaged in 
excavations at the Sully site (89SL4). This was the third and final 
season of work at this, the largest of the earth-lodge village sites in 
the Missouri Basin. The site was situated on the second terrace of the 
Missouri River, 21 miles above Pierre, in Sully County, S.Dak. The 
1958 investigations were concentrated largely in the central and east- 
ern portions of the site. These, with those of the two preceding 
seasons, provided a reasonably equal sample of features and specimens 
from all portions of the site. Excavation technique differed some- 
what in the 1958 season. During the 1957 season, whole houses were 
excavated, but the surrounding areas outside were not examined. In 
1958 only one house was excavated in this manner. In the other ex- 
cavation units, only half houses were dug, but the surrounding areas 
on three sides of each house were also excavated. In this way portions 
of 19 houses were investigated, with most of the essential structural 
details obtained from all but two of them. Experience of the previous 
seasons’ work at this site suggested that more could be learned of the 
total village pattern in this way, and that excavation of complete 
houses was neither necessary nor economically feasible. Besides the 
house areas, half of a ceremonial lodge, two large cache-pit areas, a 
scaffold area, a midden heap, and another portion of the “plaza” were 
also excavated, and two midden areas were tested. Thus all or parts 
of 32 of the nearly 400 houses have been excavated, as have been 3 
of the 4 ceremonial lodges, a scaffold area, several cache-pit areas, 
midden heaps, and a “plaza.” Numerous tests were made in an effort 
to locate a fortification ditch or stockade, but none was found. 
Emphasis was placed, in the field, upon securing architectural in- 
formation, and good superposition of varying types of dwelling 
houses was obtained. Two distinct, circular, dwelling-house types 
were present, one with a series of widely spaced large wall posts of 
an early period, and one with a series of small, closely set wall posts 
of a later period. There was considerable variation within each type. 
The earlier type had short entryways, while the later one had medium- 
