y^ SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 26 



width — and in having six rather than four center posts. The various 

 Upper Republican sites investigated here, in addition to their cultural 

 similarities, have a common characteristic of more than passing inter- 

 est. This is an overlying deposit of a foot or more of sterile material 

 which appears to be of aeolian origin and indicative of a period of 

 unusual dryness, probably of some duration. The potential signifi- 

 cance of this phenomenon for climatic studies and for correlating 

 cultural history with climatic episodes has been pointed out repeatedly, 

 especially by Wedel. 



An early ceramic horizon is apparently represented at 25HN9, 

 a site which has been drastically affected by road and other constru- 

 tion and where a series of small test pits and a trench 10 feet wide 

 and 190 feet long were excavated in 1950. A fairly sizable sample of 

 artifacts, including cord-marked, calcite-tempered sherds identifiable 

 as Harlan Cord Roughened, and predominantly stemmed points, was 

 recovered. Concentrations of ashes may have been fireplaces, but no 

 evidences of structures were observed. The site is apparently refer- 

 able to the Keith focus, as defined by Kivett (1953, pp. 135, 136). 



The remaining site, 25HN39, belongs to a fourth complex, prob- 

 ably falling in time between the Upper Republican and Dismal River 

 occupations of the area. Here in 1950 extensive test trenching be- 

 tween the corn rows yielded moderate quantities of specimens which 

 lay immediately beneath the plow line, usually in large, shallow, 

 refuse-filled pits. The form and decorative treatment of the pottery 

 vessels represented by the sherds recovered is strongly suggestive of 

 Oneota ceramics, but the paste is apparently always grit-tempered 

 and cord markings are at least sometimes present on the surfaces. 

 The manifestation at this site apparently is rather closely related to 

 the complex represented at the Glen Elder and White Rock sites in 

 Kansas, which have been only briefly investigated. That complex, as 

 has been pointed out (Hill and Wedel, 1936, pp. 40, 67), in turn bears 

 resemblances to that of the Oneota Leary site in southeastern 

 Nebraska. It is to be hoped that within the near future a sufficient 

 inventory from similar sites in this region can be developed to permit 

 a determination of their relationships to each other, to the Oneota 

 aspect, and to other complexes. 



Medicine Creek Reservoir site. — As in several previous years, the 

 University of Nebraska State Museum concentrated most of its arche- 

 ological efforts on early preceramic sites to be affected by the Medi- 

 cine Creek Reservoir. In 1950 and 195 1 the archeological investiga- 

 tions were directed by E. Mott Davis, who continued excavations 

 initiated earlier in sites 25FT41 and 25FT42, both on the left side 



