84 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 26 



various Missouri Basin institutions engaged in archeological research 

 were requested by the National Park Service to lend assistance. The 

 State of South Dakota, through the W. H. Over Museum and the 

 South Dakota Archaeological Commission, put field parties into this 

 area in both 1950 and 195 1, and the University of Kansas and the 

 Nebraska State Historical Society agreed to interrupt pursuit of their 

 research interests in their own States to contribute to the effort. The 

 Nebraska institution, having undertaken the salvaging of sites in the 

 critical Trenton Reservoir area in that State in 1950, was unable to 

 begin work in Fort Randall until 195 1, but the University of Kansas 

 sent excavation parties into the area both years. 



The operations of the South Dakota Archaeological Commission- 

 W. H. Over Museum project during both seasons were under the 

 supervision of Wesley R. Hurt, Jr., who has published reports cover- 

 ing the complete investigations (Hurt, 1951, 1952). In 1950, a 

 group of a maximum of 16 workers excavated in the Swanson site 

 (39BR16), a compact village on a low terrace bordering the Missouri 

 River bottoms approximately 6 miles above Chamberlain. When dis- 

 covered, the site was apparent on the surface as a number of large, 

 conspicuous, more or less circular depressions on a small point which 

 was isolated from the body of the terrace by a shallow linear depres- 

 sion. Excavation revealed that a ditch approximately 3 feet deep lay 

 beneath the latter feature and that the other depressions were under- 

 lain by deep house floors. No evidence that a stockade was part of 

 the defensive system was found in the intensive tests. Four houses 

 were completely uncovered and six miscellaneous trenches were exca- 

 vated. The latter revealed that there were in the site an unknown 

 number of houses whose locations were not evident on the surface. 

 Although there was evidence, in the intrusion of houses into cache 

 pits and vice versa, that the village had existed for some time, the 

 relative homogeneity of the cultural materials and the lack of evidence 

 of superposition of dwelling structures suggests that the length of 

 occupation was not of great magnitude. 



The typical house was an oblong rectangular structure, 4 to 5 feet 

 deep, with posts rather closely spaced along the side walls and rarely 

 along the ends. A single row of large posts on the long axis or a 

 double row straddling the midline constituted the other vertical 

 members of the superstructure. The entrance was characterized by 

 a vestibule and a ramp leading from it into the interior of the house. 

 With one exception, where there was a single central fireplace, there 

 were two hearths, both on the midline but situated between the center 

 and the end walls. All in all, the structures here resemble rather 



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