pip n'o ■ fsT P^""^^ BRAVE SITE — WOOD AND WOOLWORTH 61 



Stonework includes several flake knives, a number of end scrapers, 

 and an arrowpoint of form NAb2, measuring 33 X 15 X 3 nnn., made 

 from Knife River flint. Worked bone includes two long bone splinter 

 awl fragments and part of a split rib pottery modeling tool. An 

 irregular shell disk is 15 mm. in diameter and 5 mm. thick. A rough- 

 ly circular piece of perforated shell, less than 1 mm. thick, averages 

 20 mm. in diameter. 



This inventory is similar in most particulars to that of Paul Brave. 

 Except for the single unclassified rim, all the sherds are of types 

 occurring at Paul Brave, and the non-ceramic remains are also very 

 similar. This similarity in content suggests that the sites are closely 

 i-elated and may be nearly contemporaneous. The site is not recom- 

 mended for testing. It is believed that the material in the site would 

 duplicate the sample recovered from the Paul Brave site, and at this 

 time it would be more relevant to excavate sites which will be flooded 

 by the Oahe Reservoir but which differ from adequately sampled 

 villages. 



CONCLUSIONS 



As early as 1919, George F. Will and Herbert J. Spinden recognized 

 an archeological sequence within the Missouri River Valley in North 

 Dakota that they regarded as a cultural sequence leading to the his- 

 toric Mandan (Will, 1924, pp. 292, 342-344) . Subsequent to 1924, 

 Will made further studies, and by 1944 had formulated with Thad. C. 

 Hecker the postulate that Mandan history was divisible into four 

 major periods: the Archaic Mandan, Middle Mandan, Later Heart 

 River, and Decadent periods (Will and Hecker, 1944). Paraphras- 

 ing their synthesis, it appears that the Archaic period was distin- 

 guished by small, mifortified villages of long-rectangular houses dis- 

 tributed along a large segment of the Missouri River. The advent of 

 the Middle period seems to be chiefly marked by the appearance of 

 progressively developing fortifications, and by the concentration of 

 these villages into large fortified sites of long-rectangular houses 

 near the mouth of the Heart River. The transition from the Middle 

 period to the Later Heart River period is marked by three distinct 

 changes. The long-reOtangular dwellings of the Middle period are 

 replaced by circular earth lodges, the villages consist of houses tightly 

 arranged within the fortification ditches, and the population con- 

 centrated in an even smaller area in the immediate vicinity of the 

 mouth of the Heart River. The Decadent period is associated with 

 increasing contact with White traders after 1750. In addition to these 

 details of settlement patterning and domestic architecture, there is a 

 progressive development of pottery types, culminating in the varieties 

 which are found in historic Mandan and Hidatsa sites at the mouth of 



