82 ' BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 189 



foot deep ; it was lined by a series of small, irregularly-set post holes. 



Feature 61 was a large oval fireplace in the center of the house; it 

 was 6.6 feet long and 4 feet wide. This feature was composed of two 

 linked basin-shaped fireplaces, each of which was about 4 feet wide 

 and 0.8 foot deep. This fireplace was surrounded by seven large 

 center posts braced with bone and stone. Four of these posts, in the 

 form of a square 8 to 10 feet on a side, were probably the posts which 

 supported the roof. Three other braced posts were in the same gen- 

 eral area, and may have served as braces for the center posts. It is 

 possible, however, that some of them belong to a rebuilding of the 

 house in which the structure was shifted in one or another direction 

 along the long axis. Braced posts are unique to this house within the 

 site, in any event, and this may be a function of size, since House 3 

 was the largest of those excavated. Perhaps this larger structure 

 needed a more stable foundation than the other houses, which was 

 afforded by jamming bone and stone beside the posts. The center 

 posts averaged 0.9 foot wide and 1.7 feet deep. 



The seven bell-shaped pits, and one pit south of the house, were of 

 radically different sizes. Four of them were quite large, and would 

 have provided adequate storage space. The rest of them were much 

 smaller, and may have served another function. All of them, how- 

 ever, contained refuse, particularly Feature 65 in the north wall of 

 the house. This feature contained most of the perishable remains 

 recovered at the site. 



There were three small auxiliary fireplaces in the house : Features 

 25, 46, and 47. One large, irregularly shaped refuse-filled pit. Fea- 

 ture 79, intercepts the south wall of the house, and there are three small, 

 basin-shaped pits in the house floor. One of the latter pits. Feature 

 29, was between the center posts facing the entrance in a position 

 analogous to that of Feature 18 in House 2. 



House 1). {map 13; pis. 7, 5, and 5, h). — This house was in the east end 

 of excavation* 5, near the terrace edge adjacent to the Missouri River 

 flood plain. The house pit was quite irregular in outline, averaging 

 about 24 feet in diameter. It might be described as an oval with 

 one rather flat side. The house pit was 1.5 feet deep along the walls 

 and attained a maximum depth of 2.8 feet near the fireplace. An 

 elongated, depressed entrance passage was in the southwestern perim- 

 eter of the house wall, measuring 6.5 feet long, 3.5 feet wide, and 

 0.4 foot deep. 



Feature 91, the basin-shaped central fireplace, was 3.4 feet wide 

 and 0.6 foot deep. It was an oval pit surrounded by and filled with 

 white ash and burned earth. Another centrally located basin-shaped 

 fireplace. Feature 104, joined Feature 91 on the northeast edge. The 

 latter pit was oval in outline, measuring 1.8 by 2.1 feet, and was 0.4 



