Pap. 'l^.' IsT HOSTERMAN SITE — ^MILLER 223 



Hunting played a paramount role in their economy. With limited 

 farming and plenty of meat these people were assured of an abundance 

 of food. There must have been surpluses that required storage. To 

 meet this problem they dug storage or cache pits that were bell-shaped, 

 narrow at the top and widest at the base. Most of these pits were 

 placed outside of the houses, but smaller examples were found beneath 

 the jfloors of some houses. The large pits were rather deep and were 

 capable of holding vast quantities of supplies. 



From the bison, and to some extent, the lesser animals, they ob- 

 tained the bone material out of which they fashioned awls, flakers, 

 bodkins, fishhooks, hoes, knives, scrapers, arrow-shaft wrenches, sick- 

 les, cleavers, and many other forms. The essential forms of many 

 of the artifacts had carried over from an earlier Archaic horizon. 



Flint tools were still common. Snub-nosed scrapers were very 

 much in evidence, and though projectile points varied little in form 

 and size they were never plentiful. They made use of the local 

 stones, which furnished sandstone shaft polishers, hones, and smooth- 

 ers of pumice. Hammerstones were many and were usually natural 

 round boulders that were small enough to fit comfortably into the 

 hand. Some were fashioned deliberately by pecking them into the 

 desired shape; others were used as they were found. Some were 

 employed until they shattered through use. The scattered fragments 

 were found in midden piles and in midden pits. 



Grooved axes were present, but they were few in number. They 

 were not replaced at the Hosterman site by the broad, flat chisel or 

 gougelike implement called a celt. 



After these people abandoned the site, another group, presumably 

 from farther north, moved in and built circular houses around four 

 centrally placed poles surrounding a firepit. The floors were sunk 

 to various depths. Attached were covered entranceways. Smoke 

 escaped from centrally placed openings in the roofs. 



Subsistence apparently was equally divided between limited agri- 

 culture, hunting, and gathering, with fishing playing only a minor 

 role. Charred corn, beans, and squash seeds demonstrate their lim- 

 ited capabilities. Seeds of wild fruits, charred and uncharred, indi- 

 cate that gathering during the proper season was still of prime im- 

 portance economically, while the greatest stress was placed on the 

 plentiful supply of wild animals and the hunt. 



Byproducts of the hunt consisted of the hides, bones, and sinew 

 out of which were fashioned not only the tools used to sew the tanned 

 or prepared hides into articles of clothing but those for other major 

 purposes as well. The scapulae of the plentiful bison were fashioned 

 into hoes which were used in the cultivation of crops in the rich bot- 

 tom land below their village and for grubbing for roots and tubers 



