296 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 189 



LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION 



The Good Soldier site (39LM238) lies on a low, flat terrace (Mis- 

 souri River Terrace 1, Coogan, 1960) in a narrow valley formed by 

 Good Soldier Creek (formerly Badger Creek) just soutli and west of 

 the confluence of this tributary and the Missouri River in Lyman 

 County, central South Dakota. The valley is bounded on the east 

 and west by steep, thoroughly dissected breaks that rise abruptly to 

 heights of 30 to 90 feet above the valley floor. The occupational debris 

 at the site was concentrated on a low hummock located about 400 feet 

 south of the right bank of the Missouri River and 150 feet west of the 

 left bank of Good Soldier Creek (the approximate intersection of 

 latitude 44°02'30" N. and longitude 99°27' W.) at an elevation of 

 1,372 feet m.s.l. (Missouri River Map (1:24,000) Omaha District, 

 Corps of Engineers, Sheet No. 52, 1949). The hummock measured 

 130 feet north-south and 65 feet east- west and had a maximum apical 

 height of 5 feet (pi. 47, a) . 



EXCAVATIONS 



During the 1956 reconnaissance a test pit was dug at the southern 

 end of the rise to a depth of 1.0 foot below the surface. Artifacts 

 recovered from this test include pottery sherds from a single vessel 

 and several hematite-coated bison rib fragments. The restorable 

 portion of the vessel was reconstructed in the laboratory and is iden- 

 tified as of the type lona Indented (Smith and Grange, 1958, pp. 

 98-100). 



At the time of the 1958 investigations a grid of 5-foot squares 

 oriented with the cardinal directions was superimposed over the nat- 

 ural rise and the peripheral area. Each square was given a letter and 

 number designation noting its location in the grid. The squares were 

 scraped horizontally with shovels, and artifacts were placed in bags 

 labeled according to their vertical and horizontal provenience within 

 the grid. All excavations, except eight widely scattered 5- by 5-foot 

 test pits, were conducted within the northwest quadrant of the grid. 

 Depth measurements were made from the top of the present soil sur- 

 face downward. 



Excavations were initiated by digging a trench 5 feet wide and 130 

 feet long across the north-south axis of the moimd (pi. 47, h ) . As work 

 progressed it became apparent that the mound was a natural structure 

 of stream-deposited gravel capped with five distinct soil strata. The 

 stratigraphic sequence in the trench profiles read as follows from top 

 to bottom : Stratum 1, the top soil zone, consisted of a layer of undis- 

 turbed sod and humus about 0.3 foot thick. Only rarely were artifacts 

 present in this zone. The underlying soil zone, stratum 2, was com- 



