14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 185 
pulled or dug out, and depressions 2 feet in diameter marked their 
former position. The positions of the fireplace and of the altar were 
marked respectively by a depression and a mound, upon the last of 
which grew a clump of sagebrush. The position of the entryway was 
indicated by a break in the rmg-mound on the east side. The various 
features were so plainly marked on the surface that the writer, ac- 
companied by G. Ellis Burcaw, later returned to the site and made a 
map (fig. 1) of the floor plan from the surface indications—luckily, 
as it happened, for the site was placed under cultivation the following 
spring. 
The ring-mound, 6.5 to 11 feet in width, measured 72 feet in diame- 
ter from crest to crest, and its height varied from 11 to 18 inches. 
The centrally located fireplace was, from surface indications, a de- 
pression 8 inches deep and between 6 and 7 feet in diameter. A test 
showed it to be underlain by deeply reddened earth, and it still held 
a small amount of white ash among which were a few burned bones. 
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LEGEND LAST ARIKARA EARTHLODGE 
MAPPED FROM SURFACE INDICATIONS 
e@ Post 
—-—— Approximate location fo} 10 20 
of house wall FEET 
OTIS 
you Earth ridge 1397 
ann! 9-8-1954 
RSP 
Ficure 1.—Floor plan of the last Arikara earthlodge. 
