160 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 76 



Three points must be taken into consideration in fixing a definite 

 age for these remains: 



1. The relics found in and around the lodge sites, except for the 

 markings on some of the pottery, are in no wise different from tliose 

 picked up on the sites of villages which were occupied when Lewis 

 and Clark came through here. 



2. Fairly solid bones of animals, and occasionally of humans, 

 are found in the bottoms of the lodge sites, even where these are 

 damp most of the year. In the pits, where such remains are pre- 

 served by ashes, this would not mean much ; but where they are found 

 in clayey earth it is evident that " thousands of years " is a meaning- 

 less term to apply to them. 



3. Persons who claim these "thousands of years" for pretty 

 much everything they find in the ground must explain why it is that 

 while the bones and implements of these assumed " ancients " are 

 found in such quantities and in such good preservation, those of 

 later Indians should have entirely disappeared. 



The only tenable theory of age is the amount of accumulation in 

 the depressions of the lodge sites. Above the clay which formed 

 the roof, and is next to the floor now, is a depth of material some- 

 times (it is said) as much as 20 or even 22 inches of mingled silt, 

 decayed vegetation, and soil from the surrounding wall. It is used 

 as an argument of age that as these sites are on hilltops where there 

 can be no inwash, this depth must indicate a very remote period for 

 their construction. But a large amount of the earth thrown out into 

 the surrounding ring or wall will find its way back into the depres- 

 sion. The M^ater will stand in them a good part of the year, and 

 the soil remain damp even in prolonged drought ; vegetation is thus 

 more luxuriant than on the outside, and its decay will fill up rather 

 rapidly. In addition, much sand blows from the prairies as well 

 as from the bottom lands, and whatever finds its way into the pit \yill 

 stay there; it will not blow away again as it would in open ground. 

 The weeds, also, will catch and retain much of this dust which would 

 pass over a dry surface. Consequently the allowance of an inch in 

 a century, which is the most that advocates of great age will allow 

 for accumulation, is much too small. 



The topography of the region was essentially the same when these 

 remains were constructed as it is now. The hills and valleys were as 

 they now exist; the erosion has been very slight as compared with 

 what has taken place since the loess was brought above the water, 

 to which it owes its origin. This statement is fully proven by the 

 position of the mounds and lodge sites. Any estimate of age must 

 be only a guess at the best, but it is a safe guess that no earthwork, 

 mound, lodge site, or human bone along this part of the Missouri 

 River has been here as long as 10 centuries. 



