INAUGURATING AN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

 IN KANSAS 



By WALDO R. WEDEL 



Assistant Curator, Division of Archeology, U. S. National Museum 



Systematic researches in Great Plains prehistory during the past 

 decade have thrown much light on what has long been one of the 

 least known archeological areas in North America. It is now estab- 

 lished that throughout much of this region — the " Great American 

 Desert " of the early European explorers, bison-hunting Indians were 

 preceded before the coming of the white man by successive sedentary 

 peoples who subsisted primarily on the cultivation of maize and other 

 crops. The arts and crafts of these earlier peoples varied from lo- 

 cality to locality, and even in the same area there were temporal 

 differences. As yet it has not been possible to determine in every 

 case just how these differences came about. Students of prehistory 

 are still uncertain as to the connections which formerly existed be- 

 tween the tribes in the northern Plains and the higher centers of cul- 

 ture on the lower Arkansas and Red Rivers. Equally perplexing is 

 the relationship between archeological cultures in the Mississippi val- 

 ley and those of the western Plains. One reason for the archeologists' 

 uncertainty in these and like problems is the almost complete lack of 

 reliable information on the prehistoric remains of Kansas, which lies 

 in the very heart of the Great Plains. To bridge this gap in our 

 anthropological literature plans were formulated for a State-wide 

 archeological survey of Kansas to be carried on by the United States 

 National Museum. As the initial step in this projected program, 

 the writer spent 3^ months from May to September in reconnaissance 

 excavations in northeastern Kansas and adjoining portions of Mis- 

 souri. Investigations included three village sites along the bluffs of 

 the Missouri River above Kansas City and two in the Kansas valley 

 near Manhattan. 



During the month of June excavations were carried on at a small 

 but prolific site on Line Creek about 5 miles northwest of Kansas 

 City. This had been partly destroyed by recent road-building opera- 

 tions, but in the remaining undisturbed portions evidences were found 

 of a prolonged and intensive occupation by a horticultural people who 

 used it for a camp site before the arrival of Europeans. These people 

 made pottery of two distinct kinds. One was in the form of large 

 pointed-base jars the outer surface of which was often roughened by 

 impressions from a cord-wrapped implement (fig. 107, E, J). In form 

 and type of decoration this pottery is comparable to that classified as 



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