20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



examine the fill, and the site was walked carefully. No indication of 

 a village and no cultural material were found on the surface. This 

 area will probably be flooded in 1959 and no further efforts there 

 seem justified. The Pitlick site (39HU16), 8 miles downstream from 

 the Sully site, is the northernmost site in the Peoria Bottom group. 

 It will not be flooded in 1959, but will probably slump badly. Two 

 large trenches and two deep test pits were excavated. One trench 

 cut through the shoulder and floor of a house, the other through a 

 fortification ditch. One of the deep test pits may have cut through 

 a house floor. No artifacts were recovered at the site. This party 

 disbanded on August 23, following 10 weeks in the field. The Stephen- 

 son, Bass, and McNutt field parties shared camp facilities near the 

 Sully site in Fielder Bottom. 



The fourth Eiver Basin Surveys field party in the Oahe Keservoir 

 area consisted of a crew of nine, directed by Richard P. Wheeler. It 

 investigated a series of sites on the right bank of the Missouri Eiver 

 in the Fort Bennett area, 36 river miles above Pierre, Stanley 

 County, S. Dak. The principal effort was directed toward excava- 

 tions at the H. P. Thomas site (39ST12). A total of 60 circular 

 earth-lodge depressions is apparent in area 1 of the site, and 21 

 depressions are suggested in area 2. Three lodges were excavated 

 in area 1 and two in area 2. Overburden was removed from six addi- 

 tional lodges by bulldozer, and four dozer-cut trenches were carried 

 across the moats in each area. Three midden deposits in area 1 were 

 excavated, one containing a fragment of the floor pattern of a house. 

 Three of the suggested five components appear to be assignable to 

 the Snake Butte, Stanley, and Anderson-Monroe Foci, as defined by 

 Lehmer for the Oahe Dam area. 



At the Agency Creek site (39ST41), adjacent to site 39ST12, seven 

 small test pits and one bulldozer trench were excavated. Since time 

 did not permit detailed investigation of these sample excavations, 

 little can be said of the cultural implications of the site, although 

 laboratory analyses of the artifacts will prove informative. Addi- 

 tional tests were made at the Lounsbury site (39ST42) and at the 

 Eamsey site (39ST236), the latter situated midway between 39ST41 

 and 39ST42. At the Lounsbury site, test pits were excavated into the 

 centers of two circular-house depressions, exposing the central 

 hearths. The overburden was bulldozed from the surface of one 

 house, but the structure was not fully excavated. The Eamsey site 

 appears to be a series of middens only, and a stratigraphic cut, 5 feet 

 by 10 feet, provided an abundance of artifacts but no house remains. 

 These test excavations at the Agency Creek, Lounsbury, and Eamsey 

 sites yielded thin, horizontally incised rim sherds and simple-stamped 

 body sherds characteristic of the Bennett Focus as suggested earlier 



