Other comparative data were collected by River Basin Surveys personnel during the 1948 field season in Frontier County, Nebr. Data for many of the sites came from A.T.Hill's collections, now part of the Nebraska State Historical Society. Olson, Superintendent of the Nebraska State Historical Society, for permission to use certain data from the Society's collections.
The numerous drainages north-south branches of these streams have carved the surface of the field in a long series, almost par-. The width of the alluvial soils, which is greatest along the Republican, varies from a few meters to 214 miles. It is clear that the area offered much incentive to primitive horticultural peoples, as well as to those who depended entirely on the results of the pursuit.
PREVIOUS ARCHEOLOGICAL WORK
The Nebraska-Kansas state line crosses the northern edge of the property, less than a hundred yards north of the ossuary. Profiles were drawn and photographs taken of the 4-inch control sections left at the edges of the squares. Tests around the edge of the basin, as well as elsewhere on the terrace, revealed no other disturbed areas.
In other isolated cases, the bones of the lower part of the hand and palm, the vertebrae and the bones of the feet were articulated (Fig. 19,a). The bones of a single burial in the flesh, an adolescent, were well preserved and showed no signs of fire (Fig. 20, a). After the meat decomposed, the scattered balls and weathered bones were probably collected and deposited in various caves.
ARTIFACTS
The numerous occurrences of from 3 to 20 evenly matched beads in close alignment probably indicate that a majority of the beads were originally in strings like those of Feature 21 and became disarranged during the subsequent period of exposure and redeposition.
POTTERY
The unpierced shell bead blanks, which could not have been hung, may have been scattered over various individual burials or placed in sacks.^ Ibid. The inner surface of the pieces has a thick layer of carbon which can be easily scratched.
WORK IN ANTLER AND BONE
The specimens vary in length from 72 to 80 mm., and the greatest diameter, at the base, varies from 18 to 24 mm. The nature of two of the beads, which are not finished at the ends, suggests that the leg was partially cut through and then broken off. From a depth of 14 inches in square N35 El came a deer metapodial from which the distal end had been removed by cutting and breaking (p. 22, a,1).
Under the lower left arm of the articulated burial (Feature 21) in section N25 El was a tool made from the metapodium of a deer (pi. 22, a,2). A burnt fragment of a third specimen of this type lay surrounded by burnt earth and charcoal in section N30 El, at a depth of 24 inches. Pap No^sT"^' WOODRUFF OSSUARY KIVETT 121 the two specimens, which appear to be complete, have been removed, apparently by breaking, as the end, though well polished, is uneven.
The proximal end of the specimen excavated from Feature 12 has been partially removed and the end rounded. The . the calcined fragment, consisting of the proximal end extending about halfway through the perforation, appeared similar to the other two. Three short parallel diagonal lines were incised on one side near the perforation. Barely ) year old specimens are heavily polished on the sides and it appears that spongy tissue has been removed from the inside of the bone.
They are more commonly made from the ribs of large mammals, but specimens made from the leg bones of cervids occur in the Upper Republican aspect. At least one such fragment, which may be from the scapula of a fairly large animal, is well smoothed and polished.
WORK IN STONE
In cross-section, the blades of all tips are doubly convex with maximum thickness (3-T mm.) along the midline. Three have a convex base (SCbl), one has a flat base (SCb2) and one has a concave base (SCb3). The tip at the widest end is rounded and tapered with a secondary taper.
Alime matrix, which probably represents the surface of the original jasper plate, is present on one lateral surface, and sometimes on both. These specimens are very similar to the decomposed Celts from the Upper Epepublican aspect, but as a series they are on average much smaller. Six end scrapers, one of which emerged from the surface, are of the plano-convex type (Fig. 23, a,1).
They differ to some extent in shape, but common to all is a flat or slightly curved ventral surface. It does not appear to differ significantly from samples found within every archaeological complex of the Central Plains. A few broken, roughly hewn cuts, worked on both sides and double-convex cross-section, may cause fragments of blade.
One, from the surface, is roughly rectangular in shape and has its two opposite ends rounded through use.
WORK IN SHELL
Although some of the thicker end balls from 14PH4 were drilled from both sides, most such as those from Marshall. There are 9 nearly complete crescent-shaped pendants with a perforation at each end for hanging, and fragments that appear to represent 14 additional specimens of the same type (Figs. 25; 11). They are cut from the ventral margin of freshwater mussels along the pallial line.
Perforations vary in diameter from 2 to 4 mm.; they usually appear to have been drilled from the inner surface of the shell. This object was made from a freshwater mussel shell and is sub-rectangular in shape with rounded corners across the width (Fig. 25; 1). The shell has been cut longitudinally so that the upper margin of the groove was originally close to the center of the shell, while the lower margin preserves the pallial line and ventral margin.
Near the mouth of a partially articulated skeleton (feature 16) insquareX30, at 46 inches, a cut shell fragment was found that may represent an incomplete pendant or cleft (p. 25; 10). The length of the specimen is 9.5 cm., the width at the base of the triangle is 3.6 cm., and the greatest thickness near the apex 4 mm. Two specimens somewhat similar to the triangular, double-perforated pendants described above, point to a crescent shape (pi.25.
A portion of the stem of a Gulf of Mexico shell, Busycon GontrariuTn (Conrad),* has been cored lengthwise from both ends to form a tubular bead or pendant (Fig. 25; 7). The outer surface is rounded and smoothed, but the spiral of the stem is still visible. It is approximately oval in shape and has a circular perforation of 4 mm. in diameter near one rounded and.
Atota of 12 beads fashioned from the stems of marine shells, probably Busycon contranuin (Conrad) from the Gulf of Mexico, was found (pi. 24; 5).
RESUME
A single articulated skeleton lay on the bottom of the pool with a significant number of artifacts, the majority of which were made of shell. Objects of personal adornment or grave goods comprise the bulk of the samples, with greater emphasis on those made from freshwater and marine shells. However, it seems likely that pottery of this type can be found along with other plastic types, as calcite is not readily available in all parts of the CentralPlains.
However, it appears to be slightly inferior in construction and lacks the various rim and lip decorations of the Valley Cord-Roughened type. These sand and pebble-tempered sherds have many of the characteristics of the Valley Cord-Eoughened type, including diagonal cord impressions. An examination of the collections at the Nebraska State Historical Society revealed the worn vessels and the restored conoid base of a third vessel to be of the Harlan Cord-Roughened type.
Sherds of the Valley Cord-Roughened type have been found with sherds of the Missouri Bluffs Woodland type (Keyes, 1949, p. 97) by the Nebraska State Historical Society at a series of sites on Loseke Creek in Platte County, Nebr. Although some of the artifacts recovered from this burial have definite Hopewellian affinities, others are comparable to those from the Keith focus. The second, Holdrege 5 (25FR9), was described by Wedel and tentatively assigned to the Lost Creek focus of the Upper Republican aspect.
This has been identified as Keith's focus of the Orleans aspect of the unnamed western phase of the Woodland pattern. The presence of certain features of the Keith focus in the Younkin mound collection (SchultzandSpaulding, 1948) suggests some contact between the residents of the Keith focus and those of the Central Plains Hopewell manifestation. Certain features of the rough rim of the Valley Cord occurring on the Loseke Creek and Eagle Creek sherds indicate that this undefined version may have been influenced by and is generally later than the Valley focus.
The ossuary burial characteristic of some Woodland variants and the LostCreek focus of the Upper Republican aspect may be an important factor in this connection when these Woodland variants are properly defined.
SKELETAL REMAINS OF THE WOODRUFF OSSUARY
It seems likely that such cemeteries were used by the residents of more than one village in the area, given the considerable time and effort that must have been required to produce the copious grave goods. Although the majority of sites identified to date are cemeteries, it seems likely that a survey of suitable areas in their vicinity will reveal numerous small village sites. The more numerous other bones counted gave figures well below those of the mandibles, e.g.
Both possible pairs are female; hence the percentage of women is 47 percent if the innominates are considered separately, and 52 percent if two couples are actually represented. The ratio of the sexes, judged on the basis of the individual femora, is 8 to 8; if three pairs are considered, the ratio is six females to seven males. Although a large percentage (81 percent) of the mandibles appeared to be male, the sex ratio, judged from the unnamed bones and femurs, suggests that male and female burials occurred.
Observations of the dentition of the ossuary population were made on 28 adult mandibles, 15 complete and 13 with one side missing. In postmortem loss, an average of 33 percent of teeth are missing from complete mandibles and 83 percent from half mandibles. Twelve of the mandibles (43 percent) have teeth containing caries, a total of 17 cavities in all the teeth.
Evidence of a mild degree of tooth crowding occurs in 36 percent of the 28 mandibles. Limited skeletal collections are available for certain Upper Republican groups, as well as for some other complexes, but these have not yet been explored. Cranial measurements were taken from one complete adult skull (feature 16, specimen no. 14PH4-1436), and are tabulated.
The skull, which appears to be male, is deformed by a slight degree of flattening of the central part of the occipital region and a pronounced asymmetry of the right occipital and right parietal.
LITERATURE CITED
