Archeological Investigations Part 23

PERU, NEBRASKA

On various hills in the vicinity of Peru are lodge sites, some of them circular, some rectangular, some with straight sides and rounded corners. Most of them have been dug in at random; in every case after a certain depth of acc.u.mulated earth and trash is pa.s.sed through, there is a layer of clay which formed the roof, and beneath this the hard earth floor with fireplace usually in the center but sometimes a little toward one side.

PAPILLION, NEBRASKA

At the time of my visit, Dr. Frederick H. Sterns, of the Peabody Museum, was working near here. He described himself as "the man who is extremely anxious to find a glacial or other very ancient man, but so far has not succeeded in getting track of him." Dr. Sterns did not claim a period antedating the Indian for anything he had then unearthed--meaning the known Indian tribes.

VICINITY OF OMAHA, NEBRASKA

To the southward of Omaha are many lodge sites of varying depths and diameters. The deepest one reported had a depth of 9 feet below the surrounding surface, and at the bottom of this was a pit (or "cache,"

as they are locally known) with an additional depth of 4 feet, or 13 feet of excavation in all. This was near the so-called "cannibal house," where 14 human frontal bones were found under conditions which indicate they had belonged to individuals who were eaten by other inmates of the lodge.

A short distance from these sites, across a ravine, is a bare, narrow ridge, very steep on each side, so that erosion would readily act. On the sloping summit of this are three small mounds which cover communal burials. From one of these, the one farthest from the summit of the hill, more than 80 skulls were taken and boys in the neighborhood have since taken many more. They are all of the ordinary Indian type, and can not have been buried more than a few generations ago; but this fact has not prevented an age of "twenty thousand years" being a.s.signed to them. There is absolutely no reason for fixing this or any other date. There is nothing whatever to indicate the age, but 200 years would probably not be far from the mark, because erosion has been slight since the mounds were piled up.

LONG'S HILL

This ridge has attained some notoriety as the site of Gilder's discovery of the "Nebraska Man." The claim is made that human bones were found at a depth of 14 feet in absolutely undisturbed loess. The hill is a narrow ridge, facing the river on one side and a deep ravine on the other. It is somewhat winding in its course and is connected with the more level land in the rear at about half a mile from its end. A wagon road up the point, from the river bottom to the hilltop, shows undisturbed loess the entire distance. There is no possibility of acc.u.mulation by wash or in any other manner except decaying vegetation on any part of this ridge.

Along the crest are several small mounds. Some of these, as shown by excavation, cover graves, and the presumption is that all of them mark burial places.

It is needless to make any resume of Gilder's report, as it is so well known, further than to say that he found burials and fragmentary human bones at various levels from 2 to 14 feet. At 4 feet were burned bones lying upon burned earth and mingled with it. This layer, burned hard as a brick, served to prevent water from penetrating the earth immediately below; and it is in this earth that the deepest remains were found.

There are three ways, and only three, in which they could get there:

1. They were washed in when the loess was deposited, as claimed by the discoverers and by some of the Nebraska geologists.

In support of this view is the a.s.sertion that the bones were water-worn. On this point I can not venture any opinion, as I have not seen them. But I have found bones in mounds and in other situations where such wear was impossible and yet having the smoothed and rounded appearance characteristic of such action by water or the elements.

In support of this theory, too, is the positive statement of Nebraska geologists who have had ample opportunity to become familiar with loess in all its phases; and they claim the deposit is the original and has not been disturbed.

It is necessary for these advocates, however, to tell where such fragments of bones could have come from and how they could have been washed to the place where found, when all these bluffs were covered with water, as they had to be at that time.

2. The bones could have been carried by rodents into their burrows or runways, as Hrdlicka suggests. In this case the material in contact with the bones would have to be somewhat different in appearance and consistency from that which lay a few inches, or perhaps only an inch, away. The Nebraska men say this was not the case.

3. There may have been an excavation or pit similar to that in which the Hurons buried their dead. But as no such burial pits have been discovered in this part of the country, this supposition must be excluded.

A corollary to the last is that a deep but small pit similar to the so-called "caches" in the lodge sites may have been dug here and the bones thrown in. There is no indication whatever of a lodge site or any other form of habitation at this point, but I have found such pits in the vicinity of Indian houses, though not just on their site. The deepest one I have ever found was 10 feet and less than 6 feet in diameter. There would be no difficulty in digging into this loose material as far as an excavator cared to go, until he had reached a depth at which he could no longer get the loosened earth to the surface of the ground. As mentioned above, a pit south of Omaha had a depth of 13 feet, or only 1 foot less than is claimed for this--or rather for the greatest depth at which it is claimed fragments of bone were found.

The objection made to this theory is that the earth thrown out of the hole was unmixed, presenting throughout the appearance and consistency of loess as it occurs where exposed in ravines or on slopes in the vicinity. It is contended that if any previous excavation had been made here and filled up afterwards the mixed earth would be easily distinguished from that which was not removed, and that the line of demarcation would be easily discernible.

As a rule, this is true; but when dry loose earth of h.o.m.ogeneous consistency is thrown out of a pit and then thrown in again without becoming mixed with any other it is sometimes impossible to distinguish it at a later excavation. This is especially true of earth free from vegetable matter, as ordinary sand; or composed largely of vegetable mold, as the soil in overflow lands which have built up mainly from floods carrying uniform soil sediment. The line of demarcation between the dug and the undug earth in such conditions may become indistinguishable except when a vertical face is made which shall show a clear section of both in contact.

It is now too late to learn anything about the matter from the site itself. So many persons have been digging that it would be impossible to know when the limit is reached between the original excavation--a.s.suming it to have been made--when the bodies were interred, and that resulting from the modern researches. The question of age hinges upon the appearance of the earth in which the bones were found; and the only way in which we can now learn anything about it is to trench across the hill at some of the other burial places, in the hope of finding bones at a similar level, and determining from the conditions in which these are found how they came there.

It is beyond question that any soil, humus, or other discolored matter thrown into an excavation with ordinary soil or subsoil will be apparent for an indefinite time afterwards. But on some of these high points and ridges there is even now not a trace of soil. Frost and wind have worn bare spots where nothing grows or has grown for a long time. As this region was a prairie devoid of even brush when the whites settled here, it is evident that such slight protection as gra.s.s or weeds afford would not be sufficient to hold the earth in place in winter, and when the ground is once swept bare such humble forms of growth may not get a foothold in future. Anyone who has studied surface geology knows these facts.

So at present the whole question of the age of these bones resolves itself into a statement of one party that they were found in undisturbed loess, as reported; and of the inability of another party to show that there may have been an error of observation or a mistaken interpretation.

There need be no such doubt in regard to the age of the mounds or the lodge sites. It would not take many centuries for mounds upon these sharp, exposed ridges to be entirely washed away, in spite of the fact that the fine loess is almost impermeable. Rain may not reduce them to an appreciable extent, but frost and wind will gradually wear them down. As to the lodge sites, their similarity to modern Indian houses is so p.r.o.nounced that we are fully justified in attributing them to the same degree of culture as that of the Indians of a century ago.

The only point of difference is that the latter dwellings have not such deep excavations, but the incursion of war-like tribes, or the restlessness that impels a primitive community to be frequently on the move, seems a simpler explanation of the difference than to suppose that identical types are separated by a great period of time.

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 those 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 preserved by ashes, this would not mean much; but where they are found in clayey earth it is evident that "thousands of years" is a meaningless 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 a.s.sumed "ancients" are found in such quant.i.ties and in such good preservation, those of later Indians should have entirely disappeared.

The only tenable theory of age is the amount of acc.u.mulation 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 sometimes (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 depression.

The water 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 will 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 pa.s.s 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 acc.u.mulation, 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.

IV. ABORIGINAL HOUSE MOUNDS

The small, low, flattened mounds of the lower Mississippi Valley are a problem to archeologists. They have been studied princ.i.p.ally near the Mississippi River, in Arkansas and Missouri, and for many years it was thought that in the latter State they are confined entirely to the southeastern portion. Recently they have been found much farther to the north and the west than they were supposed to exist.

A group, rather limited as to number and to the area covered, is at the head of a narrow valley trending northward from Granite Mountain in Iron County.

"Near Iron Mountain, in St. Francois County, more than 500 of these small mounds, arranged in parallel rows following the direction of the watercourses, were counted within a radius of 3 miles."[1]

The next group known north of this is on the right bank of Plattin Creek in Jefferson County, about 12 miles from the Mississippi.

"A group of some 50 similar mounds is situated on the right bank of the Meramec, about 6 miles above its mouth, in Jefferson County."[2]

The most northern group so far observed is near Ferguson in St. Louis County, Missouri, where 46 are located on a narrow ridge which has the same general elevation as the table-land. The ridge extends around the head of a ravine, and the mounds are placed along its crest or on the gentle slopes near the top. There are 10 or 12 at the southern edge of Ferguson, on an overflow bottom bordering a small creek.

Toward the west from the swamp region a small group is in a broad valley near Alton in Oregon County, which borders on Arkansas. They are scattered along a gentle slope which has a little stream at the foot.

In Dent County four groups are known. One is on the infirmary farm south of the town of Salem. Most of these are but slightly changed from their natural condition. Another group is 6 miles east of Salem.

These also are largely intact. A third is on the road from Salem to Short Bend. The fourth is at the edge of Salem, on the Rolla road.

"On the high plateau of Dallas County, north of the Niangua ... within an area smaller than 10 square miles, 860 were counted."[3]

Three groups are well marked in Phelps County. A mile east of Rolla they begin at the line of the Frisco Railway and extend southward in a shallow valley or "draw." Some are on the overflow flat bordering the little stream, but most of them are on the slopes to either side.