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Contribution to Montana Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

N. C. Nelson*
Affiliation:
American Museum of Natural History

Extract

The summer of 1941 saw the American Museum in possession of a permit to excavate two caves on the Crow Indian Reservation in south-central Montana. Those caves were selected from other possibilities the year before by my colleague, Junius Bird; but, owing to his absence, the permit, originally issued to him, was changed in my favor. August and September were chosen as the most favorable time, and five weeks were devoted to actual field operations.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1943

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References

1 Another two weeks were given to visiting local sites, museums, and private collections. These included a brief inspection of the Pictograph and Ghost caves recently excavated near Billings as well as a bison drive dump now being worked on the outskirts of the city. At the museums in Billings, Helena and Missoula small Montana collections of uncertain origin were seen. More important were the several private collections examined, including that of Mr. Oscar Lewis, in charge of the local W.P.A. excavations; but although some of these collections came partly from localities later personally worked, only items not found in my own series are here considered. Finally I reexamined Barnum Brown's unique collection of arrowpoints found in two bison drive dumps near Emigrant and by him described in Natural History for 1932, pp. 75–82. The main conclusion derived from all this is that, as would be expected, Montana yields at least some indications of Folsom and Yuma points. More surprising is the presence of oblong manos, rectangular metates and grooved axes. Incidentally, I was told that pottery ranges well into the northwestern part of the state, and that bison drives are very numerous.