SUMMER NEBRASKAN
MONDAY, JULY 16,1972
Digging for traces of the post
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In Cass County, a few miles outside Weeping Water,
two faculty members and nine students
from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
worked during first summer session
on an archaeological dig.
Heading the dig was Dr. Dale Henning,
associate professor of anthropology,
assisted by Dr. John Weymoth, physics professor.
The excavation is a site originally dug
in the 1930s by amateur archaeologist
Dr. Lloyd N. Kunkel, still a practicing physician
in Weeping Water. Kunkel completely excavated
the six Indian lodge sites known to be in the immediate area.
His findings were reported by David Mayer Gradwohl
in a Nebraska State Historial Society publication
in 1969. In the 1930s, in addition to his own
archaeological work, Kunkel served as an informant
and guide for many professional archaeologists
working in the area. All of the house sites
are believed to have been inhabited
1200 A.D. by an Indian tribe of the Nebraska
Culture, a part of the Central Plains Tradition.
The semi-sebterranean houses were rectangular,
with tunnel-like entrances. The floors were
about three feet below the surface.
The widely spaced lodges probably were made
of wood and clay and don't appear to have been erected
in any pattern to form a village. In the current
excavation, all the earth that is removed
with shovel and trowel is sifted carefully through
wire mesh screens to find any small chips and flakes
that were missed the first time. The original work
was done only with shovels looking for easily visible
artifacts. Last Wednesday, work at the site stopped for
the summer. It will be resumed for several weeks
in the fall and completed next summer.
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Photos and Story by Carol Proud, NU School of Journalism
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17 J.
Upper ri()ht: Dr, Weymoth testing for
lodge floor by tampling earth color.
Top center: Screening for pottery
chips.
Right: Measuring t preliminary
trench.
Lower left: Tools for accurate
organizing and recording, an absolute
necessity.
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