Additional Data on the Woodruff Ossuary, Kansas

Abstract

The Woodruff ossuary (14PH4), a prehistoric communal burial site situated just south of the Nebraska line in Phillips County, Kansas, was excavated for the Smithsonian River Basin Surveys in the late summer and fall of 1946. In the report on this work (Kivett 1953) the findings were correlated with earlier observations in Nebraska and the site was assigned to a recurring complex called the Keith focus. The Keith focus is but one of several variants — and perhaps an early one — of the widespread Woodland culture of the Central Plains. It is distinguished chiefly by the following: calcite-tempered pottery designated as Harlan Cord-Roughened; small to large stemmed and barbed projectile points, often serrated; small chipped celts; triangular and crescentic shell pendants as grave offerings, along with great numbers of shell disc beads and bead blanks; perforated canine teeth and unperforated rodent teeth; incised tubular bone beads; and secondary burial of disarticulated bodies in communal pits.