More than 300 years ago, a small hill in western Missouri was the site of an Osage village, the earliest known Osage village site in that region and part of a small area about 12 miles by 10 miles where almost all known Osage sites and early European sites relating to the Osage in Missouri are found. Much of Osage history before the arrival of Europeans remains uncertain; they may have developed from groups already living in the area or split from another group such as the Kansa, and they shared language and many material traditions, including pottery, with nearby peoples such as the Kansa, Omaha, and Ponca. When Europeans first encountered them, they had lived in western Missouri no more than 50 years. The Osage often lived near major streams on the prairie margin, and their way of life centered on hunting while also including crop cultivation. Their rectangular houses, 30 to 50 feet long and 15 to 20 feet wide, were built from poles bent and fastened to ground posts, then covered with woven mats and hides, with doorways on the long side always facing east. Inside were mats, skins, baskets, shallow fireplace pits, deeper storage pits, pottery cooking vessels, wooden bowls, shell or bone spoons, gourds for water, and foods and other goods hung from posts and rafters or stored in skin bags. Outside, racks dried meat, vegetables, and plants for mat weaving, and animal skins were staked out or hung while women scraped, stretched, rubbed, and softened hides for robes, clothing, or trade. Women also tended gardens, planting corn, beans, squash, and pumpkins in April with bison scapula hoes and digging sticks, then harvesting in August after much of the village had spent the summer hunt away. Squash and pumpkins were peeled and cut into strips to dry, and corn was stored on the cob, as kernels, and ground. Hunting shaped the yearly cycle: in February or March they hunted bear and beaver, returned in April to plant, began summer bison and deer hunting in May, came back in August for harvest, and set out again for fall bison and deer hunting from September to December. Although men hunted, women also traveled to butcher animals, dry meat, prepare skins, and gather foods such as persimmons and nuts along with medicinal plants.