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In May 1997 a cistern filled with household debris was exposed during the expansion of the University of Nebraska Lincoln’s City Campus Student Union. The top of the cistern had been removed by prior construction, leaving approximately half of the feature untouched. After 1890, the cistern stopped functioning as a residential water storage system and became a refuse pit. The recovered artifacts consist of glass bottles, metal artifacts, faunal remains, personal items, and a wide variety of ceramics. In 2016, UNL students began reassessing the assemblage to produce a complete artifact catalog and create a digital exhibit.