The crew on the site early this A.M., and we decided to work on the east
side of the ditch and in the vicinity of the burials that had been found
previously. We staked out square 31R17, and began work; we removed the
plow zone. We scraped off the new surface in search of any possible
pattern of pit outline, or postmold, and there was none to be found.
Potsherds, and other items, were collected for that level F. S. 185
which was the plow zone.
With no visible pattern in the horizontal profile at DD 5.0 we began the
next level collecting potsherds, which were designated F. S. 187. At DD
5.0 to DD 5.5, and at two-tenths of a foot in the level there appeared
the top of a skull (See burial form 34). Burial 34 had a skull at its
feet, possibly a trophy skull, and was a positive association with
burial 34. At the completion of the square, the following information
was recorded:
There were four burials directly beneath Burial 34, and in a very
compact arrangement; two of the burials were adults, and two of them
infants. They were in a very disturbed condition, at the time they were
discovered. The problem arose as to what took place. They were in an
east-west direction, and in very compact arrangement. It seems as though
each burial was disturbed when each succeeding burial was placed in the
pit. The question arose, due to the placement of one atop each other in
such an exact arrangement, could there have been some sort of mark to
denote the location (That is, if each one had a time space between
them.) But the search produced nothing to indicate such a marker; no
postmolds could be found.
These burials began atop the subsoil, and continued upward to datum
depth 5.2. If there was a pit outline in the square it was not visible
to us, and that is one of the items we are so careful about. In spite of
the fact that the burials were disturbed and in a very poor state of
preservation, one assuring condition was the position of the remaining
vertebrae which indicated the four burials were under burial 34. There
was a broken bottle associated with these burials, and in all
probability belonged to burial 34 F. S. 191; DD 5.7 to the bottom of the
vessel.
The soil changed to a lighter brown at DD 5.5 and continued about the
same to subsoil which was listed as DD 6.0. The DD was based on the
average depth of subsoil.
About two inches south of the 32 line, there appeared another burial,
which was almost entirely in the square to the north, square 32R17. The
south half of square 32R17 was also opened in order to record this
burial. In doing so, the top of a bottle appeared, about two feet north
of Burial 32, and nearby were the fragments of an infant burial and
there were no artifacts associated with it. The burial was partly in the
plow zone, and was almost completely destroyed. The bone was in poor
condition and crumbled in removal.
The bottle was associated with a burial. The burial was on top of the
subsoil and consisted of part of one arm, the radius, ulna, and
hand—nothing else. There was no indication of disturbance, and no
missing bones were found in the midden. Less than two feet north of
burial 34 was another burial, the feet extending into parts of squares
31R16 and 32R16. The burial was in a shallow pit in the subsoil, and had
one association with it, a bowl F. S. 190. The vessel had little nodes
on four sides near the top, four nodes to each side except one side
which had three nodes. This burial was .4 ft. below the average datum
depth of the subsoil of this square. There was no disturbance to burial
32 and burial 33 was partly under burial 32. Burial 33 was in a lighter
brown soil than that above datum depth 5.5.
There have been many burials in somewhat similar condition in regard to
the missing bones, both disturbed and undisturbed, throughout the whole
site in which burials were found. The skeletons were removed to the best
of our ability, one of the burials in its entirety.
We filled the square and returned home.