CHAPTER VII. 



MOUNDS OF SEPULTURE 



Fid. 49. — GROUP OF S E T" H LT II R A I. M O U X 11 fJ . 



Mounds of this class are very numerous. They are generally of considerable 

 size, varying from six to eighty feet in height, but having an average altitude of 

 from fifteen to twenty or twenty-five feet. They stand without the walls of (>nclo- 

 sures, at a distance more or less remote from them. Many are isolated, with no 

 other monuments near them ; but they frequently occur in groups, sometimes in 

 close connection with each other, and exhibiting a dependence which was probably 

 not without its meaning. They are destitute of altars, nor do they possess that 

 regularity which characterizes the " temple mounds." Their usual form is that of 

 a simple cone ; sometimes they are elliptical or pear-shaped. 



These mounds invariably cover a skeleton, (in very rare instances more than 

 one, as in the case of the Grave creek mound,) which at the time of its interment 

 was enveloped in bark or coarse matting, or enclosed in a rude sarcophagus oi 

 timber, — the traces, in some instances the very casts of which remain. Occa- 

 sionally the chamber of the dead is built of stone, rudely laid up, without cement 

 of any kind. Burial by fire seems to have been frequently practised by the mound- 

 builders. Urn burial also appears to have prevailed, to a considerable extent, in 

 the Southern States. 



With the skeletons in these mounds are found various remains of art, comprising 



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