388 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 4 



thick laminated deposit which contained numerous burials as well as 

 charcoal, potsherds, and shells. The burials from the superficial and 

 the deep deposits have been plotted separately on the plans of this 

 mound, but otherwise there is nothing to distinguish them. 



The state of preservation of these skeletons was very poor. The 

 bones were all found to have been badly crushed by earth pressure 

 as well as being in an advanced state of decomposition. They had 

 been oriented with the head toward the center of the mound but 

 their individual positions were not uniform. Fifty-two skeletons 

 were recovered, and of these 22 were adult males, 20 were adult fe- 

 males, 8 were adults who could not be accurately sexed, and 1 was 

 a child. As nearly as could be determined from their crushed con- 

 dition, they were similar to those excavated in site 1. 



The material culture and the fauna were identical with those 

 already described, but there were no articles of European manufacture. 



ORMOND MOUND, VOLUSIA COUNTY 



This was a small sand mound 60 feet in diameter and 6 feet high 

 located on the eastern edge of the Halifax River a mile south of 

 Ormond bridge in the city of Ormond Beach. Several pits had been 

 sunk into the mound by previous diggers, but damage to the mound 

 structure had not been great. Complete excavation revealed that 

 it had been erected upon a layer of earlier rich, black village site 

 refuse. Above this black stratum was a layer of ash-gray sand iden- 

 tical in appearance with the surface soil existing in the vicinity at 

 present, indicating that considerable time had elapsed between the 

 abandonment of the village site and the construction of the mound. 



When excavations had progressed through about one-third of the 

 diameter of the mound, burials were encountered on the lower level 

 just below the village site layer. These burials were extended on 

 the back and were arranged in two concentric circles in such a man- 

 ner that the head of one burial approached within a foot or two of 

 the feet of the next. In several instances these burials were in pairs. 

 Most of the bones were badly crushed. Apparently the inhabitants 

 of the village site buried their dead in shallow pits, barely covering 

 the bodies. The skeletons then became crushed, either as a result of 

 the burial place being lived uj^on or by the weight of the mound later 

 erected above the burials. 



In the mound itself the burials were also extended in the same 

 manner, but there was no semblance of regularity in the way they 

 had been placed. They occurred at all levels, lying in all directions. 

 In certain places they were bunched together as though buried at the 

 same time, and in other sections of the mound were areas of compara- 

 tive sterility. 



