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SACRIFICIAL MOUNDS. 159 



having been plastered with mortar. Nos. 6, 9, and 18, in "Mound City," are 

 examples of this class. No coals or ashes were found on any of these ; they 

 appear to have been carefully cleaned out before being heaped over. 



An explanation of this circumstance may probably be found in the character of 

 a certain class of small mounds, occurring within enclosures and in connection 

 with the altar mounds. In the plan of " Mound City " so often referred to are 

 several of these, numbered 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21 and 23, respectively. They are 

 very small, the largest not exceeding three feet in height, and are destitute of altars. 

 In place thereof, on the original level of the earth, was found a quantity, in no case 

 exceeding the amount of one skeleton, of burned human bones, in small fragments. 

 That they were not burned on the spot is evident from the absence of all traces of 

 fire, beyond those furnished by the remains themselves. They appear to have 

 been collected from the pyre, wherever it was erected, and carefully deposited in 

 a small heap, and then covered over. In one instance (mound No. 19) a small 

 hole had been dug, in which the remains were found. A section of this mound 



is herewith given, Fig. 47. The 

 deposit is indicated by the letter a. 

 This feature is analogous to the 

 cists of the British barrows. That 

 the burning took place on some of 

 the altars above mentioned is not only indicated by the presence of the deposit 

 of phosphate of lime upon them, but is absolutely demonstrated by finding, inter- 

 mixed with the calcined bones, fragments of the altars themselves, as if portions 

 had been scaled up by the instrument used in scraping together and removing the 

 burned remains. 



The inference that human sacrifices were made here, and the remains afterwards 

 thus collected and deposited, or that a system of burial of this extraordinary char- 

 acter was practised in certain cases, seems to follow legitimately from the facts 

 and circumstances here presented.* 



That the stratified mounds are not burial places seems sufficiently well estab- 

 lished by the fact that the greater number have no traces of human remains upon 

 or around the altars. The suggestion that the various relics found upon these 

 altars were the personal effects of deceased chiefs or priests, thus deposited in 

 accordance with the practice common amongst rude people, of consigning the 

 property of the dead to the tomb with them, is controverted by the fact that 



* Amongst the Mexicans, burial by fire was generally practised. Clavigero mentions a fact, in connec- 

 tion with their funeral rites, which may serve to elucidate the point here raised, viz. that burial in the 

 vicinity of some altar or temple, or in the sacred places where sacrifices were made, was often sought by 

 the Mexicans : 



" There was no fixed place for burials. Many ordered their ashes to be buried near some temple or 

 altar, some in the fields, and others in their sacred places in the mountains where sacrifices used to be 

 made. The ashes of the kings and lords were, for the most part, deposited in the towers of the temples, 

 especially those of the greater temple." — Clavigero, American Edilion, vol. ii. p. 1 OS : Acosla in Purchas, 

 vol. iii. p. 1020. 



