88 BULLETIN 183, UNITED STATES NATIONAL RIUSlEUM 



continuing downhill for 40 feet, uncovered burial after burial lying 

 for the most part only a few inches below plow sole. The previous 

 tests made on the hilltop, evidently based on the assumption that 

 graves were always placed at the highest point, had come within 

 15 feet of the north edge of the massed burials, though one or two 

 isolated graves were little more than 5 feet away. Beyond a small 

 amount of damage to some of the skeletons through deep plowing, 

 there had evidently been no disturbance of the cemetery prior to 

 our work. 



No attempt was made to clear any of the graves until a large part 

 of the slope had been staked out in a grid pattern. This covered 

 the area lying south of our east-west test trench and was based on 

 a system of 5-foot squares. The west face of the original north-south 

 test was made the baseline, beginning with square 5 at the north 

 and extending through square 95 at the south end. The east-west 

 cut became line 35, with units further designated as El, E2, . . ., 

 or Wl, W2, ... to indicate their position respectively east or west 

 of the baseline. This system offered sufficient flexibility to allow 

 expansion indefinitely in any direction. Location of all burials in 

 relation to the grid used is shown in figure 11. All lay between the 

 874- and 879-foot contours, and none was more than 2 feet below the 

 present ground surface. Few indeed were more than a foot deep, 

 and it is likely that within a very few years the plow would have 

 reached many of the skeletons. 



The skeletons were generally in a very poor state of preservation, 

 and only a small proportion of the bones could be saved for labora- 

 tory analysis. A careful count based chiefly on the number of skulls 

 showed that a total of at least 83 individuals was represented. Of 

 these, 51 (63 percent) had been buried in an extended supine posi- 

 tion, 5 (6.2 percent) had been flexed wholly or partially, and 6 (7.3 

 percent) were bundle burials. In seven instances the remains had 

 been reburied or otherwise disturbed in such fashion that the orig- 

 inal position of the body could not be ascertained, and in 14 (16"" 

 percent) the skull only was present. All phases of life from young 

 childhood to old age were represented. 



Supine extended burials usually included little except the skull and 

 bones of the legs and arms (pi. 31, «-c), rarely also the pelvis and 

 scapulae. In a few rare instances traces of the ribs and other smaller 

 bones were noted. Orientation of the bodies varied so far as actual 

 points of the compass were concerned but was strikingly consistent 

 in another respect. Those in the main part of the cemetery lay with 

 the head at the west end of the grave. In the western part, the head 

 was nearly always at the north end, and in the northeastern part 

 usually at the south end. In other words, the skeletons consistently 

 lay at right angles to, that is across, the slope of the hill in such posi- 



