ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN MISSOURI 91 



and re-interred with, No. 49. The second pit, of somewhat smaller 

 dimensions, lay immediately to the east. It contained a lone skull 

 (burial 51) near the west end, and fragments of a small incised shell- 

 tempered pot. Both pits had been sunk to a depth of about 2 feet 

 below the present surface. The apparent absence of similar evidence 

 for other graves may have been due partly to their very shallow 

 depth below plow sole, with consequent obliteration of nearly all 

 except the bottoms of the pits, or to the remarkably uniform and 

 homogeneous nature of the loess in which burial had taken place. 



There is no means of determining with certainty the length of 

 time encompassed by these burials. In general all belong to a single 

 level and probably to the same general period, though several clear- 

 cut instances of intrusion of graves by later bodies were noted. 

 In square 70W1, for instance, burial 2 has been partly destroyed by 

 No. 45; extra bones overlying the legs of the latter in disordered 

 fashion seemingly belong to No. 3, which must then antedate No. 

 45 and perhaps also No. 2 (pi. 31, a). Again, in square 85 and 85W1, 

 No. 32 lay with its skull between, and directly in contact with, the 

 femora of No. 16, which was otherwise undisturbed. The cranium of 

 No. 6, but nothing more, had been displaced by the legs of another 

 burial of which the torso and other parts were entirely missing. The 

 six burials classed as indeterminate include some of the above, as well 

 as others probably disturbed in like manner. None of these dis- 

 turbances need imply more than a few years' lapse in time. 



More surprising than the instances of disturbance and intrusion 

 just cited is the fact that the burials, on the whole, were made in 

 relatively orderly, almost planned, fashion. Even where they are 

 most closely grouped, the skeletons tend to lie side by side in a manner 

 suggesting either that graves were carefully marked or else that inter- 

 ment took place at sufficiently frequent intervals so that surface evi- 

 dences of the position of previous burials had not yet been effaced 

 when the later corpses were brought in. This regular placement in 

 graves that must often have touched one another was particularly 

 well shown in the central and western portions of the burial ground 

 (see pi. 31, a, and compare fig. 11). 



Whether all the individuals buried at this spot were former inhabi- 

 tants of the village on the terrace below is, of course, not known. 

 Under aboriginal conditions a community of 100 to 150 persons could 

 have lived here conveniently in 10 or 15 earth lodges, and it seems 

 improbable that the village was much larger. We do not know the 

 mortality rate, but at 3 percent per annum 15 to 30 years might have 

 sufficed for accumulation of the hilltop graves. A smaller community 

 or a lower death rate would have required a proportionately longer 

 time. It is possible that the deceased from the village were not always 

 placed in this particular cemetery, or conversely, that some of the 



