ARCHEOLOGICAL IN\"ESTIGATION'S IX MISiSOURI 121 



could have come from a single individual. There was nothing which 

 could be measured or would otherwise afford the sliglitest clue to the 

 physical type of the individual represented. 



Near the middle of the north side, 6 inches from the wall and 

 about an equal distance above the floor (fig. 15, X) , was a miniature 

 pot (pi. 36, a) . This will be described presently, but we may point 

 out here that it lay below the undisturbed rock layer and just above 

 the charred sticks and bones. From this we may conclude that it was 

 deposited within the tomb at the same time as the skeletal remains, 

 presumably as a funerary offering. 



Another pot, badly broken but clearly of very different character, 

 was found near the southeast corner of the enclosure (fig. 15, Y). 

 Bottom side up, it lay about 6 inches below Hansen's diggings and 

 nearly 2 feet above the floor. The fill here, lacking a boulder or 

 charred wood and bone stratum, did not permit a positive determi- 

 nation of the relations between pot and burial remains. It is certain, 

 however, that the enclosure had been filled, in this corner at least, 

 to a depth of almost 2 feet before the pot was placed. I doubt that 

 it was directly associated, temporally or culturally, with the min- 

 iature pot mentioned above or the burials for which the mound was 

 originally built, and from certain evidence to be presented next I am 

 strongly inclined to suspect that it was an intrusive item of more 

 recent origin. 



As already indicated, the walls were generally well laid and solid. 

 On the west side, however, beginning about 12 inches from the north- 

 west corner and continuing to a point about 27 inches from the south- 

 west corner, was a section where the evenly coursed slabs gave way 

 to a mass of smaller rocks. Their inner face was continuous with the 

 lai'ger slabs on each side but did not present so regular and orderly 

 a placement. This disturbance of the wall reached a depth of about 

 24 inches, below which were one or two courses of large slabs similar 

 to those at each end of the wall and elsewhere about the chamber. 



That a portion of the wall here had been removed and later re- 

 built with much less skill than that exhibited by the original builders 

 seemed evident. Hansen's excavations touched the wall along most 

 of the disturbed section, but he insisted that no stones had been dis- 

 lodged from the wall line itself. It was specifically noted that where- 

 as interstitial areas between boulders in his backfill were often still 

 open and sometimes contained bits of paper, match sticks, and dry 

 straw, spaces between the stones in the wall were uniforml}'- full of 

 firm moist earth traversed by unbroken tree and grass roots. These 

 circumstances rule out the possibility that Hansen might inadvert- 

 ently have cut into the chamber wall, and the well-developed root 

 gi'owths would argue against any molest-ation within recent decades. 



497261—43 9 



