122 BULLETIN 183, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Careful dissection of the wall produced further evidence that the 

 disturbance was old and not attributable to present-day relic collect- 

 ors. Forty inches from the southwest corner of the chamber and 15 

 inches below the mound surface, at a point 12 inches back from the 

 wall face, we found a number of shell-tempered potsherds and several 

 fragments of human bone. Some of the sherds were cord-roughened 

 and have since been reassembled into a small pot (pi. 36, /) . Others, 

 bearing simple linear incisions, permitted restoration of a deep bowl 

 (pi. 36, e). Most of the remainder were found to belong to two other 

 shattered jars (pi. 36, c, d) unearthed by Hansen within the vault near 

 the ground surface and by him presented to the national collections. 

 More fragments of these last vessels, apparently overlooked in the 

 earlier digging, lay on a flat boulder against the west wall, 8 or 10 

 inches underground. Unfortunately, it is not possible to say just 

 where Hansen's finds were made with reference to the disturbed sec- 

 tion, but, as the above distribution and association of sherds will 

 show, there can be no doubt that they were also connected with what- 

 ever circumstance led to partial demolition of the original chamber 

 wall. 



When the chamber had been completely emptied, and before back- 

 filling was undertaken, cuts were made through the west, north, and 

 east walls in order to determine the method of construction. From 

 these it was evident that in general the procedure paralleled that 

 manifested in Pearl C, but that certain variations also had taken place. 

 At the risk of some repetition, we may recapitulate the story of events 

 as follows: First, a flat space about 18 feet in diameter was cleared 

 to a depth of several inches (probably not more than one foot) below 

 the topsoil. In the middle of this floor, which was not otherwise 

 elaborated or specially prepared, a series of flat slabs was laid down 

 to enclose a rectangular area. Additional slabs were placed atop 

 this foundation series to a height of three or four courses. Other 

 stones rising to a lesser height were laid about the outside to a thick- 

 ness of about 3-31/2 feet, and these were held in place by large irreg- 

 ularly shaped slabs leaning inward at a steep angle. At this point 

 the wall was 4 or 5 feet thick, and the entire structure was about 16 

 to 18 feet across. A walled passage, carefully squared with the cham- 

 ber, opened from the southerly side, in a direction about 30° east of 

 south. Perhaps it was at this stage of construction that the charred 

 bones, probably due to cremation, and the miniature pot were placed 

 in the tomb. On the west and north sides, stones in the upper 12 

 inches of the mound were nearly all burned to a bright red color. I 

 am inclined to attribute this to a very hot fire built over the tomb, 

 but only after earth had been piled to a height of about 18 inches 

 against the outer wall. This conclusion is based on the very sharp 



