ARCHEOLOGXCAL mVESfTI CATION'S IN MISSOURI 157 



19, 1940) that "In Platte County last week I found the remains of 

 three stone vaults on a secondary ridge 200 yards northwest and across 

 the creek from the Deisler Site (Hopewellian), which is II/2 or 2 miles 

 north of Kenner's on Line Creek." Local tradition has it that "the 

 Smithsonian dug out two of the vaults," but I am unable to confirm 

 this. Near Birmingham, in Clay County about 9 miles east of Line 

 Creek (fig. 20, 6), the remains of a recently dug vault were visible in 

 1938. The form and size are uncertain, but one corner and portions 

 of two adjoining straight walls 26 inches high, suggested a rectangu- 

 lar outline. The stones in the corner were fire-reddened, and Shippee 

 says that at the time of his first visit charred human bones lay at the 

 base of the wall. Passing reference has already been made to mounds 

 in the vicinity of Goose Gap, north and northeast of Cooley Lake in 

 eastern Clay County. I saw some of these in 1937, at which time 

 they appeared to have suffered extensively from cultivation and the 

 activities of relic hunters. Comparatively small in size, their super- 

 ficial appearance was reminiscent of those along Pearl Branch, but I 

 could find no one capable of furnishing a complete and trustworthy 

 account of their internal structure and contents. 



Judge West's suggestion that chambered mounds also occur west 

 and northward of Line Creek has long since been verified. Elsewhere- 

 in this report have been detailed the results of our excavations at the 

 Young site on Brush Creek, and along Pearl Branch (fig. 20, 4). At 

 the Young site, one vault was opened, disclosing a quadrilateral cham- 

 ber with a walled passage to the south. Several broken skulls and a 

 number of long bones, including burnt and unburnt specimens, were 

 recovered, but no artifacts other than two small potsherds. At Pearl 

 Branch, eight vaults were examined. Six (Pearl C and D; Nolan 

 A, B, C, D) were rectangular with walled entrances opening toward 

 the south, southeast, or southwest. A seventh (Babcock B) was ellipti- 

 cal, with an opening at the south end. The eighth (Pearl E) , not cer- 

 tainly identified as a vault, had been so thoroughly plundered by 

 relic hunters that no structural details could be gotten. Skeletal re- 

 mains included one extended burial in Nolan A, and incomplete traces 

 of one each in Pearl C and Nolan B; disarticulated skulls and bones 

 from Pearl C, some of them fire-n>,arked ; and fragmentary cremated 

 bones from Nolan B and C. Bones in Babcock B, collected by previous 

 excavators, included disarticulated crania, long bones, and fragments, 

 none of which were burnt. Artifacts were few in number. Pearl C 

 yielded a scorched antler rubbing tool, an unworked animal tooth, 

 and three round pebbles. From Nolan C, near the floor at the north 

 side, came one small jar; elsewhere in the mound, under circumstances 

 strongly indicative of a later intrusive origin, were five shell-tempered 

 vessels. In Babcock B, two grit-tempered vessels of Hopewellian 

 type, an arrowpoint, and some shells are said to have been found. 



