ARCHEOLOGTCAL IISrVESTIGATIOlSrS EST MISSOURI 



179 



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Figure 20.- 



-Distribution of mounds containing stone-walled burial chambers. 

 For identification of numbers see table 9. 



the Missouri River ; the latter are to be found apparently on both sides. 

 The vaults comi^rise groups of from two or three to fifteen or more, 

 and in several instances these clusters also include earth mounds. 

 Where the two types occur together, however, as at Line Creek and 

 on Pearl Branch, the vaults are more numerous, and earth mounds 

 may be thought of as atypical. The vaults are usually well built, with 

 inner faces vertical or nearly so, and corners nicely squared. Since 

 they seem to have been erected on previously cleared areas, the care- 

 fully laid courses of stone forming the inner face could be backed 

 up with other heavy slabs and blocks which resulted in a wall as much 

 as 5 or 6 feet thick at the base.^^* Highly characteristic are entrance 



"3 The stability of these structures is well illustrated in the case of Brenner No. 2 at the 

 mouth of Line Creek. There is no certain record as to when this was first explored, but It 

 was reopened by Powke in 1907 and not again filled in. When I first visited it in 1937 the 

 north wall, except for the tumbled uppermost layers of rock and a trifling disturbance from 

 tree roots, was practically unchanged from the view reproduced by Fowke (1910, pi. 13), 



