278 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 179 



All burials that could be placed stratigraphically were in stratum 

 rV. The presumption that all others were in the same level is strong. 

 Stratum III is thought to represent a later flood stage which covered 

 the burials. This is demonstrated only once, unfortunately, on the 

 profile. The top three strata cover the burials. 



Plate 47, &, a photograph of the profile between 11 plus 5 feet 

 centerline and llRl plus 5 feet, shows a depth of about 4 feet on the 

 T-rod. Stratum IV runs from to 2 feet, stratum III is at 2 feet, 

 stratum II roughly between 2 and 3 feet, and stratum I above 3 feet. 

 The gentle rise of stratum III to the right indicates the swale or 

 hillock now truncated. At the left stratum III dips down into the 

 old swale. The superficial nature of stratum I is obvious. 



The cremation pits appear to have been in use while stratum III 

 was the local surface and perhaps after stratum II was deposited. 

 There are no data as to their exact position relative to the last deposi- 

 tion. Our data indicate that the island was abandoned as a burial 

 place for a period after the burials and before the cremations. 

 Whether this was for the duration of only one flooding or lasted for a 

 number of years is uncertain. The burial change, in view of the 

 apparent cultural continuity, seems rather abrupt if stratum III 

 represents only one season. A profile along the centerline through 

 the cremation pits would have told the story. Osborne's present 

 belief, based on an intimate Imowledge of the site, is that there was a 

 respectable lapse of time between inhumation and cremation at 

 BN-55. A large number of the burials— Nos. 17, 15, 14, 11, 10, 9, 8, 

 6 — and probably Nos. 13, 12, and 7 were placed in the small rise or 

 swell which ran grid north and south (magnetic northeast and south- 

 west) along the Rl-line. This was probably before the swale along 

 the centerline and Ll-line was filled in and certainly before cremation. 



THE BUEIALS 



Below is a listing of the burial information for each of the 16 

 burials removed by the Smithsonian crew. 



Table 1 lists pertinent data on these 16 burials and also for those re- 

 moved by Garth. The sex and age of Garth's burials (of which the 

 first three, brought to the University of Washington for examination, 

 are not keyed to the published series) are taken from Garth (1952). 

 All other physical anthropological information given here rests on 

 work done by Rodger Heglar. Heglar's studies of these and other 

 skeletal remains from the Plateau have been presented as a master's 

 thesis, which we hope will eventually be published. 



