36 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 192 



shaman who died during the Kussian occupation. There is, however, 

 no reason to connect this late 18th- or early 19th-century burial with 

 the occupation of Old Town, for shamans were often taken a long way 

 from the nearest inhabited village for burial. 



EXCAVATION AND MAPPING TECHNIQUES 



In 1949 a rough sketch map was made of the site and some of the 

 house pits were measured. Test excavations in Mounds A and B 

 and in House Pit 1 indicated that the site would repay intensive 

 investigation. 



Before beginning excavation in 1952, the entire site was laid out 

 in 5-foot grids or squares from an arbitrary point (datum A) beyond 

 the southwest corner of the occupied area (map 6). All horizontal 

 distances were measured north and east of datum A, additional 

 datum points were established for convenience in mapping, and 

 compass bearings on prominent landmarks were taken from datum B. 

 Elevations were determined for the corners of the 5-foot squares, 

 measuring from mean lower low water, and these were translated 

 into a contom- map of Mound B (map 7). 



Most of the intensive excavations were concentrated in Mound 

 B and the adjacent House Pit 1, because this mound appeared to be 

 the largest and deepest midden deposit on the site, and because it 

 was hoped that the house pit would yield information on house con- 

 struction. In addition, tests were made in Moimds A, C, and D, 

 with one end of a trench running into House Pit 7. Small test holes 

 were made at various places in the site to determine the extent and 

 composition of the deposits. 



These excavations explored a number of pits, visible on the surface 

 or biu-ied beneath it, and also uncovered the remains of a storage 

 house, and of two additional houses, 8 and 9, the existence of which 

 had not previously been suspected. With few exceptions, profiles 

 of the midden deposits were drawn for the walls of each square ex- 

 cavated (see figs. 5, 6, and 9). 



Identifiable animal bones and samples of shell were kept for each 

 6-inch level of each square excavated. Most of the shells and un- 

 modified bones were identified and recorded in the field, and then 

 discarded. Those which could not readily be identified were retained 

 for further study in the laboratory. A more careful analysis was 

 made of faunal remains from certain test areas in each of the trash 

 mounds (pp. 77-84). 



STRATIGRAPHY OF THE TRASH MOUNDS 



Figure 1 is a schematic profile of a typical portion of Mound B, 

 in which the following squares are shown from left to right: 48-57 



