Pap. N^o^' 21"/' JOHN H. KERR RESERVOIR BASIN — MILLER 135 



Horizontal and vertical measurements relating to tlie excavation 

 are given in feet and tenths of feet. 



NATURE OF THE DEPOSITS 



Usually when aboriginal man occupied an area he consciously or 

 unconsciously deposited his cultural remains ^° over the extent of occu- 

 pation. Burial, storage, and midden pits were inserted into the area 

 as needed, and the virile surface contained either the discarded or lost 

 artifacts that were trampled into the earth, together with any other 

 material that represented indicators of his culture. The nature of the 

 occupation determined the type of cultural deposits : in a village site 

 the complexity of the assemblage is not only larger but more extensive, 

 in campsites this becomes less, and in flint workshops or way stations 

 occupancy is either sporadic or of such short duration that the deposits 

 are thinner and less productive. Each type of site requires different 

 methods of attack to recover, as completely as possible, the narrative 

 contained witliin the deposits. 



For the most part the cultural remains are confined to either the 

 overall occupational layer or to the various pits. This material con- 

 sists of fragiiientary clay vessels, better known as potsherds; stone 

 and bone tools; discarded animal bones, which were broken open so as 

 to extract the marrow; bits of charcoal; wood ash; objects of shell, as 

 well as the usual wastage from the manufacture of stone tools. This 

 admixture together with the decayed vegetal substances and castoff 

 fragments of animal matter all contributed to the complexity of the 

 zone of occupation. 



No definite cemetery area was found. The arrangement of the 

 burials was very disorderly throughout the site, and they occurred 

 in clusters scattered throughout the area at various levels. Head 

 direction and grave types were variable. As a rule, there were no 

 burial offerings, but if any were present they consisted mostly of the 

 carapace of the box turtle, whose significance has been assumed to 

 have been totemic rather than as a receptacle for food ; of beads made 

 from sections of shells; and maybe an occasional clay vessel. All 

 graves were small in diameter, averaging 1.3 feet to 2.0 feet across at 

 the mouth and varying somewhat as to depth. The shallowest was 

 0.5 of a foot beneath the plow zone, while the deepest was 3.2 feet, 

 penetrating well into the sterile underlying sand. 



Scattered throughout the sand-mixed village deposit were a number 

 of river boulders and cobbles, none of which showed that they were 

 ever put to use. 



i» "CuUural remains" refers to any vestige of aboriginal activity wherein tangible evi- 

 dence is present. 



