pr ?kf' 2lT" JOHN H. KERR RESERVOIR BASIN — MILLER 217 



which was badly oxidized, and two badly disintegrated Busycon sp. 

 discoidals, one of which was centrally perforated. From the size of 

 the grave we surmised that the body had been flexed. Sex, age, and 

 position are unknown. 



From this mass of data we learned that there was no class distinction 

 as revealed by burial customs. There is a distinction as to time in- 

 terval in that the flexed burials appear to be earlier than those ex- 

 tended. None received special grave construction nor were there any 

 specially made objects inserted with the burials. We did find possible 

 evidence of a totemic system in the presence of turtle carapaces rest- 

 ing upon their natural bases within the various graves. We found 

 no attempts to construct subsurface vaults or to heap mounds of earth 

 or rock above special graves. All burials were basic in that all were 

 inserted below ground level in unprepared graves, in various positions, 

 and at various depths. 



It was thought that we might derive some idea of the individual's 

 weight from the size of the grave; i.e., a lean person would require a 

 narrower grave than a corpulent person, but no such indication was 

 found. 



FEATURES 



Midden pits. — Midden pits are of two main types: (1) old storage 

 pits which were no longer utilized as such or purposely dug pits 

 which Avore specifically used to dispose of acciunulated midden (pi. 

 81), and (2) pits which were utilized solely for the disposal of mussel 

 {Elliptio complanatus (Solanda)), Mkromya constricta (Conrad)), 

 and other shell fish, such as Campeloma rujuTn (Haldeman), Lioplax 

 sutcarinata (Say), Oxytrema mrginica (Gmelin), Oxytrema cate- 

 naria dislocata (Reeve), Mudalia carinata procisso (Anthony), 

 Mudalia carinata voriatilis (Lea), Cam-peloma decisum (Say), Oxy- 

 trema symmetrica (Haldeman), Ceriphasia symmetrica (Haldeman), 

 Oeriphasia dislocata (Eeeve), and Mudalia carinata (Bruguiere). 

 In the latter pits there is no soil admixture — just one solid mass of 

 shells. The openings of these pits may vary as much as 2.0 feet. 

 Some pits have mouths which measure only 0.5 foot across and range 

 to a depth of 0.8 to 1.0 foot; others measure 2.5 feet across the mouth 

 with depths of 4.5 feet and diameters of 3.0 feet across the widest 

 section, giving the pits a rough olla-shaped outline. None were 

 flat-bottomed. 



We found that those pits, which were filled with midden material, 

 were not uniform in cross section. Some were olla shaped, others 

 were slightly longer than hemispherical, while others just rambled, 

 creating an irregular outline of varying depths. Whether the latter 

 were purposely built that way could not be determined since there 

 were no delimiting areas within the midden contents. 



