pip. ■ffo!" 2¥/' JOHN H. KERR RESERVOIR BASIN — MILLER 241 



. . . when burial forms begin to be stereotyped by tradition they tend to 

 influence beliefs about the locality and nature of the abode of the dead because 

 their original purpose has been forgotten, as, for instance, when fire used for 

 drying a corpse was assigned an eschatological significance. In course of time 

 these beliefs have reacted upon the ritual under the guidance of priests and 

 medicine men, and certain customs have become definitely associated with the 

 life or destination of the soul after death. But with the migration of tribes 

 from one region to another, the tendency seems to have been to regard the original 

 home as the land of the dead whither ghosts returned at death. This belief has 

 frequently influenced not only the mode of disposal but also such aspects of 

 funerary ritual as orientation of the body, and the provision made for the 

 journey to the ancestral spiritworld, till finally the actual abode of the dead may 

 have lost its original character and became a distant land either beyond the sea 

 or in a mythical region or island of the blest. Thus, the belief that the cremating 

 section of a tribe went to the sky may have been succeeded by a secondary 

 belief resulting from migration, and in this way a confusion between doctrine 

 and practice has arisen. . . . With the break-up of culture through migra- 

 tion and racial admixture, the cult practice and beliefs have been in a constant 

 state of flux. . . . Cremation (or raised burial) which at one time seems to 

 have been reserved for the ruling class where any such distinction was made, was 

 later employed for everybody. . . . But the analysis of the data suggests that 

 the practice of cremation originally grew out of the attempt to preserve the body 

 when the mortal remains came to occupy a position of secondary importance in 

 the attainment of the immortality of the soul. [Krogman, 1939, pp. 233-234] 



Dr. Krogman states that it is particularly difficult to distinguish 

 between the burning of a body in the flesh and the burning of green 

 bones, that is, bones from M^hich the flesh has but recently been 

 removed (Webb and Snow, 1945, p. 189). 



Unintentional charring of bones did occur when the rectangular 

 structure. Feature 24, was initially burned. The heat created during 

 this period was sufficient not only to change the physical nature of the 

 floor itself but to char the skeletal remains of an infant burial lying 

 but 0.4 foot beneath the floor level. 



Burial goods were meager and were not created especially to accom- 

 pany the dead ; but in a number of instances we found objects which 

 were directly or indirectly associated with the dead. Following is a 

 detailed description of these burials : 



Burial No. 2 is that of an adult male, semiflexed, lying upon 

 his back with knees partially brought forward and the head pointing 

 to the west. Within the chest cavity was a quartz projectile point 

 which probably terminated his days upon this earth. Around his 

 neck must have been some sort of cord which held the seven disk- 

 shaped shell beads that rested upon his chest. Above his left shoulder 

 and in front of his face was a miniature steatite vessel whose base was 

 uppermost. Beneath and inside of this tiny vessel w^ere seven small 

 quartz pebbles. Whether the number seven held an esoteric meaning 

 could not be determined from these remains but it does seem a bit queer 



