384 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 182 



to say ; but in some cases, at least the jewelry was put back on the arms 

 and neck. Judging from Miller's field sketches, less than 10 of the 

 skeletons were flexed tightly enough to suggest that the bodies had 

 been folded and wrapped into packages. Of the 17 extended burials, 

 all but two were infants, or small children, or from a lower stratum. 

 The remainder of the skeletons, nearly 60 percent of the i)opulation, 

 lay semiflexed, the legs and arms too far from the trunk to have been 

 wrapped in the fashion described above. 



The evidence for burial customs at the Tollif ero site is much harder 

 to interpret. For example, only one-third of the skeletons saved 

 showed these marks; and they are shallower, and fewer in number. 

 Of the dozen adults and children that show these marks, five were 

 found semiflexed, three were tightly flexed, two were reburials, one 

 was extended, and the position of the twelfth is unknown because the 

 rest of the body had been destroyed. The unmarked bones, however, 

 come from both primary and secondary burials, and include infants. 

 The relatively small number of individuals showing these marks may 

 indicate that the procedure was reserved for persons of special signifi- 

 cance; or that the custom was just being introduced or, perhaps, 

 abandoned. The inf requency and shallowness of the marks may mean 

 either that the attempts at removing the flesh were halfhearted ; or, in 

 the case of the reburials, that the flesh had decayed to the point where 

 it was easily removed. If the latter, the question arises as to whether 

 the bodies had been exposed on scaffolds for a fairly long time, or 

 whether some bodies were buried and latter exhumed for this treat- 

 ment, other bodies being left in the ground. The age, sex, and burial 

 position of the skeletons, both marked and unmarked, show no par- 

 ticular pattern, possibly because of the rather limited number of 

 skeletons available for observation. The associated artifacts occur 

 slightly more frequently with the marked skeletons, but were also 

 found with unmarked skeletons. In only one case is the evidence 

 readily interpreted : The presence of a necklace of canine teeth with 

 Ha6-9 (USNM 380897), a semiflexed female skeleton with markings 

 on most of the long bones, suggests the replacement of at least the 

 ornaments before burial. 



Burial practices reminiscent of those inferred from the markings 

 on the bones, were attributed to the Southeastern Indians, by early 

 writers. In 1585 John Wliite sketched a burial liouse, noting on his 

 drawing that — 



The Tombe of their Cherounes or cheife personages, their flesh clene talien 

 of from the bones saue the skynn and heare of their heads which flesh is dried 

 and enfolded in matts laide at their feet, their bones also being made dry or 

 couered wth deare skynns not altering their forme or proportion . . . [Lorant, 

 1946, n. p.] 



