390 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 182 



piled in a heap and buried in individual pits. All of the other burials, 

 including the other two infants, were primary, single burials. It is 

 noteworthy that all of the multiple burials consisted of the primary 

 burial of a recently deceased person, usually an infant, wdth the sec- 

 ondary burial of a previously deceased person, usually an adult male. 

 It is also noteworthy that 5 of the 7 (or 8 ? ) "reburials" went into these 

 multiple graves. There would seem to be two types of "reburial" at 

 this site. The condition of the bones of the infant and adolescent 

 buried individually suggest deliberate breakage, possibly to obtain the 

 marrow. Perhaps these might better be described as slightly delayed 

 primary burials, reserving the term "secondary burial" or "reburial" 

 for bodies given the customary mortuary rites, with or without in- 

 hmnation, and later buried. Unf ortuately, it is impossible to estimate 

 the time elapsing between death and inhumation in the case of the 

 bundled skeletons; but a minimum of 2 years seems reasonable. In 

 the case of the infant-adult male combinations, one might speculate 

 that there was some difficulty about widows remarrying, so that the 

 firstborn child of a second marriage was killed and buried with the 

 remains of the former husband (and children?) to quiet his ghost — 

 a hypothesis which would be plausible if it could be proved that the 

 infants were newborn instead of several months old. But this would 

 not accomit for the burial of the two women, the younger of whom pre- 

 deceased the older. There is no way of establishing the relationship 

 of any of these persons to each other, and there is nothing in the litera- 

 ture throwing any light on these practices. Therefore, any inter- 

 pretation at present must be purely speculative. 



The multiple burials at the Clarksville site present a completely 

 different picture. They are as follows : 



1. The semiflexed skeletons of an adult male (Mcl4-^) and a child about 8 

 (Mcl'^5). 



2. The semiflexed skeletons of two adults, one (Mcl4-9) probably a young 

 female, the other (Mcl4-10) too fragmentary for age and sex determination. 



3. The semiflexed skeleton of a young adult female (Mcl4-22) and the ex- 

 tended skeleton of an infant about 18 months old (Mel4-23). 



4. A multiple burial, including the bundle burial of a young adult male 

 (Mcl4-25), a child about 8 (Mcl4-26), an adult (Mcl4-27), and an infant; 26 

 and 27 may also have been bundle burials, since the excavator at first thought 

 this a single burial. 



5. The semiflexed skeleton of an adult male (Mcl4-40) and the extended skele- 

 ton of a very young infant (Mel4-41) . 



The multiple burial, Mcl4-25, -26, -27, including the only bundle 

 burial (s) at the Clarksville site, seems reminiscent of the practice 

 described at the Tollifero site. In the other instances, it would seem 

 that these persons had died at about the same time, and w^ere buried 

 together, possibly because of some relationship. (Simultaneous burial 



