118 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [BTH. ANN. 28 
It has been pointed out also that a -body in the contracted 
position can be more readily carried on the back, than when it is 
extended. In house burials, in which the bodies were carried only a 
short distance, they were commonly laid on the side in the extended 
position, perhaps in the same position as at death.’ 
As arule, the few bodies uncovered from mounds by the writer were 
extended at full length, but one or two had the knees brought to the 
chest (contracted position), as is common among many Indian tribes. 
Mortuary offerings were found with most of the skeletons. 
It is believed that cremation is the oldest and most general manner 
of disposal of the dead and that it was formerly widespread in the 
Pueblo area. Eyen when cremation and inhumation coexist, it is 
possible that one of these practices may have been introduced much 
later than the other. They may also suggest the existence of a former 
dual sociologic composition. 
The interments found near Compound B were in several instances 
about 9 feet below the surface. Other human skeletons, however, 
were found just below the surface. 
In the cases in which human remains were cremated the calcined. 
bones. and ashes were placed in ollas or vases? over which were luted 
circular clay or stone disks. 
MINOR ANTIQUITIES 
The two seasons excavations at Casa Grande revealed instructive 
objects, some of which shed light on the former culture of the people 
of this valley; but considering the amount of earth removed in that 
time, comparatively few objects were found. This may be due to 
the fact that no cemeteries were discovered and hence the number of 
mortuary objects was small. 
The collections consist of objects of stone, clay, shell, bone, and 
wood, and fabrics of various kinds, including cloth, string, and net- 
ting. The stone and clay objects, being the least perishable, are 
naturally the most numerous. 
Similar specimens found in many of the ruins in the Gila and Salt 
River Valleys exist in a number of museums and private collections, 
1 The Hopi now bury in the contracted position, and it is customary for the oldest male relative to 
carry the body down the mesa side on his back and deposit it in the sand at the base of the foothills, 
House burials among modern Hopi have long since ceased, but when Sikyatki and Awatobi were in 
their prime they were not uncommon. 
Among the modern Pima the graves of medicine-men are apart from cemeteries, and have a somewhat 
different character, as described by Doctor Russell. It is instructive to note that the body of a medicine- 
man is said to be placed in a sitting posture, while the Pima generally now bury the body extended. 
Such shaman burials are not common and by this time may have been wholly abandoned, since through 
the zeal of missionaries and other teachers the Pima are practically no longer pagans. Still, the survival 
into the present generation of two forms of inhumation is noteworthy. 
2 Similar vases with calcined human bones have been found along the San Pedro and throughout the 
Pueblo Viejo Valley, especially in association with the ruin at San José, 
