BUSHNELL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 51 



manners and customs in disposing of their dead. And here, as else- 

 where east of the Mississippi, are found proofs of such tribal move- 

 ments. Nor should all burials of a single type be attributed to one 

 tribe or group of tribes, although there was undoubtedly a strong 

 tendency to follow a traditional custom, and it is equally true that no 

 one tribe practiced a single form of burial to the exclusion of all 

 ethers. In addition to the forms of burial already described, others 

 are found in the valleys of the streams flowing into the Ohio from 

 the south, and of the cemeteries thus far discovered one of the most 

 interesting, and one of unusual form, was encountered near the right 

 bank of Green River, in Ohio County, Kentucky. Here an area of 

 more than an acre had become somewdiat more elevated than the sur- 

 rounding surface as the result of long-continued occupancy, the ac- 

 cumulation of camp refuse, and natural causes. The site was par- 

 tially examined and 298 burials were revealed. These included both 

 adults and children. "The graves at this place were in the main 

 roughly circular or elliptical. Their size, as a rule, was somewhat 

 limited, there being usually but little space in them beyond that 

 needed to accommodate the skeletons which, as a rule, were closely 

 flexed, purposely, no doubt, for economy of space. In depth the 

 burials ranged between one foot and eight feet five inches, many of 

 them ending in the yellow sand (some being 2 feet, 3 feet, or excep- 

 tionally nearly 4 feet in it) on which rested the made-ground com- 

 posing the Knoll." (Moore, (5), pp. 444-480.) 



The photograph of one burial, designated as No. 132 in the account, 

 is shown in plate 8, a. The body had been closely folded and placed 

 in a circular grave pit having a diameter of about 20 inches. This 

 will suggest similar burials, some in Ohio, others as far east as 

 the upper James River Valley, in Virginia. And decidedly different 

 from any of the preceding w^as a great communal, or tribal, burial 

 mound which stood on the lowlands of Buffalo Creek, near the Ohio, 

 in Union County, Kentucky. The mound was partially examined and 

 " on the west side bodies were found covered with six feet of earth, 

 forming there about five separate layers. The bones of the lowest 

 layer were so tender that they could not be removed. ... It would 

 appear that the general plan of burial was to scrape the surface free 

 from all vegetable matter, and deposit the body on its back, with the 

 head turned to the left side. The bodies at the bottom of the heap, so 

 far as could be ascertained by the examination, were buried without 

 weapons, tools, or burial urns. ... To the depth of three feet from 

 the surface, some of the bodies had with them burial urns. . . . 

 Three or four tiers of skeletons, of later burials, were covered with 

 clay. It is probable that as many as three hundred bodies, infant and 

 adult, were buried in this mound. ..." Adults and children were 

 buried together." (Lyon, (1), pp. 392-405.) 



