112 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [blll. 71 



to have been reared since the first part of the sixteenth century. 

 Forty-two burials were encountered scattered throughout tlie mound, 

 and these inchided flexed skeletons, bundles of bones, and separate 

 skulls, the latter not in contact with other bones. Now, it is more 

 than probable that both mounds just mentioned were erected by the 

 same people* one before, the other after, contact with the whites. 

 The forms of burials in both were similar, characteristic of the 

 region, and resembling those revealed in mounds farther south on the 

 peninsula. The mounds in Franklin and Calhoun Counties were 

 probably erected by a Muskhogean tribe, whose identity has not been 

 determined, who may have had customs resembling those of the 

 Choctaw. The bundles of bones had probably been gathered from the 

 " bonehouses " after all flesh had disappeared, then wrapped or put 

 in baskets, and so deposited and covered with a mass of earth, thus 

 forming the mound. In some instances the bones were put in large 

 earthemvare vessels which, by reason of their imperishable nature, are 

 now found containing the remains, but there is no reason to attribute 

 any special meaning to these so-called urn burials. This merely 

 proves that large vessels were sometimes used to hold the remains 

 when prepared for the last disposition, rather than baskets, bags, 

 skins, or some such material, which soon decayed and disappeared, 

 allowing the bones to become as now found — matted and massed 

 in the earth, broken and compressed by the weight of the super- 

 stratum. And it is highly probable that as these burial mounds are 

 now found they may represent not more than one-half of their origi- 

 nal height. The baskets in which the bones had been buried 

 crumbled away, the remains sunk and became more compact, and 

 gradually the entire accumulation of bones and earth, baskets, mats, 

 and vessels became a comparatively solid but confused mass. All ma- 

 terials of a perishable nature soon disappeared, allowing some of the 

 firmer bones to remain, together with vessels of earthenware and 

 objects of stone, now to be discovered embedded in the sand or clay 

 with which they were originally covered. 



The islands lying off the coast of Georgia appear to have been the 

 home of a Muskhogean tribe, the Guale, at the time this part of the 

 country w\as first visited by the Spaniards during the early part of 

 the sixteenth century. And the many burial mounds standing on the 

 islands and near-by mainland may have been erected by these people. 

 Many of the mounds have been examined and have revealed several 

 forms, or rather methods, of disposing of the dead. One such burial 

 place, a mound of exceptional interest, was near the bank of the 

 Sapelo Eiver, about 2 miles from Sutherland Bluff, in the present 

 Mcintosh County, Georgia. When examined it was about 6 feet in 

 height and 46 feet in diameter. It " was composed of rich, loamy, 



