BUSHNELL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 113 



brown sand with many local layers of oyster shells. The usual char- 

 coal and fireplaces were present. A black layer from three inches to 

 one foot in thickness, made up of sand mingled with charcoal in 

 minute particles, ran through the mound at about the level of the 

 surrounding territory." Human remains were discovered at 30 

 points, and " in no one mound investigated by us has there been so 

 well exemplified the various forms of aboriginal disposition of the 

 dead — the burial in anatomical order; the burial of portions of the 

 skeletons ; the interment of great masses of human bones ; the pyre ; 

 the loose deposit of incinerated remains ; the burial of cinerary urns." 

 (Moore, (1), p. 45.) 



Probably few mounds yet found have revealed such a great variety 

 of forms of burial as did this low, spreading work on the bank of the 

 Sapelo. And this discovery also proves conclusively that one tribe 

 followed at the same time many methods of disposing of their dead. 



A short distance northward from the preceding, on Ossabaw 

 Island, in Bryan County, Georgia, was a similar low, spreading 

 mound. And when excavated it likewise proved to be of great inter- 

 est. " In no part of the mound, outside of the calcined remains, 

 among which were parts of adult skeletons seemingly belonging to 

 males, were skeletal remains of adult males — the skeletons being ex- 

 clusively those of women, adolescents, children, and infants — and 

 that in one portion of the mound burial vases exclusively contained 

 skeletons of infants, unaffected by fire, while in other portions 

 cinerary urns were present filled with fragments of calcined human 

 skeletons. Again we see pockets of calcined human remains and 

 skeletal remains of women and children unaffected by fire and not 

 included in vessels of earthenware." (Moore, (1), p. 89.) 



The most remarkable feature of this discovery was the lack of male 

 skeletons in the body of the mound ; in other words, the exclusion of 

 males from this particular tomb. This fact tends to verify to some 

 extent a statement made by Oviedo, who observed the burial customs 

 of the inhabitants of this coast early in the sixteenth century. He 

 mentioned the custom then followed by the people of placing the re- 

 mains of the children and young persons apart from, the others, and 

 continued by saying the principal men of the tribe were buried in a 

 distinct group. Pie failed to mention the disposition of the remains 

 of the women, but they may have been placed Avith those of the chil- 

 dren and younger members of the tribe. (Oviedo, (1), III, p. 630.) 

 Thus the discovery and careful examination of this low mound on 

 Ossabaw Island has tended to verify an observation made some four 

 centuries ago. 



It is possible within this same region to trace another custom from 

 historic back into prehistoric times, and whenever this may be done it 

 130548°— 20 S 



