BUSHNELL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 123 



of its existence. Traces of the town were exposed by the great 

 freshet of 1870, and " when the water receded it was found that fully 

 four feet of the surface had been removed, revealing not less than 

 40 or 50 ' fireplaces ' scattered at intervals, generally 30 to 40 feet 

 apart. Lying among the ashes and burned earth, or scattered close 

 about, were many burned stones, fragments of potteiy, animal bones, 

 mostly broken, some of them calcined, arrowheads, great quantities 

 of chips and broken arrows, and other indications of a former In- 

 dian town. . . . Scattered between the fire beds were the graves, 

 readily distinguished by the darker color of the earth. They were 

 circular, or nearly so, about 3 feet in diameter, and none of them 

 more than 18 or 20 inches deep. One contained the skeletons of a 

 woman and a child, one of a man and a woman, a few those of two 

 women, but most of them disclosed the remains of only one individ- 

 ual in each. . . . More than 25 graves were carefully examined, 

 but no relics were found in any of them ; if anything had been buried 

 with the bodies, it was of a perishable nature." (Fowke, (1), p. 13.) 



The valley of the James is rich in evidence of the days of Indian 

 occupancy, and of the many sites which have been discovered one of 

 tlie most interesting and extensive stood on the bank of the stream 

 near Gala, in the present Botetourt County. Many human remains 

 have been recovered from the site, and it has been estimated thai 

 about 200 skeletons were encountered while constructing the railway 

 which traversed the ancient settlement. Some of the bodies had 

 been placed extended, others were closely flexed. Many pits were 

 discovered, some quite shallow, others several feet in depth, all filled 

 with camp refuse, like the great mass by which the site was covered. 

 (Fowke, op. cit.) 



There was evidently a great similarity between the two settlements 

 just mentioned. It appears that no burial place was set apart away 

 from the habitations, but that the graves were made at intervals be- 

 tween the fire beds, or the caches which originally served for the 

 storage of food supplies. In this southern country the fires were 

 probably made outside the dwellings, in which circumstance the 

 latter must necessarily have stood between the fire beds. Therefore 

 the burials were made either just outside the habitations or, follow- 

 ing the custom of the Creeks, which is doubtful, the dead may 

 have been placed in graves excavated beneath the floors of the homes 

 of the living. However this may have been, the burial customs of 

 the occupants of these settlements on the banks of the James differed 

 greatl}^ from those of the people who, at one time, lived just north- 

 ward, in the valley of the Rivanna. But, as will be shown later, 

 there was a great similarity between the appearance of the site at 

 Gala, with its numerous pits, and various ancient villages in Ohio. 



