BUSHNBLL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS 0¥ BURIAL 145 



lar disposition of the personal artifacts of the dead, and observed the 

 intricate ceremonies incident to funereal rites. The builders of the 

 Tremper mound had arrived at a cultural stage where united or com- 

 munal effort in great part replaced individual endeavor, and in so 

 doing had reached a plane of efficiency probably not equalled by any 

 other people in the stone age period of its development." (Mills, (4), 

 p. 238.) 



In the mound already described, which belonged to a type found 

 in the region, the cremated remains were deposited in individual 

 graves, each of which had been separately prepared. Thus the 

 "graves soon exhausted the available floor space, while in the Tremper 

 mound plan, burial was limited only by the size of the communal 

 depositories, the number of which, moreover, easily could be increased 

 if needed." 



The surface of the mound had been cultivated for many years, and 

 this must necessarily have made a great change in its appearance 

 since the survey made by Whittlesey. In 1915 the greatest length of 

 the w^ork was 250 feet, its width 150 feet, with a maximum altitude 

 of 8^ feet. A building of unusual form and of irregular outline once 

 stood here. " The remarkably distinct floor, which in every part of 

 the mound was readily distinguishable from the earth composing the 

 mound itself, greatly facilitated the locating of the rows of post- 

 molds, marking the outline of the structure, as w^ell as of the various 

 rooms and compartments thereof. Approximatel}^ six hundred of these 

 postmolds w^ere noted." A plan of the floor of the ancient structure, 

 with the positions of the fireplaces or crematories, the depositories for 

 the ashes, and the great cache, is reproduced in plate 17, 5. 



The large depository near the northeast corner of the inclosed 

 space, and bearing the number 8 on the floor plan, "was in the form of 

 a parallelogram, ten feet three inches long, and five feet wide, with 

 a central depth of six inches. The bottom measured six feet and six 

 inches long by thirteen inches wide, its surface being perfectly flat 

 and level. The grave was filled with human ashes and charred bone 

 to a depth of a little more than one foot ; these ashes however, were 

 very compact, and originall}^ must have been piled high above the 

 rim of the basin. The contents of the depository no doubt represent 

 the remains of hundreds of cremated bodies, indicating the use of the 

 grave for a long period of time." The richness of the material dis- 

 covered in the caches proves the importance of the site in prehistoric 

 days. 



For the sake of comparison it is interesting to be able to present a 



reproduction of Whittlesey's plan of this mound and the surrounding 



embankment. The original, now in the Library of Congress, is 



shown in plate 17, a. This was engraved and used by Squier and 



130548°— 20 10 



