ARCHEOLOGY 

 FOWKK 



] EXCAVATIONS AT LINVILLE 43 



Coiucideiit with tlie face at the western side was the edye of a saucer- 

 shape depression in the original soil, a little more than 4 feet across 

 and 16 inches deep at the center. It contained a bed of ashes and 

 charcoal 3 inches thick at the middle and gradually thinning toward 

 the sides. On this and nearly parallel lay the arm and leg bones of 

 2 adults, burned black, with no traces of other bones belonging to the 

 same bodies. Lying on them, in contact, was the spinal column of an 

 adult, very soit from decay, not in the least degree charred or even 

 smoke-stained. The skull lay at one side of the depression; at the 

 opposite si<le was the head of a humerus; between these were many 

 other bones so decayed that their character could not be ascertained. 

 As the vertebra-! were in their proper jjosition, the nnburned bones 

 must have belonged to more than one individual, whose remains had 

 evidently been placed on the cremated bones after the latter had become 

 cold. 



North of the center, (J feet from the cremated bones, was a skeleton 

 a foot and a half above the bottom of the mound, with a number of shell 

 beads. A few feet east of this w as a grave 8 inches deep, large enough 

 to contain only a body closely folded, which rested on its left side, with 

 head toward the south. At the top of the skull was a broken clay pipe. 



A foot lower down and almost at the limit of the burials was a large 

 mortar, concave on both sidesJbut nctt otherwise dressed. 



In the funnel-shape pit wiiich terminated the large bone stratum, as 

 well as in a few places in the mass itself, were found bones which, judging 

 from their position, may have belonged to a bundled or doubled skeleton, 

 but the evidence is too slight to state this as a fact. Only (me relic 

 was found in the noithern half of this bone-bed — a dressed jiiece of 

 mussel shell an inch and a half square with a hole drilled near the 

 center. 



Under the pit was the end of a grave a little more than a foot deep, 

 barely 3 feet wide, and extending 12i feet on a line exactly east and 

 west. In it were 19 skeletons, including those of 3 infants and of 2 or 3 

 older children. Only one was doubled, all the other bones having been 

 promiscuously thrown in. The only specimens found were a few Mar- 

 ginella shells and disk beads. 



The soil of the bottom is the black loam found along water courses 

 which overflow freiiuently; it is very muddy when wet, but easily dug 

 when dry. This i^robably accounts for the location of the mound. 

 Many higher places close by on each side of the creek afford ample level 

 space for the construction of such a tumulus, but the soil is a limestone 

 clay, difficult to work by aboriginal methods. The many ways in which 

 the remains were deposited are explicable only by the supposition that 

 this w'as long a general burial i)lace. But there was no village or camp 

 in the immediate vicinity, for no burned earth or stones, no ashes or 

 animal bones, very few pottery fragments, and not half a dozen Hint 

 Hakes were found in the entire structure. The dismembered condition of 



