A urn ICO I, ui 



KUWliK 



'■] EXCAVATIONS ON BOWERS FARM 47 



sakl to liavo stood. No elevation is now apparent, but arrowheads 

 and cUippings are v^ery plentiful. 



GANDEK PLACK 



On the top of a hill near the house of D. II. Gander, half a mile above 

 White House ford and nearly oi)posite the mouth of Massanutten 

 creek, was a small stone mound which has been destroyed. On an 

 opposite island the tlood of 1870 washed out burned stones, fragments 

 of pottery, tlint chipi)ings, and several skeletons. 



HOWEUS FARM. 



On the tarm of J. C. Bowers, 3i miles west of Luray, opposite the 

 mouth of Mill creek, on the first ridge rising above the river, is a 

 mound of earth and stone 30 feet in diameter and 30 inclies high. 

 On the northern side is a depression 15 by 30 feet, 2 feet deep, the 

 slope being continuous from its bottom to the top of the mound. Most 

 of the stones were at the central portion where several wagon loads of 

 bowlders had been carefully laid up in the form of a V, with the open- 

 ing toward the east. From the apex to the extremity of either arm 

 was between 12 and 13 feet. The right or southern arm rested on the 

 undivSturbed original surface. No relics or traces of bone were found in 

 or under it. Beneath the left or northern branch was an irregular exca- 

 vation filled witli large stones, between which very little eaith had 

 settled. The western end of the excavation was nearly circular, 4 feet in 

 diameter and a foot in depth, the bottom being covered with a mixture of 

 white clay and sand, which had been put there while wet, and pounded 

 smooth and level. It was as hard as cement and under the pick split 

 into small flakes. Traces of bony substance were found in it; also 3 

 gorgets suflBciently fiir ai)art to denote that they belonged to different 

 individuals. One, similar to that illustrated in figure 10, was of green 

 slate; another was of black slate, rectangular, with two perforations; the 

 third, like the second in form, of black shale, much softened by moisture. 

 A trench a foot in width joined the northeastern side of this grave to 

 another measuring 5 to feet across, with an average dejtth of 2 feet, 

 the sides of which were covered with a substance similar to that on 

 the bottom of the first. It was roughly made, with no attempt at 

 regularity or symmetry, and contained no relics or traces of bones. An 

 excavation a foot wide and the same in depth, with smooth, even sides 

 and bottom, extended 2.} feet from the eastern side; nothing was found 

 in it. The arrangement of bowlders and the peculiar shape of the 

 gTave pits in this mound were different from anything else observed 

 in Shenandoah valley. 



BURNER PLACE. 



In the river bottom, half a mile above the Bowers farm, near Jacob 

 Burner's distillery, a village site was uncovered by the flood of 1870. 



