MYER] GORDON TOWN SITE 499 
dead were placed in stone-slab coffins, bodies lying on the back, 
extended full length, arms by the side. Most of the adults and 
children over 12 years of age were buried in the cemetery on the 
gentle slope of the small knoll at the northeastern corner of the town 
and also in that portion of the south-central part marked :“ Scattered 
graves’’ (pl. 95). They buried a few of their adults immediately 
adjoining the outer walls of the dwellings. 
Children from 5 to 12 years of age were sometimes buried in the 
cemeteries and at other times beneath the floors of the buildings. 
The very young children, less than 5 years, and also the fetuses, 
appear to have been buried beneath the floors of the dwellings. In 
some instances the little stone-slab coffins were immediately adjoining 
the domestic hearth. In other cases the grave was placed where the 
food ground on the metate would fall on the stone-slab top of the 
coffin. 
MOUND A 
Mound A, on the western edge of the town square, is the most 
prominent of the remains of the old village. It is shown in Plate 99. 
The base of this low, flat-topped mound is nearly rectangular, with 
rounded corners, and measures 4414 by 39 by 37 by 3314 feet. The 
mound is now from 4% to 514 feet in height. The flat top measures 
2014 by 18% by 214% by 18% feet. 
Beginning at the northern edge of the base a space in the mound 32 
feet in width and 30 feet in length was excavated through the original 
surface of the soil down to the undisturbed clay subsoil. Over two- 
thirds of the mound was thoroughly explored. 
Fires At Erection or Mounp 
- The erection of mound A appears to have been accompanied at 
different times and stages by various rites in which fire played a 
prominent part. 
Before the raising of the mound had begun a large fire was built 
on the surface of the soil at what was to be the center of the base of 
the future mound. This fire had been allowed to burn itself out. 
It left a bed of pure white ashes, 8 by 9 feet, and 2 inches thick. 
This had been a temporary fire, as the soil underneath showed no 
signs of long-continued burning. On the original surface of the soil, 
5 feet southwest of the above large central temporary fire, was a fire 
of different character. At this point a layer of clay, 3 by 3 feet, and 
2 inches in thickness, had been brought from elsewhere and spread 
upon the surface of the soil. A fire had then been started and con- 
tinued sufficiently long on this fire-bed or altar to hard-burn the clay, 
but not long enough to burn the black loam surface soil under- 
neath it. Neither of these fires showed any signs of broken ani- 
