FOWKE] EXPLORATIONS IN RED RIVER VALLEY 417 
At 12 feet out, 5 feet up, were fragments of a small pot, broken 
when placed or thrown here, as some of it was gone. 
About 10 feet out several vertical holes were discovered, which 
seemed due to posts 3 or 4 inches in diameter, set in the ground. 
They were first observed as a row running across the trench, pro- 
jecting only a few inches into the earth above the lower 5-foot 
section. 
Near the center, when the mound had been carried by its build- 
ers to an elevation of 15 feet above the natural surface, a grave had 
been dug to a depth of 3 feet, with a diameter of 5 feet. These meas- 
ures are only approximate, as the sides and bottom were very rough 
and irregular, the imprints still being visible, showing that it had 
been gouged out with pointed sticks or some such tools. As this 
tough clay is difficult to remove with good steel picks, excavation 
by such primitive means was a laborious task. Probably these 
early undertakers kept the clay wet while they were digging it. 
The sides, corners, and bottom were rounded, giving the cavity, 
roughly, a tank or kettle shape. ‘The bottom had been smoothed and 
leveled by spreading on it earth carried in from outside, and this 
was covered with wood or bark which also extended up the sides 
nearly to the top. On this bark were the remains of at least four 
adults, as indicated by four skulls, which lay approximately at the 
cardinal points. Between and around them was bone material in a 
condition of such extreme decay that it was impossible to ascertain 
anything regarding the position in which the bodies had been placed, 
or indeed whether there may not have been more than four. Some 
fragments of teeth found were much worn, one molar down to the 
neck. From the small dimensions of the grave, it is certain that 
the bodies had been folded; and they seemed to have been laid with 
the feet and hips toward the center. Water soaking in from above 
had softened the earth around the bones until it would run off the 
shovels, and it could be examined only by gathering it up in handfuls 
and squeezing it through the fingers. It seems that the bodies, or 
bones, had been covered with wood or bark similar to that beneath 
them. On this, a foot of earth had been deposited; and over this, 
in turn, was placed a layer of charcoal from one-half to 1 inch thick. 
The grave was then filled with a sticky blackish mud, mixed with 
white clay, as if taken from a swampy place, where a thin layer of 
muck had rested on hardpan. Later, the building of the mound was 
resumed. 
This is one of the very few instances known, or at least recorded, 
in which an intrusive burial was made by the Mound Builders 
themselves, 
