502 ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS—II [BrH. ANN. 44 
the water from a roof which they supported. If this be the case, 
the fact that the holes were filled with loose earth and that the sand 
above them was packed hard shows that the posts had been cut or 
burned off level with the ground before the sand was deposited. It 
is quite likely that if the work had been extended the outlines of a 
building could have been traced. 
At 18 feet out, 3 feet below the top of the mound, was a hole with 
other holes either empty or with loose dirt in them branching out 
from it, the largest going toward the west and nearly parallel with 
the top of the mound. There was no trace of wood in any of these 
holes except the small roots from trees or bushes growing on the 
mound; but the cavities are exactly such as would result from the 
entire decay and disappearance of a stump and its rocts. If so, it 
proves that the work of construction was not continuous, but that the 
mound had been built to this point and then left for several years, as 
indicated by the size of the hole. Evidently the tree had been cut off, 
as there was no mark of it in the hard-packed earth above. 
At 16 feet out were two extended skeletons, with heads to the west 
of south, lying in contact. Most of the larger bones, so far as 
they could be examined, were covered with a dull red substance, 
apparently ochre; when laid on a hard surface and worked with a 
knife blade it assumed a waxy consistency. This may have been 
sprinkled over the bodies and settled down on the bones after the 
flesh had decayed; but as very little of it was in the earth around 
them it would appear that only the skeletons had been buried. They 
lay on a very thin deposit of ashes, directly on the original surface ; 
one was a little more, the other a little less than 6 feet long. 
The tortuous streaks became more and more of lenticular form as 
the trench was carried in, and at 10 feet out were nearly all of such 
outline. 
At 15 feet out, on the west side, began a streak of mixed earth, 
ashes, and charcoal, which was very plainly on the natural surface. 
Except under the skeletons just mentioned this was the first place 
where it could be identified with certainty. Klsewhere the sand and 
the surface earth being practically identical no line of demarcation 
could be made out. 
At 12 feet out, on the west wall, was a hole beginning at the origi- 
nal level and going down 5 feet. It was filled with loose, dark earth 
and was of almost uniform diameter, about 7 inches, to the bottom, 
terminating in a rounded point as if made by a post that had been 
burned or roughly cut off. Thére was nothing in it; the surrounding 
earth was so hard that a pick could not be sunk into it more than 
3 inches, so those who dug it could have done so only by keeping the 
ground wet while they were working. 
