XXXAVIIL ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR , 
BURIAL MOUNDS OF THE NORTHERN SECTIONS OF THE UNITED 
STATES, BY PROF. CYRUS THOMAS. 
Throughout a large part of the térritory now embraced in the 
United States several varieties of workings upon and imme- 
diately beneath the surface of the earth are found which were 
made by the population existing at the time of the European 
occupation or prior thereto. For the moment it is not neces- 
sary to inquire whether the works mentioned were all made 
before the Columbian discovery or whether some of them are 
not much later; or, again, whether their authors were confined 
to the tribes, variously and loosely styled “aboriginal” and 
“Indian,” which were found within the region by its first white 
explorers, or whether they are to be attributed to a people 
more ancient than the historic Indian. Considering, for the 
present, the works themselves, several of their varieties, such 
as the pyramidal mounds and raised inclosures, sometimes ap- 
parently erected for defensive purposes, others being more 
probably mere ruins of village sites, give evidence of the num- 
bers, distribution, and, to some extent, of the habits and the 
stage in culture of their builders. But the mounds raised in 
connection with the burial of the dead are far more important 
than all others. They indicate, both by their modes of con- 
struction and by their contents, the sociology, philosophy, and 
art of their authors. The nearly universal custom of deposit- 
ing with the corpses or skeletons articles of property formerly 
. 
belonging to the deceased, and other objects of ceremonial re- 
lation, with such care that some of them are still preserved, 
now enables us to gather from the sepulcher a life history of the 
persons buried and of those who paid to them the funeral rites 
The present paper, by Professor Thomas, is devoted to the 
last mentioned class of mounds. in connection with which, how- 
ever, it has been necessary for him to discuss other classes in 
the investigation of evidentiary and illustrative details. The 
paper shows the large amount of work done by the division of 
mound exploration of the Bureau, both in the collection of facts 
and in their comparison. It also exhibits the fruitful results of 
the general study of all varieties of mounds, as well as the 
