46 UEN-BURIAL. 



limited extent, in North America, except as a secondary interment. He must 

 admit that he himself has found bones in urns or ollas in the graves of New- 

 Mexico and California, but under circumstances that would seem to indicate 

 a deposition long subsequent to death. In the graves of the ancient peoples 

 of California a number of ollas were found in long-used burying places, and 

 it is probable that as the bones were dug up time and again for new burials 

 they were simply tossed into pots, which were convenient receptacles, or 

 it may have been that bodies were allowed to repose in the earth long 

 enough for the fleshy parts to decay, and the bones were then collected, 

 placed in urns, .and reinterred. Dr. E. Foreman, of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, furnishes the following account of urns used for burial : 



" I would call your attention to an earthenware burial-urn and cover, 

 Nos. 27976 and 27977, National Museum, but very recently received from 

 Mr. William McKinley, of Milledgeville, Ga. It was exhumed on his 

 plantation, ten miles below that city, on the bottom lands of the Oconee 

 River, now covered with almost impassable canebrakes, tall grasses, and 

 briers. We had a few months ago from the same source one of the covers, 

 of which the ornamentation was different but more entire. A portion of a 

 similar cover has been received also from Chattanooga, Ga. Mr. McKinley 

 ascribes the use of these urns and covers to the Muscogees, a branch of 

 the Creek Nation." 



These urns are made of baked clay, and are shaped somewhat like 

 the ordinary steatite ollas found in the California coast graves, but the bot- 

 toms instead of being round run down to a sharp apex ; on the top was a 

 cover, the upper part of which also terminated in an apex, and around the 

 border, near where it rested on the edge of the vessel, are indented scroll 

 ornamentations. 



The burial-urns of New Mexico are thus described by E. A. Barber :* 



" Burial-urns * * * comprise vessels or ollas without handles, for 

 cremation, usually being from 10 to 15 inches in height, with broad, open 

 mouths, and made of coarse clay, with a laminated exterior (partially or 

 entirely ornamented). Frequently the indentations extend simply around 

 the neck or rim, the lower portion being plain." 



"Anier. Natural., 1876, vol. x, p. 455 c.t seq. 



