AN ERIE INDIAN VILLAGE AND BURIAL SITE ^2 L 



of charred bark were found above the bones. The use of a bark 

 or animal skin covering is also suggested by the finds in grave LI, 

 pit 96, where above the copper bracelets a fragment of bark and a 

 piece of deerskin were found preserved by the copper salts. When 

 it is considered, moreover, that a primitive people would naturally 

 reverence the dead it seems highly probable that they would shrink 

 from casting clods of clay or masses of mud upon the form of 

 those whom they had evidently arranged and dressed with every 

 manifestation of solicitude. Moreover, to have covered the corpse 

 with a shroud of skin or a covering of bark would have added an 

 element of mystery to the interment. The body would have been 

 obscured during the process of burial. To cast stray stones and 

 earth upon the form beneath would have shocked the primitive 

 people to whom care for the dead was probably an important reli- 

 gious rite. If the vessels of clay contained food for the skyward 

 journey it would hardly seem that this food would have been 

 tainted by earthly flavors, but rather covered for cleanliness. This 

 supposition seems to be given weight by the fact that two pots 

 were found in the clay stratum over the mouths of which were wads 

 of clay, the vessels being empty. From the fact that weapons and 

 utensils were buried one is led to think that the people believed or 

 afifected to believe that these things, or perhaps the spirits of these 

 things, would be of value to the spirit of the dead. All the clay 

 pipes from the burials contained charred tobacco and from this 

 fact it might be conjectured that the pipe of the sacred herb had 

 been lighted in the grave for a consolation to the spirit as it started 

 out in the new and strange world of spirits. 



The positions of the various objects, especially of the pottery 

 vessels are highly interesting. Most of them were near the head 

 as were some of the pipes. The table appended herewith gives a 

 summary of the positions of the pots in relation to the skeletons. 



Position of the pots 



Before face, ii; at occiput, 25; top of skull, 16; near abdomen, 

 I ; at pelvis, i ; between skulls, 2 ; indeterminate, 14. 



Graves in ash pits. Two graves were found in true ash pits. 

 These pits were situated just beyond and outside the earth ring and 

 were side by side [see record of pits 48 and 49]. Both pits were 

 shallow, 2^', and the skeletons had only light covers of charcoal 

 and ashes to separate them from the ordinary pit refuse. It may 

 be possible that the ash pits were within or near a lodge site and 



