220 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



by the one found in pit 95 shown in figure 16, the bones were prac- 

 tically all disjointed and placed .without definite order, except that 

 in both cases the skull lay at the west end of the heap. In some 

 cases all the bones of an arm, say, would be in their relative posi- 

 tions, but the proximal end of the humerus might lie in contact 

 with the sacrum, which in its turn might be entirely disconnected 

 from the lumbar vertebrae. Judging from this disarticulation the 

 snail shells found in some of the skulls and the absence of many 

 of the smaller bones it seems probable that the bodies had lain 

 exposed until much decayed, possibly in tree burials or scaffolds^ or 

 had previously been buried elsewhere — at least they must have 

 been in a fragmentary condition when brought to this site for 

 burial. A pipe and a flint scraper lay near the skull of the bone 

 burial and a broken jar accompanied another burial. 



Very similar to the bone burials in many respects, even to the 

 snail shells within the skulls, and differing from them only in the 

 number of skeletons contained, were the ossuaries, of which three 

 were found, two small ones within the fort and a large one on the 

 flood plain below. One of the former, found in pit 62, contained 

 two adult and one child's skeleton, disarticulated as in bone burials, 

 without accompanying objects, at a depth of 26 J^ inches. An inter- 

 esting feature of this ossuary was the presence of a layer of more 

 or less charred bark forming a stratum across the pit 6 or 8 inches 

 above the skeletons, which had sunken in at the center as the dirt 

 had settled down around the bones. Still another feature of interest 

 was the intrusion of a later ash pit (61) into the side of the ossuary. 

 This feature of an ash pit intruding on a grave was observed in a 

 number of other instances and seems to show that these people did 

 not in all cases even temporarily mark their graves or that a long 

 time had elapsed between the two excavations. Traces of three 

 superimposed excavations were observed in pit 30, which contained 

 a bone burial in good condition as before mentioned, and also a 

 very much decayed folded skeleton in regular order by its side, at 

 the feet of which (in a unique position) stood a small jar. The 

 pit ran down some distance below the skeletons and yielded, in this 

 bottom portion, several chipped points and other objects. It looked 

 as if the folded skeleton had been buried in a preexisting pit, then in 

 after years the '' bone burial " was interred. A small ash pit dug 

 into the side of pit 30 may represent a fourth intrusive excavation. 



1 This was the Seneca custom within the memory of many of the Seneca 

 over 90 years old. See Morgan. 



