THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK ^i-l 



toward the north, for twelve were facing- that way, against six 

 toward the south, two toward the east, three to the southwest and 

 one to the northwest. 



One favorite Iroquoian method of interment, the so-called " bone " 

 burial, in which the skeleton is more or less completely disjointed 

 before being placed in the ground, was here represented by a single 

 case only, that of pit 52, which contained the tangled and disjointed 

 remains of an adult skeleton. The only bones which remained in 

 the natural position were those of a leg and a foot. The highest 

 bone, a lower jaw, was 35 inches from the surface, the lowest 44 

 inches. The skull, badly decayed, lay in the middle. The photograph 

 shows this burial in the background rather poorly, while the fore- 

 ground is taken up with the more ordinary skeleton in pit 51. 



The ossuary method of interment, in which many disjointed skele- 

 tons were buried together, was not observed here. 



We were disappointed to find that while Indian skeletons are by 

 no means of infrequent occurrence in Jefferson county, it is exceed- 

 ingly rare to find anything buried with them. Three cases (and 

 these are not all sure) were found among the thirty-two skeletons 

 at the Heath site. The skeleton in pit 60 had a decayed bone awl 

 lying behind its head and a supposed but doubtless paint stone near 

 the knees. That in pit 75 had an unfinished celt near the chin. 



The clearest case of objects buried with a body was found in 

 pit 71, where an adult and an infant were discovered, but in a very 

 poor state of preservation and covered with stones and slabs — an 

 unusual feature. One of the slabs above the adult must have weighed 

 a hundred pounds. Near the back of the infant lay several bundles 

 of bone beads or tubes, badly decayed, arranged in parallel groups, 

 probably forming part of an ornament or other burial ofifering. The 

 bone awl, celt and paint stone may have found their way into the 

 other graves by accident — perhaps thrown in with the earth. 



A number of graves showed layers of ashes near the surface, 

 which are relics perhaps of a ceremonial fire lighted upon the 

 grave after burial. More definite and particular data for the skele- 

 tons will be found in the appended tables. Besides the skeletons 

 there were found in several ash pits a few detached human bones, 

 a lower jaw in pit 64, a tooth in pit 66, and teeth and charred bones 

 in pit 70, all on the northwest hillside, which are rather difficult of 

 explanation. Two other fragments were found in natural hollow^s 

 on the ridge where they had probably been dragged and covered up 

 by the plow which had detached them from their respective skeletons. 



