webb] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NORRIS BASIN \g\ 



their proximity, the same coordinate system was used in staking. 

 They were staked in 5-foot blocks, as shown on ground plats. 



Excavation was carried well down into the hardpan. The original 

 humus line was very plain in places, faint in others, and missing in 

 others. The absence of the humus line was especially noticeable near 

 the edge of the mound. This may indicate that the burials which 

 lay on the humus itself, or slightly within the humus, were covered 

 with dirt (once humus) that was dug from around the surface, 

 before the mound proper was built. Weight is added to this possi- 

 bility by the fact that the humus line where most plainly seen was 

 quite thick, being as much as 20 inches or more. 



Vertical faces were carried throughout the entire excavation of 

 the mounds. Test pits were sunk from 18 inches to 24 inches in the 

 hardpan at each 5-foot block to seek for disturbance below the floor 

 level. Both mounds were composed of unstratified sandy clay. 



Mou2\ t d No. 1 



Mound No. 1 was 45 feet in diameter. The only feature other 

 than the burials found in this mound was a crude basin, or a burned 

 area, slightly below the original humus line, under Mound No. 1. 

 This basin was 10.5 feet by 8.8 feet. It was dark red in color and 

 the clay had been burned to a depth of from 4 to 6 inches. Some 

 charcoal was present on the burned clay and some large samples of 

 the burned wood were taken for dating purposes. It was thought 

 to be precedent to the mound, and may indicate that the mounds 

 were erected on a village site. 



Burials 



All burials were in a very poor state of preservation. Only a few 

 fragmentary bones remained, in most cases, to indicate the presence 

 of a skeleton. Twenty-three burials were located in Mound No. 1 

 and nineteen burials in Mound No. 2. Faint white areas occurred 

 here and there throughout the earth, which seemed to indicate the 

 presence of former burials now totally disintegrated. If these faint 

 white spots are indicative of former burials there were once perhaps 

 as many more burials in these mounds as have been recorded. 



Burial No. 1. — On the original ground surface, 18 inches above the 

 hardpan, a portion of a skull and pieces of long bones were found. 

 The preservation was so poor that the disposition and orientation 

 could not be determined. Tree roots extended through the burial and 

 a tree stump grew near the skull. 



Burial No. 2. — Forty-four inches above the original hardpan a few 

 fragmentary bones were found. 



