30 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS OF THE GEORGIA COAST. 



was a layer of oyster shells, almost superficial, 2 feet in thickness. The eastern 

 upper margin would have contained a similar deposit had it not been that a pit of 

 sand, 2 feet 4 inches across had been let into the shell at that point. 



His! o r Lii S a n d. 



U n d (Si j r I- e 4 



Fig. 15.— Diagram of central pit. Mound at north end of Creighton Island. 



While various pits were present in this mound, in no mound investigated by 

 us have they been so difficult to distinguish exactly. This arose partially from the 

 considerable size of some, but mainly from the fact that but few extended into the 

 bright yellow undisturbed sand beneath the base, and that the others in the dis- 

 turbed sand, having been filled with homogeneous material, offered no distinct line 

 of demarcation. 



Beginning in the level ground and extending a considerable distance along the 

 western marginal portion of the mound, was one of those great excavations filled 

 with dark loam and refuse, and containing no burials, so often found in mounds of 

 this type and for whose existence we have no explanation to offer save that possibly 

 great pits made to furnish material for the mound were allowed slowly to fill during 

 the occupation of the territory. The sand and loam filling pits of this class are 

 always far darker than the sand of the mound which they adjoin. 



HUMAN REMAINS. 



In seven cases layers of decayed wood or bark, occasionally showing marks of 

 fire, lay above human remains, and in two cases, above and below. Doubtless simi- 

 lar deposits in many other cases had disappeared through decay. It is interesting 

 to note in this connection that a Yamacraw Indian (the Yamacraws lived near 

 Savannah) dying in London during a visit in 1734, was interred by his companions, 

 strapped between two boards x — a survival of an ancient custom. 



Human remains were present at every depth in the mound proper, and in 

 certain outlying territory, at 262 points as follows : 

 220 skeletons. 

 10 pockets of calcined fragments of human bones. 

 6 urn-burials of uncremated remains of infants. 

 3 bunched burials. 



1 "Antiquities of the Southern Indians," p. 185. 



