B USHNELL— ABORIGINAL BURIAL 



been so well exemplified the various forms of aboriginal disposition of 

 the dead — the burial in anatomical order; the burial of portions of the 

 skeletons; the interment of great masses of human bones; the pyre; 

 the loose deposit of incinerated remains; the burial of cinerary urns." 1 

 Probably few mounds yet explored have revealed such a great variety 

 of burials and presented such indisputable evidence that a tribe often 

 followed, at the same time, many methods of disposing of their dead. 



A short distance northward from the last, on Ossabaw island in 

 Bryan county, stood a low, spreading mound. This was examined by 

 Mr Moore and proved of special interest. In describing it he wrote: 

 "It will be noticed that in no part of the mound, outside of the cal- 

 cined remains, among which were parts of adult skeletons seemingly 

 belonging to males, were skeletal remains of adult males — the skele- 

 tons being exclusively those of women, adolescents, children, and 

 infants — and that in one portion of the mound burial vases exclu- 

 sively contained skeletons of infants, unaffected by fire, while in 

 other portions cinerary urns were present filled with fragments of 

 calcined human skeletons. Again we see pockets of calcined human 

 remains and skeletal remains of women and of children unaffected by 

 fire and not included in vessels of earthenware." 2 The lack of adult 

 male skeletons in this mound tends to verify, to a certain extent, the 

 statement made by Oviedo during the early part of the sixteenth 

 century, when he referred to the people of this region. In mentioning 

 the burial customs he drew attention to the unusual custom of placing 

 the remains of the children and young persons apart from the others; 

 and that the principal men of the tribe were buried in a distinct group. 

 He failed to mention the disposal of the remains of the women, but 

 they may have been placed with those of the children, as they have 

 been revealed within this mound. 3 



It is possible within this area to trace another custom from the 

 historic back into prehistoric times, and every such instance tends to 

 make more clear the origin of particular aboriginal remains. About the 

 year 1730 a small group of Creeks, together with a few Yamasee, 

 settled on the south bank of the Savannah, at Yamacraw bluff, within 

 the present city of Savannah. Their chief was the famous Tomochichi, 

 who, together with others, later accompanied Governor Oglethorpe 

 to England. While there, in 1734, a member of the party died of 

 smallpox, and "previous to interment in the church-yard of St. 

 John's, Westminster, the body was sewn up in a blanket and bound 



1 Moore, C. B., Certain Aboriginal Mounds of the Georgia Coast, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. of 

 Phila., 1897, p. 45. 



2 Moore, ibid., p. 89. 



3 Oviedo, Historia General y Natural de las Indias, Madrid, 1853, p. 630. 



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