HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



CREMATION OF THE DEAD 



Cremation was an exclusive practice with the builders of the 

 Tremper mound, not a single instance of uncremated burial being 

 recorded. The uncremated burials found near the top of the mound, 

 and described elsewhere, were of an intrusive nature, and did not 

 pertain to the culture responsible for the building of the mound. 



The crematories were identical with those found in the Harness 

 and Seip mounds, and others of the same culture explored. They 

 were twelve in number and were scattered generally through the struc- 

 ture. All showed evidence of long-continued use, and in most of them 

 the presence of charred human remains was noted. They were most 

 in evidence in the large room, at the south center of the structure, 

 which seems to have been especially set apart for this purpose. The 

 crematories were basin-shaped, many of them quite deep. The earth 

 beneath them was burned red for a depth of almost a foot. 



Disposal of Cremated Remains. — The placing of the ashes of the 

 dead in prepared communal depositories was the rule with the 

 builders of the mound. The exceptions were two cremated burials 

 below the floor of the mound, and two individual cremated burials. 

 The communal depositories, peculiar to the Tremper mound, were 

 four in number, consisting of a main depository in the eastern end of 

 the structure, and three smaller ones in the western end. These com- 

 munal graves correspond in use, and to some extent in form, to the 

 prepared graves of the Harness, Seip, and other mounds of this cul- 

 ture explored, with the distinction that they served to contain not a 

 single burial or one consisting of the remains of a few individuals, as 

 in the Seip mound, but an unlimited number of burials. 



This depository, numbered 8, figure 2, and pictured as plate I, was 

 made of fine puddled clay, which after being worked into place was 

 burned. The clay was applied with the hands, imprints of fingers 

 being visible, as were also marks of the digging-stick used in tamping 

 down and shaping the sides of the basin. The depository was in the 

 form of a parallelogram, 10 feet 3 inches long and 5 feet wide, with a 

 central depth of 6 inches. The bottom measured 6 feet 6 inches long 

 by 13 inches wide, its surface being perfectly flat and level. The 

 grave was filled with human ashes and charred bone to a depth of a 

 little more than one foot: these ashes, however, were very compact 

 and originally must have been piled high above the rim of the basin. 

 The contents of the depository no doubt represent the remains of 

 hundreds of cremated bodies, indicating the use of the grave for a 

 long period of time. The floor surrounding? the great basin was 



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