BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 431 



formed by the Holcomb road crossing Cherry street. Across 

 this knoll furrows 16 inches deep were drawn from east to west 

 with a plow, and these furrows were then tested every few feet 

 with rod, spade and auger. In this way the entire surface was 

 turned over. 



The soil of the knoll was sand and clay, the clay appearing 

 on its northern side and containing sand pockets. 



In this cemetery were found bones representing fifty-one 

 skeletons, which are numbered on the list from 12 to 63. Of 

 these the bones of three individuals came from a small bone pit, 

 four from another, and twenty-eight from another. 



The excavations on the village site and the cemetery 

 showed a large variety of burial customs to have been in vogue 

 amongst the Senecas of that period. The graves were of dif- 

 ferent depths, some being so close to the surface that some of 

 the bones had been disturbed by the plow. Others were more 

 than three feet in depth. This difference in depth can hardly 

 be accounted for by the difference in soil and the greater diffi- 

 culty in digging at some points. For instance, of two graves but 

 a yard apart, one was within twelve inches of the surface, the 

 other thirty inches deep. There was no regularity in burial, no 

 order or special orienation being noted. 



Five different methods of burial were shown to have been 

 in more or less common use, namely, (a) individual burial at 

 full length, (b) individual burial in a flexed position, (c) indi- 

 vidual burials in "bundles", (d) burials of the bones of a skele- 

 ton, in whole or part, without order, (e) communal burial in a 

 "bone pit". No evidence was seen of the burial of bodies in 

 the upright sitting position so often noted by various collectors 

 as characteristic of this region. Numerous interesting burial 

 customs were shown by the articles found buried with the skele- 

 tons. Fire beds were noted over many of the graves. 



Of the sixty-three individuals represented in the graves, 

 but two were found extended at full length, and both of these 

 were peculiar in many other ways. Both were men and evi- 

 dently of local note. One was a Christian. It can hardly be 

 said, therefore, that burial at full length was a common method 

 of burial amongst the Senecas of that time, but more probably 

 it was in an emergency, as in the case of a warrior or hunter 

 found dead away from the village and brought to the cemetery 

 for burial, or it may show the influence of the Christian priests, 



