1836, | The Peabody Museum's Explorations in Ohio. 1025 
nearly three feet in width, around the edges of which were small 
Stones, eight to twelve inches long. This mass stood up eight 
inches from the gravel layer under the clay. Removing these 
Stones and gravel, we found loose gravel filling a pit just seven 
feet long and three feet four inches wide. At the depth of two 
feet we came to hard undisturbed gravel, and on this was a hu- 
man skeleton extended at full length on its back, with the skull 
at the south-east end of the grave. The bones were firmly imbed- 
ded in the gravel, and so dry that great care was necessary in re- 
moving this matrix. However, after six hours of unremitted 
labor with small trowel and brush, they and the several objects 
associated with them were all uncovered and left in place, even 
to the finger and toe bones, and a photograph was taken showing 
everything in place. In each hand was one of the copper ear orna- 
ments of the kind I have referred to so often. The finger bones 
were so arranged as to show that these ornaments had been 
clasped in the hands at the time of the burial of the body. An- 
other of these ornaments was on the neck bones in contact with 
the under jaw. On each side of the copper ornament was a canine 
tooth of a bear, with the lateral perforations. Partly over the 
bear’s tooth, on the left side, was a piece of native copper, which 
had been hammered roughly into a flat, thick, irregular sheet. 
This is without holes, and is probably an unfinished ornament. 
Above this, and close to the skull, was a small copper cone, like 
Many found on the altar of the great mound. Near the right 
shoulder was a large sea shell, like the others I have mentioned. 
= This skeleton, as it lay in the grave, measured five feet ten inches 
_ from the top of the skull to the tip of the great toe, and the in- 
_ dividual was not far from five feet four inches in height when 
= living. With the exception of a portion of the sacrum, which had 
entirely disappeared, this skeleton was taken out in a perfect con- 
_ dition. The decay of the sacrum was owing, probably, to the 
fact that a small round stone had fallen in such a way as to 
__ allow water to percolate around it. 
This skeleton is a good illustration of the absurdity of the 
common notion that as soon as skeletons which have long been 
buried are exposed to the air they fall to dust. I always have a 
quiet laugh when I read notices of that kind, and you may put 
all such accounts down to the inexperienced and clumsy work 
_ of the person removing the skeleton. The fact is that it requires 
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