1919] BARRETT AND HAWKES, KRATZ CREEK MOUNDS. 17 



ing only a single artificial layer of earth. They were probably des- 

 tined to receive other strata when utilized for burial, crematory or 

 sacrificial purposes at some future date. 



Further, the conical may have been employed as a delineator 

 in building larger mounds. This is shown by the fact that often 

 small conical mounds are grouped in such positions as to sug- 

 gest that they may have been intended as "markers" to outline 

 effigy forms. Also, certain effigy mounds appear to have been con- 

 structed by actually filling in the intervening spaces between such 

 delimiting conicals. This is shown by the fact that in some com- 

 pleted effigies the shoulder, hip and head positions, and often the 

 feet and tip of the tail, show distinctly circular forms and sometimes 

 even an elevation similar to the rounded top of a conical. Often 

 these conically shaped sections show special and independent 

 stratification. Again, the conical ended linear points conclusively 

 to the use of the conical to mark the limits of this larger mound 

 structure. 



The linear mounds of the group were relatively simple in con- 

 struction. The conical ended linear, No. 12, showed the usual elab- 

 orate stratification in the conicals themselves, but was quite simply 

 constructed in the connecting linear section. 



The finished conical mound usually shows more or less stratifi- 

 cation depending upon the purpose for which it was built. Certain 

 of these conicals, as No. 27, consisted almost entirely of a thick fire 

 stratum underlaid by a thin stratum of sacrificial earth, showing 

 that it was probably used as a great funeral pyre or crematory altar. 

 Some are relatively simple in construction though devoted to other 

 uses. Certain conicals contain several strata, together with pockets 

 of sacrificial earths and also altars. In the larger conicals, such as 

 No. 1, are often found very elaborate stratigraphic structures con- 

 sisting of successive layers of local and sacrificial earths interspersed 

 with fire strata and all reared over elaborte burials. 



In constructing the conical mounds, as also the effigies and 

 linears, the builders invariably removed the black surface soil, a 

 fact which was noted by Lapham at Aztalan as early as 1850 8 . An 

 explanation of this custom may be found in the possible desire of the 



8 He saya: "The builders had carefully removed the black soil before they commenced the 

 erection of this mound." Op. cit. p. 44. 



