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Burial Features

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2018

Arden R. King*
Affiliation:
H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial Collegeand Middle American Research Institute, The Tulane University of Louisiana, New Orleans, La.

Extract

During the excavation of the West Bluff area in 1946, two cairns with burials were discovered in the upper levels of the heavy shell stratum of the Maritime phase. One of these had been disturbed by plowing, and, consequently, whatever pattern of stone arrangement had been made around and over the burial had been completely disarranged (Fig. 25, 4). The second cairn however, had been constructed before the shell mound in the West Bluff area had stopped accumulating. Consequently, it was buried beneath shell deposits and beyond the reach of the plow. At the time of discovery, the cairn lay one foot below the surface. The burial was encompassed by a rectangular wall of stones measuring 4.2 x S.4 feet (Fig. 25, 5). The wall was not completely closed, but enough of the stones remained to give the shape of the burial structure. Some stones lying near and directly over the burial give some indication of cap-stones, but the presence of a disassociated human mandible atop the largest of these possible cap-stones makes the identification of the stones as such questionable.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1950

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