Antiquities of central and southeastern Missouri / by Gerard Fowke.

  • Gerard Fowke
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Antiquities of central and southeastern Missouri / by Gerard Fowke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    MOUND NO. 2 This mound was 43 feet in diameter and 5 feet in height. Lying 8 feet east of the center and 6 inches above the bottom was a crushed, decayed skull, the few teeth remaining with it being much worn. Beginning 2 feet nearer the center was a deposit of other bones too much decayed for identification with exception of short pieces of femora and tibiae. These bones lay on different levels within the space of a foot, occupying an area about 4 feet in diameter. At the center was an irregular hole 14 to 16 inches in diameter and a foot in depth. Filling this hole, and extending above and around it, was a deposit of mingled charcoal, soil, and burned earth, which had been brought here from a fire near by. Ikying west and north of the center, on the bottom, distributed over a space ap- proximately 1 foot by 3 feet, were the charred bones, in very small fragments, of at least two, possibly of three, persons. Among these remains were a bone and a claw of a panther. All were covered with earth much burned, mingled with charcoal and soil, as if the debris of the pyre had been thrown on them. Close by Fig. 1. PotfromGramnanninoundno.3. fragment of a femur or a tibia; also a skull from which the entire upper jaw had been removed before burial. All the unburned bones were very soft and much decayed. MOUND NO. 3 This mound stood on the first bluff west of Gasconade. After having undergone much cultivation it measured 75 feet north and south by 50 feet east and west, and 5 feet in height. Beginning 25 feet south of the apex, a trench 16 feet wide was run toward the center. Four feet from the starting point and a foot above the bottom was found a crushed and decayed skull, having its vertex toward the south. With exception of four teeth, no traces of bones accompanied it. At a distance of 2tV feet to the north of this skull, situated 6 inches higher, was another skull; this lay on the left side with the vertex toward the east; resting on this cranium was a part
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