Burial mound

“ The second kind of burial mound is distinguished by having no wood and no burial chambers, and in the bones being broken and scattered. A third kind of mound, containing a layer of clay that seems to overlie many human skeletons, is hardly distinctly enough defined to be constituted a separate class. ”

“ Several instances of this kind were observed, in some cases those skeletons near the surface or top of the mound indicating burial after contact with the whites.
It is apparent, therefore, that although some of the burial mounds of this district must be attributed to the so-called mound-builders, others were certainly built by the Indians found inhabiting it at the advent of the whites. There can scarcely be a doubt that some of the small unstratified tumuli described are the work of the Indians. ”

“ The mortuary customs of the mound-builders, as gleaned from an examination of their burial mounds, ancient cemeteries, and other depositories of their dead, present so many striking resemblances to those of the Indians when first encountered by the whites, as to leave little room for doubt regarding their identity. ”

“ The custom of heaping up a mound over the dead was probably imitated for a long time by the tribes that followed the Mound-builders, so that the relics from these mounds are less satisfactory than those found on the altars. In the burial mounds that may be most confidently ascribed to the Mound-builders, the human remains are found in a situation corresponding to that of the altars. ”

“ But, contrary to the usual custom, as shown by an examination of the Ohio works, this mound appears to have been used by the people who erected it as a burial place, for the mode of construction and the material used for the body of it forbid the supposition that the lower burial was by a different people from those who formed the clay structure at the base. ”

“ In these mounds cremation appears more frequently than inhumation; and both are accompanied by implements, weapons and ornaments of stone and bone. The pottery accompanying the remains is often elaborately ornamented, and the mound builders were evidently possessed of a higher development of taste and skill than is evinced by any of the modern aboriginal races, by whom the mounds and their contents are regarded as utterly mysterious.
It is not to be wondered at that customs so widely spread and so deeply rooted as those connected with barrow-burial should have been difficult to eradicate. ”

“ When the corpse has been laid to rest, the grave is covered with logs, planks, bundles of reeds, or stones. It is not filled with earth, but a mound is heaped up on the top of the covering and decorated with flags or the like, unless when a dome-like structure of wood or bricks is built over the grave. When a child dies its cradle is laid upon its grave. After the burial the mollah pronounces a blessing over the corpse for the last time, and all take part in heaping up the mound of earth. ”

“ Many of these remains may be of a far later date than the Neolithic Age, still it is extremely difficult to draw a dividing line between the monuments of different ages.
Burial mounds are found everywhere, many in Europe going back to the Neolithic Age, though some are of a very recent construction. The Egyptian Pyramids are burial mounds on the grandest scale. The first cut represents a Danish Tumulus, or burial mound, of this Age. The openings lead to the center of the mound, where they connect with chambers in which the bodies were formerly placed. ”

“ Assuming this as being the general depth of the graves throughout the mound, then the graves varying between 2-1/2 and 12-1/2 feet above the base of the mound were dug at periods when the entire height of the mound was about 5 to 14 feet, hence the period of these burials would have to be placed entirely during the time of the earlier plateau-like growth of the mound. This period of burial is very closely followed by that of cremation, the two possibly overlapping. ”

“ Belief in immortality was expressed by placing material goods near the deceased to sustain him in the other world. His treasured belongings, usually pottery vessels, beads, bracelets and other ornaments, were buried with him.
The Moundville Indian built no burial mounds. His dead were buried in cemetery areas within the city. Usually burial was made in a pit large enough to accommodate the body at full length. Sometimes, however, burial was made in a small pit, the body being drawn up in a flexed position. Burial of the skeleton after it had been stripped of flesh was sometimes practiced. ”

“ The true burial mounds are very numerous, an comprise by far the larger number of mounds. They are to be found all over the Mound Builders’ territory, and are about the only class of remains found in the prairie regions of the West. From the upper waters of the Missouri and the great lakes on the north to the Gulf States on the south, and from west of the Mississippi to the Alleghenies of the East, in all this vast region they are the prevailing class of remains, and occur by hundreds, and even thousands, along the valleys. The mounds themselves are often not very conspicuous ”

“ The chief difference between the ancient practice and that of our own day lies in the fact that mound-burial is now almost universal, at least throughout our country, while in former ages it was not quite so general. One may hazard the opinion that mound-burial may have been markedly the exception in prehistoric times. The great ones of the land were truly laid under these earthen monuments, but in what manner the great masses of the poorer folk were buried we may never know. ”

“ The choice of such a soil, especially with the instruments they possessed, may, perhaps, show the importance which the Britons attached to the rite of burial.
About a quarter of a mile, or rather less, from this great graveyard lay a solitary mound, two feet and a half in height, having a circumference of twenty-seven feet, a very common measurement, but without any trench. Upon digging into it on the east side we quickly came, about four inches from the surface, upon a patch of charcoal and burnt earth. ”

“ In digging the grave beneath, it is said that hard chalk was soon reached, but this proves little, since the excavation was made near the foot of the hillock. No other graves have been dug in the mound. On the whole, and in default of actual trenching, I am disposed to consider this mound a true burial place. Its small size and the absence of an outer court seem to preclude the idea of its having been a defensive mound of the moated type.
A large barrow, hitherto unexplored, lies concealed in a wood near Ryton church, in county Durham [207] . ”

“ The use of fire in burial ceremonies.—Another observance in which the burial customs of mound-builders corresponded with those of Indians was the use of fire in funeral ceremonies. The evidences of this custom are so common in mounds as to lead to the supposition that the mound-builders were in the habit of offering human sacrifices to their deities. Although charred and even almost wholly consumed human bones are often found, showing that bodies or skeletons were sometimes burned, it does not necessarily follow that they were offered as sacrifices. ”

“ The people whose relics are described here are called by the author the Stone-Grave race, because their dead were placed in cists or box-shaped graves built of stone slabs, and sometimes constructed with much care. A hundred or more of these graves are occasionally found, deposited in several tiers or layers, in a single burial mound. ”

“ The fact that the effigy mounds were not used as places of sepulture, and that no cemeteries save the burial mounds are found in connection with them, is almost conclusive proof that the two, as a rule, must be attributed to the same people, that they belong to one system. ”

“ During the period we are considering, both inhumation and cremation were practised, sometimes together. The placing of the interments was as diverse as the forms and construction of the barrows. For the moment we will confine ourselves to the inhumated class. In the simplest mode of burial, the body was laid on the ground and the mound heaped over it. But often, perhaps usually, something was done to fence it in, or to protect it from the material of the mound. ”

“ From this fact, and from the character of the burials in the mound, as well as that of the objects found with the skeletons, and from the absence of the characteristic ornaments found with so many of the human remains in the Turner group and other ancient mounds of the Ohio Valley, we are led to look upon this stone mound as the burial place of a tribe of Indians living in the region subsequent to the builders of the Turner mounds. ”

“ Besides the coffins themselves, some other curious features are found in the burial-places. The dead are commonly buried, not underneath the natural surface of the ground, but in extensive artificial mounds, each mound containing a vast number of coffins. The coffins are arranged side by side, often in several layers; and occasionally strips of masonry, crossing each other at right angles, separate the sets of coffins from their neighbors. The surface of the mounds is sometimes paved with brick; and a similar pavement often separates the layers of coffins one from another. ”

“ That the custom of removing the flesh before the final burial prevailed very extensively among the mound-builders of the northern sections. The bones of the common people being often gathered together and cast in promiscuous heaps, over which mounds were built. ”

“ Here are some twenty burial mounds, the largest of which is that of New Grange, a domed tumulus erected above a circular chamber, which is entered by a narrow passage enclosed by great upright blocks of stone, covered with carvings. ”

“ These are all burial mounds, but one singular feature observed is that those on the higher sandy ground, although about the same size and having cores of clay similar to those on the firm clay portion of the ridge, have a layer of sand, some two feet or more added to them, yet when opened the contents and mode of construction of the two classes were found to be the same, to wit, a layer of hard clay covering decaying human bones, fragments of pottery, and rude stone implements. ”

“ The larger and more imposing works, as the pyramidal mounds, the enclosures, canals, etc., furnish indications of their character, condition, strength, and culture-status as a people or tribe, but the burial mounds and their contents, besides the evidences they furnish in regard to the religious belief and art of the builders, tell us something of individual traits, something of their social life, their tastes, their personal regard for each other, and even something of the diseases to which they were subject. ”

“ It is not customary to erect a tombstone soon after a burial; the mound is sufficient to indicate to the family the exact position of the grave, and all necessary dates and names are carefully entered on the pedigree-scroll or inscribed on the ancestral tablets. In front of each grave will often be seen a small stone altar or pedestal or a stone incense-jar. Here are offered up the ancestral sacrifices at the festivals of Ch'ing-Ming and the first of the tenth moon. ”

“ Doubtless, other examples remain yet to be discovered. The reader will, however, note that, except in the case of caves, the original absence of a mound cannot always be absolutely proven; the forces of Nature, aided by the plough, may have obliterated the external signs of burial. During the Early Iron Age, mounds appear to have been even less general than in the preceding period. Thus, several pit-burials have been recorded from Hagbourne Hill, near Didcot, Berkshire [638] , and from the celebrated “urn-field” at Aylesford, Kent, which dates from c. ”

“ Among the bones of the neck a single shell bead [Pg 50] was found; at the feet were ten stones or small bowlders, such as are common in the drift gravel. It is evident that this interesting tumulus was erected over the grave which was dug in the underlying gravel, and that the human bones placed in the burnt mass above the grave, with the few stone implements found in or on the mass, had some connection with the funeral ceremonies which took place in connection with the burial of the body in the pit below. ”

“ It was buried in full dress, and surrounded by a number of articles pertaining to the deceased—both personal ornaments, domestic instruments and vessels, and other things—and that had been used or valued by him or her. Sometimes the body was enclosed in a wooden chest or coffin before being placed in the grave. The grave, in either of these cases, was then filled in—usually with a tempered or “puddled” earth, which formed a close and extremely compact mass—and the mound raised over it. ”

“ In this sand graves are usually dug, and in some places to an extent indicating dreadful devastations from disease, each grave is headed by a stone, and about every ramification of the irregular size of the burial ground, there is a building of the usual mud structure, designed for a mosque, but not domed as is customary in Mussulman cemeteries, but ornamented with flagstaffs bearing white bits of cloth. ”

“ The sepulchral remains of the Anglo-Saxons are of two general classes—barrows and cemeteries—and in these the modes of burial have been both by inhumation and by cremation.
The grave-mounds, or barrows, are, as a rule, of much less altitude, and of smaller dimensions, generally, than those of either of the preceding periods. In some districts they are found in extensive groups, frequently occupying elevated sites; at other times they are solitary, and frequently the elevation above the surrounding surface is so slight as to be scarcely perceptible except to the most practised eye. ”