Feature 2 (Burial 4)

Description

by H. Trawick Ward

Pit Morphology

Feature 2 (Burial 4) was located near the center of the cemetery at 293.5R76.5. This burial pit was visible at the top of the subsoil as a rectangular stain with slightly rounded corners. The center portion of the pit was comprised of dark brown humic soil with charcoal, animal bone and potsherds. This fill is similar to the Zone 1 fill of Burials 1, 2, and 3; a mottled orange clay formed a band around the perimeter of the pit. The pit, whose main axis was northwest-southeast, measured 3.2 ft by 2.2 ft across the top and was 2.1 ft deep. The pit walls were straight, and the bottom was flat except for a ledge along the northeast side. It is again proposed that metal implements were used to excavate this pit. A dark brown fill (Zone 1) extended unevenly across the middle portion of the pit to a depth of a little over one foot. This was underlain by a mottled orange clay fill (Zone 2) that contained some of the darker soil near the top.

Burial Deposition

One of two skeletons in the pit was that of an adult male, 25 +/- 4 years old at death, that had been disarticulated and placed in a tight bundle lying against the southwest wall of the pit. The ledge at the bottom of the pit paralleled the orientation of the body. Cut marks around the cranium suggest that this individual was scalped. Mixed with the bundle were the skeletal remains of an infant who was about one month old at death. Because these remains were not discovered until the adult burial was being cleaned in the laboratory, it is impossible to know the precise spatial relationship of the two individuals.

Grave Goods

A cluster of 11 long, tubular, columella beads were located within the chest area of the bundle and unquestionably were associated with it. A wine bottle was found in the southeast corner of the pit next to the adult skull, and a pewter porringer was found at the foot of the bundle adjacent to and on the northeast side of the long bones. Based on the fact that a wine bottle also was found with Burial 3, an adult, it is probable that the bottle in Burial 4 was meant to accompany the adult. The porringer, on the other hand, may have been placed with the infant, because a similar specimen was found with Burial 2, a subadult.