Burials.
Shellmounds originate on the accumulated refuse deposited by people who have lived in the place when the heap has formed, and the mounds may therefore be regarded as sites for dwelling places, or abodes for the living, and not as mounds set aside as burial grounds by people living elsewhere in the vicinity. Whenever these mounds were used for burials it was not done in spite of their being dwelling places, but rather because they were such.[[37]]
Many tribes of a low grade of civilization follow the custom of burying their dead underneath their feet in the ground upon which they live, to protect the graves of their dead against being disturbed and also to enjoy the protection of the spirits of the departed against their enemies. Wherever graves are found in shellmounds, in all parts of the world, their presence is generally to be explained in this way.[[38]]
Ten graves containing skeletons were found during the excavations. They were found only in the middle layers of the mound in a zone extending from stratum VI to stratum VIII. The two lowest layers and the five upper ones contained no evidence of interment, indicating that the custom of burial underneath the dwelling places was observed in one period only. We have no evidence concerning the location of the burials previous to that period or subsequent to it. A burial site slightly elevated above the plain was unearthed some years ago under a shellmound near the principal mound in Emeryville, but as this probably dated from the same period as the graves in the shellmound no light is thrown upon the question.
In the upper strata of the mound there is, however, furnished evidence of a different manner of disposing of the dead, which was observed during the period of the deposition of strata II, III, and IV. During the period represented by strata VI to VIII the dead were buried in the ground. It has already been shown that stratum II consists mainly of ashes and calcined shells, which cannot be regarded as kitchen-midden deposit or as the remains of fireplaces, the latter forming an inconspicuous part of the stratum. Another characteristic feature of this layer is the high percentage of calcined bone implements found there. Very common among them are awls, of which stratum II contained 44 calcined specimens, or 72 per cent. of the whole number. In the other layers a much smaller number has been found, but the percentage of calcined specimens is high. The supposition that these were accidentally burned cannot be considered an adequate explanation, but the fact that a number of human bones were found at the same place in the strata gives weight to the theory that during the deposition of the upper beds the inhabitants of this region practiced cremation of their dead, a custom common among the California tribes of today. Then as now they were accustomed to burn all personal belongings with the body.[[39]] This accounts for the large number of calcined bone objects and shells in stratum II. Doubtless a large number of shell-fish were thrown into the fire as food for the departed on their long journey into the next world.
Doubtless the practice of cremation was not confined alone to the period of stratum II. The percentage of calcined awls in other strata than this suggests that the builders during the accumulation of stratum I, and probably also of III and IV and parts of V, practiced this custom, but to a less extent than in the period of stratum II, or mainly at other places than the mound.
Eight of the ten graves containing skeletons lay close together in the narrow space of the middle section of the excavation. Four were found in strata VI and VII of the upper cut C. Four of the graves were those of children, lying at different depths in the line of the tunnel. Two other graves were isolated from the others, lying in the edge of the mound. None of the burials were less than nine feet below the present surface. The lowest grave, No. 10 ([pl. IV, fig. 2]), was 21 feet below the surface. In accordance with the stratification lines of the mound, graves 1 and 2, as well as 6, 8, and 9, may be considered as belonging to the period of strata VII and VIIa. The eight graves which lay close together in the middle of the main excavation were distributed over a space of about 90 square feet. The vertical distance from the uppermost to the lowest of these was nine feet. As the tunnel inclines toward the center of the mound it is not certain whether the cemetery extended through the entire mound or was only around the margin of a settlement on the summit of the mound at the time when it was in use. From the depths at which the different graves were found, varying about nine feet, it is clear that they were not constructed within a short period, but that long periods intervened, during which the mound grew very considerably through the deposition of refuse. P. Schumacher explored the graves of Oregon, which lay at a depth of from 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 feet below the surface, and probably the tribes of the Pacific Coast buried their dead in comparatively shallow graves.[[40]] In the case of a child’s grave (No. 9, [pl. 4], fig. 2) it was seen by the stratification lines that it was not made deeper than 1-1/2 feet below the surface. 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.
The preparation of the graves was not elaborate. A simple pit sufficed. It was made large enough to place the body in it with the knees drawn up. The sides of the grave were left bare. If a covering existed originally it must have been of perishable materials, for none have been found in excavation. The bottom of the grave, however, was prepared somewhat like a bed. A layer of charcoal from one-half inch to one inch thick is found at the very bottom, above that another layer of like thickness of iron oxide. Upon this the body was laid on its side. It is evident that the body was buried with its clothing and personal ornaments, in exceptional cases with utensils or implements only. The body was tightly bound at the knees before burial. Owing to climatic conditions, causing excessive moisture in the strata, the greater part of the material buried with the corpse has decayed and disappeared. Five of the ten graves were entirely lacking in implements or other artifacts.
Before burial the body was entirely covered with the red earth mentioned above. This settled down upon the bones after decomposition and is still adhering to them in some cases like a thick crust. The hands were placed on the body in different ways. In several instances the left hand rested upon the knees, while the other was raised to the mouth or to the crown of the head. The corpse is usually laid upon the right side, generally facing northeast. Associated with a number of skeletons were a variety of interesting ornaments, including beads made from shells of Olivella and other molluscs and from sections of bird bones strung together. With skeleton No. 4 were associated a large number of perforated mica flakes. The flakes of mica may originally have been fastened to a garment which shrouded the dead, and when this decayed in the earth the flakes remained there about the body. Beads of bird bone were found in the mouth also, but their presence there might be explained by the settling of the skull in the earth. Mica was much used by the Indians for ornamentation. It has been observed in Peru in a number of cases in the vicinity of graves, but circumstances did not show whether its presence there was purely accidental or not. In the mounds of the middle west of the United States there have sometimes been found ornaments of thin plates of mica of round or oval form, provided with holes to fasten them to the clothing.[[41]] Similar objects were found in West Virginia and elsewhere. Pieces of mica 2 or 3 inches in size are reported to have been found in mounds or in places suggestive of their use for religious purposes.[[42]] Beads like the above mentioned from California, both from graves and from living Indians, were pictured by Holmes.[[43]] With burial six was a bone ring set with shell beads fastened on with asphalt. In burial seven were numerous bone rings similarly decorated with shell beads. Also in burial seven was found a large quartz crystal. One end of the crystal is preserved unbroken. The other end is capped with asphaltum in which numerous small shell beads are set. Quartz crystals have been found elsewhere in California in graves.[[44]] The above mentioned crystal, however, reminds us most strongly of a number of crystals one foot in length and of the thickness of one’s arm, found during the excavation of the western wall of the Temple of the Moon at Moche (Trujillo), in Peru, now in the collection of the University of California. These, too, had the coating of red coloring earth, the same as the object shown on [pl. 11], fig. 9, and were found under peculiar conditions pointing strongly to their religious significance.
Several peculiar bone implements were obtained in burial eight.
The mode of burial seen here resembles that observed elsewhere in the shellmounds of California, for example, near San Luis Obispo, and that of other regions on the Pacific Coast (Oregon), and it is still followed among the California Indian tribes. The burial of the corpse with its knees drawn up has also been observed in Southern California[[45]] and Oregon.[[46]] From the latter region also the varying positions in which the corpses face is confirmed by Schumacher.[[47]]
To the layer of charcoal and red iron oxide which generally formed the bed of the dead may be compared the “thick burned brick-like crusts” and the “thin light colored crusts” found by Schumacher in Southern California graves.[[48]] A large number of lumps of red coloring earth were found throughout the mound, some of these showing marks of scraping or cutting. In Southern California graves we find conditions resembling these almost identically.[[49]] Up to recent times the California Indians very generally painted their bodies, and there is undoubtedly a religious significance in this practice of daubing the corpses and associated objects with red coloring material, besides depositing them on red earth. The custom of putting red coloring matter on the body of the dead is found with many aboriginal tribes. So the Caribs in Jamaica[[50]] paint the entire body of the corpse. The Santees of South Carolina[[51]] painted face, neck, and hands of the corpse. The Dakotas[[52]] painted the face alone. In a number of Peruvian mummies the faces were painted red. Crania from ancient Peruvian graves that had been disturbed at some early time were also found covered with red paint.
The absence of implements is explained by Schumacher by the analogous custom of the lower Klamath tribes, where the implements are laid upon the grave instead of being buried with the dead.[[53]] This custom may have prevailed in this shellmound.
It was an unfortunate circumstance that the exploration in Emeryville occurred at a season of the year when the interior of the mound was still very damp from preceding rains. For this reason none of the skulls could be secured intact, and they will need to be carefully prepared before use can be made of them for anthropological study. It may be noted that none of them show striking eccentricities of form.
Following is a detailed statement of the occurrence and the contents of each of the ten burials excavated.
No. 1, [pl. IV], fig. 2, was found 9 feet below the present surface; it may be contemporaneous with the graves of stratum VII (as 6 and 9). The skeleton was that of an adult, drawn up in the usual manner. It was laid on its right side and was facing east. The left arm rested upon the knee, the right hand on the crown of the head, where also was found a cockleshell. The skeleton lay on a bed of red soil; the bones were slightly reddened. No associated objects.
No. 2. Skeleton of an adult, found at a depth of 9 feet in the outer part (A) of the excavation; neither red earth nor associated objects present. The burial dated probably from the same period as the preceding.
No. 3. Grave of a young person, about 15 years of age, in stratum VI. The skeleton was facing northwest. No artifacts or other associated objects.
No. 4. Grave of an adult, in stratum VI. The skeleton lay from east to west upon a double bed of charcoal and red earth. Interspersed in the soil were found a great quantity of flakes of mica 1 to 1-3/4 inches in diameter, rhomboidal, triangular, and irregular in shape, and each with a hole at one end (see [pl. 11], fig. 18); also a quantity of beads made of bird bones were found upon the cranium as if they had formed part of a net drawn over it; others lay along the sides of the head and along the temples.
No. 5. Skeleton of an adult lying from east to west and facing north. Stratum VI. The cranium shows a lupus-like mutilation of the nose (fig. 2). No ornaments.
Fig. 2.* Skull showing lupus-like mutilation of the nose. × 1/2. [*Fig. 1 has been omitted owing to double references in the manuscript.—Editor.]
No. 6. Grave of a child a little over a year old, found in the tunnel in stratum VIIa, at a depth of 17 feet below the surface. It lay from north to south upon a bed of charcoal and red earth. Various ornaments and other articles were taken from this grave, all covered with red earth. A number of shell beads, both flat (cf. [pl. 11], figs. 6a and 6b), and concave forms ([pl. 11], figs. 5a and 5b) lay in rows from the neck down along the body, and were originally necklaces; two bored round pieces and two oblong ones (pl. 11, figs. 1 and 2) of Haliotis shell had completed the necklace. An unusual object ([pl. 11], fig. 8) found here was a flat ring three-eighths of an inch wide, three-sixteenths of an inch thick, neatly made of stone, both surfaces being decorated with a number of shell beads, originally 11 to 12 on each side, fastened with asphaltum. This object may have been a pendant, but doubtless it possessed talismanic virtues.
Shell beads like the larger convex ones of Olivella sp. have been pictured by Holmes as objects belonging to early and modern Indians of California. Possibly they also resemble the shell coin “Kolkol” of the modern Indians, which is made of Olivella biplicata, according to Powers, and was strung in such a manner that the beads faced each other in pairs, but are not much in use in modern times.
A shell ring of similar proportions as above, but differing through its inferior material and the absence of decoration, has also been pictured by Holmes as coming from Illinois, and as being an ear ornament presumably, while the object described above could not have served that purpose.
No. 7. Grave of a child about one year old, found in stratum VIII, about 21 feet below the surface of the mound. The body lay upon the usual bed of charcoal and of red earth and all the little bones were thickly covered with red coloring matter. The grave was as rich in artifacts as the preceding one. A number of small shell beads (as in [pl. 11], fig. 6) were found near the wrist. The following objects were taken from the earth about the body:
Three oblong ornaments, bored, of Haliotis shell ([pl. 11], fig. 1), a number of very small shells of Olivella sp. having bored ends, which fact shows that they were used as ornaments; 11 bead-like rings of bone, each being about one inch long and seven-sixteenths of an inch thick; each has a band of asphaltum in which three or four small shells were imbedded ([pl. 11], figs. 10, 11). While these rings may have been mere ornaments, the following unusual object ([pl. 11], fig. 9) taken from the same grave must without doubt have talismanic importance. It is a piece of quartz crystal 2-15/16 inches long and 1-1/2 inches thick, having perfect lateral edges and points; the broken base of the crystal is capped with asphaltum in which numerous small shell beads are set.
All these objects were thickly coated with red coloring matter. For the small ornamental Olivella shells compare similar ones from Santa Rosa Island, California, pictured by Holmes (l. c., fig. 7). The bone ring resembles the thick bead-like bone ring taken from another of the graves, stratum VIIa, of the mound.
No. 8. Burial of an adult, in stratum VII, found above the tunnel. The body in the usual squatting position was placed from north to south, facing east, upon a bed of red earth and was itself colored red. This grave contained besides objects of personal adornment a number of bone implements. The former consisted of a number of beads made of bird bone (types similar to object [pl. 11], figs. 15 to 17) and a like number of Olivella shells bored at the lower end ([pl. 11], fig. 3); they were scattered in the earth about the body. One of the Olivella shells was perforated on its side ([pl. 11], fig. 4). Several of the bone beads were connected in twos by thinner bones ([pl. 11], fig. 15). It may be assumed that the bone beads and shells had been fastened to a garment that served as a shroud for the body but has now disappeared.
The bone implements taken from this grave have the shape of paper cutters; there are five in all, representing two distinct types. Three are made of a hard bone ([pl. 8], fig. 4) and are imperfect at their upper ends; the form is that of a horn, the worn edges show their use as tools; the other two objects ([pl. 8], fig. 5) are made of a much softer bone; they are unfinished at their lower ends. The two types are distinct, although it is difficult to compare them in their very imperfect condition. The upper end of the implement of the second type shows two hooked projections connected by an outward bending of their rims. They have each a hole on the lower edge of such a size as to admit a finger, to facilitate the handling of the tool. Neither of these types was met in other parts of the mound.
An Olivella shell with side perforation similar to that of [plate 11], fig. 4, from a grave on Santa Rosa Island has been represented by Holmes[[54]]. Bone beads similar to that of figs. 16 and 17 on [plate 11] were found in nearly all the strata of the mound; two of these are shown in figs. 13 and 14 of the same plate, the former, 1-8702, from stratum IV, the latter, 1-8743, from stratum V. It also has a remnant of a former axle-like connection with another bead as was shown in fig. 15 from stratum V. Bone beads have been widely used as objects of adornment by the California Indians, as is the case with many tribes in other parts of the world[[55]]. With the Yokuts bird bone pieces of 2-1/2 inches in length at one time represented a value of 12-1/2 cents.
No. 9. A child’s grave, in stratum VIIa, in the tunnel about 18 feet below the surface. The associated objects were convex shell beads (cf. [pl. 11], figs. 5a and 5b) and a cockleshell upon the crown of the head (cf. grave No. 1).
No. 10. Grave of an infant with very delicate bones. It was found in the lowest part of section VIII, 23 feet below the surface.
[37] See P. Schumacher, Bull. l. c., p. 38, for burials in the mounds on the Island of San Miguel.
[38] Virchow found them in the Spanish shellmounds (Ranke, l. c., II, p. 533), while in those of Denmark they are absent. Schumacher (Smiths. Rep., 1874, p. 337) states that he observed shellmounds in Southern California which had been temporary abodes only and were devoid of graves; while D. G. Brinton asserts that in Florida graves occurred in natural shellmounds, while artificial shellmounds were free of them (l. c., 1866, p. 357). Such general statements cannot be accepted unless they are supported by observations over larger fields than these.
[39] H. C. Yarrow, Introduction to the mortuary custom among the North American Indians, 1880, p. 58, points out that this custom was general among those Indians who cremated their dead.
[40] Bulletin U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Survey, III, p. 34. In other places shellmound graves lie deeper; thus sometimes three to six feet on the Island of San Miguel (P. Schumacher, Bull. l. c., p. 38).
[41] Charles Rau, Ancient Aboriginal Trade in North America, Smithson. Rep., 1872, p. 361 (from G. Squier).
[42] l. c., p. 360.
[43] Art in Shell, Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1880 to 1881, pl. XXIII, fig. 6.
[44] P. Schumacher, Smithson. Rep., 1874, p. 349.
[45] Central California, cf. also Moorehead, l. c., p. 259.
[46] P. Schumacher, Bull. l. c., p. 34.
[47] F. W. Putnam, Rep. upon U. S. Geogr. Surveys, l. c., p. 30; Schumacher, Smithson. Rep., 1874, p. 341.
[48] Smithson. Rep., 1874, p. 342.
[49] Putnam, l. c., p. 22; Schumacher, Smithson. Reports, 1874, p. 350.
[50] Yarrow, Introduction to the Study of Mortuary Customs among the North American Indians, 1880, p. 54.
[51] Schoolcraft, Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, 1860, IV, p. 156.
[52] Yarrow, l. c., p. 71.
[53] Bulletin l. c., p. 34.
[54] Art in Shell, pl. XXXII, fig. 2.
[55] W. H. Dall, for instance, found them among other places in shellmounds on the Aleutian Islands (Smithson. Contrib., 1878, No. 318, pl. 10, No. 17261.)