BURIAL DESCRIPTIONS
The osteological analysis of the skeletal remains found in [Appendix I] is by the junior author and Clark Larsen. The descriptions to follow will focus on the cultural nature of the burials.
Burial 1. This is an adult male. The body was extended and oriented on a northeast-southwest axis with the head northeast. Although a vessel was found in the same square as the burial, it is thought that it belongs to Burial 4. One projectile point was found just east of the neck. Due north by about one foot was a biface chopper/scraper. These artifacts may be associated with this burial (Figs. [2] and [3]).
Figure 1. Floodplain of the Missouri River with locations of 23SA4 Gumbo Point site, 23SA162W Utlaut site, and 23SA162 Cole Lake Sand Ridge site.
Figure 2. Test excavations at the Utlaut site, 23SA162W, with Detail “A” showing the burials.
BURIAL 6 Pot BURIAL 2 Child’s skull Pot Shell Spoon BURIAL 3 Scraper BURIAL 4 Pot Biface BURIAL Projectile point Bundled bones
Figure 3. Burial 1, 23SA162W. View is toward northeast.
The projectile point is triangular, of tan-cream chert and is 3.1 cm. long, 1.44 cm. wide and 0.25 cm. thick ([Fig. 4]a). It is a typical Mississippian/Oneota point. The biface was cream colored with cortex present. There is a scraper edge on the long axis on one side ([Fig. 4]b). It is 14.0 cm. long, 9.9 cm. wide, and 3.1 cm. thick.
One of the most interesting aspects of this 35+ year old male burial is the possible “trophy” skeletal materials placed on the knee area. Remains of three persons and possibly a fourth were found in a fragmentary condition, and while some of the long bones were intact, the cranial remains present were shattered. Two explanations seem most obvious: (1) the remains are the result of some type of human sacrifice, or (2) they are secondary burial of remains disturbed from their original location. These ideas will be more fully explored later in the paper.
Burial 2. The skeletal material recovered from this burial was very fragmentary and the actual number of individuals involved could be three rather than the two suggested in the anatomical analysis. No complete skeleton was found, rather a series of jumbled long bones with the femur head facing southwest (Figs. [2] and [5]), suggesting an extended burial on a northeast-southwest axis. At the knee area was found a skull which showed evidence of burning. This data, even more than that of Burial 1, suggests “human sacrifice” or some such exotic behavior. Because some of the long bones were burnt too, it is possible the firing occurred as a part of the burial ritual. At the northeastern end of the burial was found a child’s skull; its relationship to the adult is unclear at this time.
Also associated with Burial 2 was a ceramic vessel and a fresh water mollusc spoon ([Fig. 6]a-b). The spoon was very fragile and crumbled on cleaning. The vessel was a small globular jar with an everted rim and two strap handles. On the shoulder of the vessel below the handles were incised double nestled chevrons, while two single incised lines ran vertically from neck to base between the handles ([Fig. 6]a). The handles had double incised lines on them. The vessel was shell tempered with a slight scalloping of the lip. It was 7.63 cm. high, the orifice was 6.27 and 6.07 cm. in diameter, while the shoulder was 9.95 and 9.5 cm. in diameter. The vessel seems to be a typical Oneota form.
Burial 3. This burial was extended with head to the northeast and body on a northeast-southwest axis ([Fig. 7]). It was a child’s, and the only grave goods associated with it was a chert scraper ([Fig. 4]c). It was found south of the pelvic area. It is cream chert, is 3.39 cm. long, 1.78 cm. wide and 0.6 cm. thick. Anterioral and posterioral flattening of the frontal and occipital region is marked on this individual’s skull.
Burial 4. The burial when found was highly fragmentary; the legs are all that remain. No artifacts were found with it. Alignment of the legs indicates that the head was to the northeast and the body was on a northeast-southwest axis. However, in the process of analyzing these data it was discovered that by projecting the former location of the missing head and torso, this burial seems to be associated with the isolated pot from square 0-40W. As figures [2] and [8] show, the vessel would have been placed beside the left shoulder.
Figure 4. Artifacts recovered from the Utlaut site, 23SA162W: a. triangular un-notched projectile point, Burial 1; b. Biface chopper/scraper, Burial 1; c. scraper, Burial 3.
Figure 5. Burial 2, 235A162W. View is toward northeast.
Figure 6. Top and side views of vessels recovered at the Utlaut site, 23SA162W: a-b Burial 2; c-d Burial 4.
Figure 7. Burial 3, 23SA162W. View is toward the south. Burial 4 is to the left.
This oval-shaped vessel has 14 rows of punctations running around the whole surface. There are two strap handles each with two incised lines placed vertical to the rim ([Fig. 6]c-d). The rim has been damaged by the plow. Orifice size is 8.21 cm. at the handles and 7.7 cm. between them. It is 12.36 by 13.2 cm. at the shoulder and 8.15 cm. high (incomplete).
Vessels with similar extensive all-over punctation are reported from the Lower Mississippi River Valley and called Parkin Punctated (Phillips, Ford and Griffin 1951:Fig. 94). But a vessel with extensive punctation over the upper two-thirds of it, with some zoned punctates in parallel lines below the handles, has been reported from Gumbo Point (23SA4), an historic Missouri site about a mile and a quarter to the northeast (Chapman 1959:Fig. 36).
Henning (1970) does not report such a design from the Utz site nor other nearby Oneota sites. This tempts one to suggest the vessel has stronger affinities to the historic Missouri than to the Oneota component nearby.
Burial 5. These highly fragmentary remains probably belong with the child in Burial 2. They were found in the northeast corner of square 5N-50W which is just north of the area of the child’s skull in Burial 2.
Burial 6. This individual was interred in a different pattern from the others. It was semi-flexed with the head and shoulders slumped forward and down as if the burial pit was not large enough to hold him (Figs. [2] and [9]). Rodents had run through the chest area and gnawed some of the bone.
Grave goods consisted of a whole vessel and glass trade beads. The vessel, which was at his knee, was a globular jar having two strap handles with four incised lines running vertically from the rim, and double nestled chevrons below them. The chevron was filled with narrow-line, incised punctates ([Fig. 10]a-b). The rim was damaged. The vessel is 10.5 by 11.7 cm. at the orifice, 16.3 by 18.0 cm. at the shoulder and 12.8 cm. high, making it slightly oval in shape.
Two kinds of beads were found. One was a “seed” bead ca. 0.18 cm. in diameter with a 0.05 cm. hole. There were 202 of these found in the sand around the head and shoulders. They may have been in the hair. All were turquoise in color. The second kind included three larger specimens—two turquoise blue and one black. The blue were 0.66 x 0.84 cm., 0.8 x 0.75 cm. and 0.82 x 0.63 cm. in diameter and length. The first had a 0.2 cm. hole and the others 0.18 cm. The black was 0.58 x 0.58 cm. with a 0.12 cm. hole. These beads were found in the area of the left wrist.
These materials are historic trade goods, and are not significantly different from those at Gumbo Point (Chapman 1959) or at the Utz site (Robert T. Bray, personal communication). Although these materials could be the result of English or even American trading activities, it is thought they are French, for the following reasons.
Figure 8. Burial 4 23SA162W. View is toward the southwest. The skull of Burial 3 is in the right hand corner.
Figure 9. View of Burial 6, 23SA162W. View is toward the north.
Figure 10. Top and side view of vessel recovered with Burial 6 at the Utlaut site, 23SA162W.
It is probable that this individual was a member of the Gumbo Point late Missouri village which may date 1727-1777 A.D. (Chapman 1959:63). This village was very near Fort Orleans which dates 1723-1728 A.D. (Bray 1961a:216-219). At the same time, this burial is associated with others which have no trade goods and apparently are completely prehistoric. Therefore, one could argue that the body was interred at the time of the proto-historic-historic boundary for that village. That boundary would be about 1727 A.D. if Chapman’s (1959:2) assumed dating of the beginning of the village following the abandonment of the Utz site is correct.
However, it could be argued that Burial 6 had nothing to do with the Oneota burials with it, and that the body could date as late as 1777 A.D. But for that to be so, we would have to assume it was just chance that of the several old beaches in that field this Indian was placed right in an earlier burial area. Rather, it seems more reasonable to have the cemetery area known and indeed the burials marked, so that the interment could take place without disturbing them.
Whether the Missouri Indians marked their graves cannot be stated, as no data on their mortuary practices are known. We do know that the Winnebago placed a post at the head of a grave (Radin 1923:144), and as the Missouri and Winnebago are both Chiwere Sioux, it is possible that this is an old shared trait. If this is so, and if the 1727 A.D. dating is correct, the trade goods are probably French as they were extremely active in this area at this early date.