Nos. 11, 12, and 13 are three skeletons in a squatting posture, with no wall around them and unaccompanied by relics of any kind.
Nos. 14 and 15 are two uninclosed skeletons, lying horizontally at full length. With the former some pieces of broken soapstone pipes were found, and with the latter one polished celt.
No. 16, an uninclosed "squatter," of unusually large size, not less than 7 feet high when living. Near the mouth was an uninjured soapstone pipe. The legs were extended in a southwest direction, upon a bed of burnt earth.
The faces of all the squatting skeletons were turned away from the standing central one.
At A was found a considerable quantity of black paint in little lumps, which appear to have been molded in the hull of some nut. At B was a cubical mass of water-worn bowlders, built up solidly and symmetrically, 24 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 18 inches high, but with no bones, specimens of art, coal, ashes, or indications of fire on or around it. Many of the stones of the vaults and the earth immediately around them, on the contrary, bore unmistakable evidences of fire; in fact, the heat in some cases left its mark on the bones of the inclosed skeletons, another indication that the flesh had been removed before burial here, either by previous burial or otherwise.
Scattered through the dirt which filled the pit were small pieces of pottery and charcoal. The bottom, and sides of the pit were so distinctly marked that they could be traced without difficulty.
This mound stood about 75 yards south of the triangular burial pit described below.
The T. F. Nelson triangle.—This is the name applied by Mr. Rogan to an ancient triangular burying ground found on the same farm as the mound just described and about 75 yards north of it.
It is not a mound, but simply a burial pit in the form of a triangle, the two longest sides each 48 feet and the (southern) base 32 feet, in which the bodies and accompanying articles were deposited and then covered over, but not heaped up into a mound; or, if so, it had subsequently settled until on a level with the natural surface of the ground. The apex, which points directly north, was found to extend within 3 feet of the break of the bank of the Yadkin River, the height above the usual water-level being about 12 feet. The depth of the original excavation, the lines of which could be distinctly traced, varied from 2½ to 3 feet. A rude sketch of this triangle, showing the relative positions of the skeletons, is given in [Fig. 26].