. Bulletin. Ethnology. 36 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 130 but the general practice governing placing of the corpse seems quite clear. As regards direction of the skull with reference to the trunk 20 burials were indeterminate. The orientation of the remaining. / Figure 6.—Orientation of 15 burials at Buena Vista site 1. 15 is shown in the accompanying diagram (fig. 6) which indicates a possibly insignificant preference for a general northeasterly or south- westerly placement of the head. Burial 1, an adult male, lay in a fairly well defined and appar- ently dug grave pit. Stones were f
. Bulletin. Ethnology. 36 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 130 but the general practice governing placing of the corpse seems quite clear. As regards direction of the skull with reference to the trunk 20 burials were indeterminate. The orientation of the remaining. / Figure 6.—Orientation of 15 burials at Buena Vista site 1. 15 is shown in the accompanying diagram (fig. 6) which indicates a possibly insignificant preference for a general northeasterly or south- westerly placement of the head. Burial 1, an adult male, lay in a fairly well defined and appar- ently dug grave pit. Stones were found about No. 4, and there were also a few with No. 11. No. 5, skeleton of a child, lay partly in a subelliptical steatite bowl with a smaller hemispherical vessel of the same material near the knees (pi. 8, a). Beneath the larger vessel were traces of tule and asphaltum, possibly remains of a grave lining. The pit containing these remains was 27 inches in diameter, and its bottom lay 63 inches below the mound surface. There were two instances of multiple burial. Burials 25 and 26, an adult female and a child, respectively, were found at a depth of 36 inches in square 61/36, with the former partly overlying the latter (pi. 7, h). Nos. 29 and 30 were near the northerly end of the shell heap, 40 inches deep in square 42/37. Both were flexed and each lay on its left side; heads were at opposite ends of the grave so that the bodies faced each other. A few fragments of asphaltum were found in this grave. Artifacts were generally absent. Aside from those incidentally noted above, there was a spear point under the left scapula of No. 3 (adult male ?); a shell bead with No. 15; traces of textile and two broken projectile points with No. 22; a projectile point with No. 25; traces of asphaltum on No. 27; a bone bead with No. 28. In summary, the shell heap yielded surprisingly little information on burial practices, and it may be inferred that only a very small proportion of its inhabi
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