Existing comment:
Mound 72:
Just 6 feet high, Mound 72 actually covered the site of a marker pole and 3 small mounds built over more than 300 burials. Elaborate rituals accompanied some of the burials, complete with grave treasures and mass human sacrifices. The skeleton of a middle-aged man, probably a chieftain, was found upon a bed of 20,000 shell beads, surrounded by skeletons of 6 of his retainers.
A huge cache of grave goods was found, including arrowheads, beads, mica, and rolls of sheet copper. Another man, possible a chieftain, was buried in another section. More than half of the 300 skeletons found belongs to sacrificed young women -- 53 in one pit alone. In another grave were 4 males without heads or hands, lying with their arms overlapped. |