In the majority of cases the mounds contain the remains of but one individual, with various relics of a rude and barbarous people. Where but one body was buried, the usual mode of procedure seems to have been to first clear a space on the surface of the ground; the body was then placed in the center of this prepared place, and often a rude framework of timber was placed around it, sometimes a stone chamber was built up. Over this the mound was erected to the desired height. This description would apply to nearly all of the many thousands of burial mounds in the country.
In the cut a layer of charcoal is noticed near the top. Nearly all mounds show evidence of the existence of fire during some period of their construction. In some cases these fires were fierce and long continued, as if the object had been to cremate the body. It may have been a part of their religious belief that it was necessary to keep fires blazing on the mound for a short length of time to keep off evil spirits, or to comfort the soul of the departed. Such at any rate was the custom among some Indian tribes. We are told that among the Iroquois, a “fire was built upon the grave at night to enable the spirit to prepare its food.”25
In some cases, many individuals were buried in the same mound. These may be communal burials, such as we have already referred to. Mounds of this kind have been examined near Nashville, Tennessee. One mound alone was the burial place of over two hundred persons. Pidgeon describes some triangular burial mounds in Minnesota, differing in shape only from the ordinary circular mounds that belong to this division. In general, burial mounds are not very high, yet there are exceptions to this rule.
This cut represents one of the largest of these mounds. It is situated at the junction of Grave Creek and the Ohio River, twelve miles below Wheeling, in West Virginia. It measures seventy feet in height, and its base is nearly one thousand feet in circumference. An excavation made from the top downward, and from one side of the base to the center, disclosed the fact that the mound contained two sepulchral chambers, one at the base and one near the center of the mound. These chambers had been constructed of logs, and covered with stone. The lower chamber contained two skeletons, one of which is supposed to have been a female. The upper chamber contained but one skeleton. In addition to these, there were found a great number of shell beads, ornaments of mica, and bracelets of copper.26