Page:Anthropology.djvu/136

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MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY.
135

ses a place of interment. The graves are not in groups, nor arranged according to any plan—sometimes in level loam soil, though sandy elevations seem to have been preferred.

Usually each grave contains the remains of one individual, though, in some cases, those of several have been found near each other. No burial posture is distinctly indicated. Bones, soft, crumbling, and broken, are found. The graves are not more than 3 feet deep. No evidence of artificial preservation of bodies exists, though there is a hint of cremation in the frequent occurrence of charcoal among the bones, which, however, are not plainly calcined.

Spear and arrow heads have been found cached. I have in my possession a find of fourteen flint arrow heads, averaging about two and a half inches in length, and most of them perfect These heads were found at East Windsor Hill, on my father's farm, about 30 rods from Connecticut River, in a sand knoll, about two feet under ground, associated with a little charcoal and sooty sand. A fragment of a small and remarkably thin soapstone cup was found near them; nothing else. They came to light in consequence of the digging of a roadway through the knoll.

Another similar find was made this spring in this town (South Windsor), not far from the line of Connecticut Central Railroad, about midway between South Windsor and Bast Windsor Hill stations, near a brook, in low ground. The cache was opened in plowing, though the plowman did not notice it. Some boys afterward found flint spear heads among the furrows, and dug up the ground, and took out about one hundred heads, each between two and four inches in length, many whole, some broken. There was a scramble among the boys to procure them, and the collection was scattered beyond recovery before it came to the notice of any person interested to preserve it entire.

Arrow heads in unusual numbers are found on sand hills, brought to the surface by rains and winds; and in the same places it is common to find flat and sharp angular chips of flint and quartz, such as are not found in our sand elsewhere. These are suggestive pf the manufacture of arrow and spear points at those localities.

Fragments of clay pottery are common; but there is nothing by which places of manufacture can be located.

Some items of value may be gleaned from the "Connecticut Historical Collections," published by John Warner Barber, New Haven and Hartford, 1836. For instance, "In the south part of the town" (East Windsor, now this town of South Windsor)," where Podunk River crosses the road to Hartford, was an Indian burying ground. A few years since a number of skeletons were discovered, by digging from one to four feet. These skeletons were found lying on one side, knees drawn up to the breast, arms folded, with their heads to the south. A covering of bark seems to have been laid over them, with some few remains of blankets: in one instance a small brass kettle and hatchet