A phenomenon in the region I currently work in with the Mississippian culture is the use of the “stone box grave.” Essentially, when a person dies, the relatives place the body in a kind of “coffin” made made of large flat stones on all, or mostly all, sides. Within, there are sometimes grave goods, such as pottery vessels. Perhaps this is a way of ensuring the dead have something to store water or food in for the afterlife. Perhaps these are sacrificed goods in honor of the dead.
The Wikipedia entry for stone box graves says that grave goods often accompanied the dead, but at least one source I read elsewhere seemed to indicate that grave goods were not so frequent.
Sometimes the dead were laid in the box in a flexed position, but often they were extended. Often these graves were associated with mounds, but not always. And not all who died were interred in this fashion. Sometimes the stone boxes were re-used, with the previously interred’s bones disarticulated and moved aside for the newly deceased.
One thing is for sure, looters in search of grave goods were proficient at locating these graves on the landscape. Many of the known stone box grave sites in and around the forest I work on were looted in the recent past, definitely as recent as the 1970s. But these sites are known within the collector communities of the regions they’re in -once looted, their locations, if protected by resource stewards, are now also protected as “good hunting spots” for artifacts.
Recently, a colleague and I had the opportunity to visit the location of a looted stone box grave site that is very, very near our Forest. It was public land with public access, so I’ll not be sharing the location information. In fact, the geotag references from the EXIF section of the metadata in the photos have been stripped.
The site was interesting, very near a modern reservoir but it would have been near the Cumberland river confluence with a seasonal or perhaps permanent stream. Other federally hired archaeologists were on the site nearly a decade ago, doing shovel tests and determining the extent of the site and what was left after years of looting. So we weren’t expecting to find artifacts. We were more interested in the lay of the land for comparative purposes.
Arriving at the former locations of the graves, we began seeing decade old flagging tape and, eventually, heavy steel rods for datums. Then we noticed the armadillo burrows. Nature’s little shovel testers! In the dirt removed from the burrows, we found many, many shards of shell tempered pottery and broken flakes, some showing use. All the kind of stuff looters disregard. They like the whole pots and intact “arrowheads” (though most are decidedly not arrowheads.
It was an interesting walk in the woods. Now, if we can only find this sort of site, untouched by looters, on our Forest.
"Kama ilivyo kwa ""kibanda cha mawe"" katika eneo la Mississippi, watu wa familia ya mtu huweka maiti katika kaburi la mawe ya mviringo kwenye pande zote." Ndani yake, nyakati nyingine kuna vitu vya makaburi, kama vile vyombo vya udongo. Labda hii ni njia ya kuhakikisha wafu wana kitu cha kuhifadhi maji au chakula kwa ajili ya maisha ya baada ya kifo. Labda hizo ni bidhaa zilizotolewa dhabihu kwa heshima ya wafu. "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika Wikipedia, ""kibanda cha mawe"" kilikuwa na ""vitu vya makaburi"" ambavyo vilikuwa vinaambatana na wafu, lakini angalau chanzo kimoja nilichosoma mahali pengine kilionekana kuonyesha kwamba vitu vya makaburi havikuwa vya kawaida." Nyakati nyingine wafu waliwekwa ndani ya sanduku hilo wakiwa wamepindika, lakini mara nyingi walikuwa wamepandishwa. Mara nyingi makaburi hayo yalihusianishwa na vilima, lakini si sikuzote. Na si wote waliokufa waliozikwa kwa njia hiyo. Nyakati nyingine masanduku ya mawe yalitumiwa tena, mifupa ya wale waliozikwa hapo awali ikivunjwa vipande-vipande na kuhamishwa kando kwa ajili ya wale waliokufa hivi karibuni. Jambo moja ni hakika, waporaji waliotafuta vitu vya makaburi walikuwa na ustadi wa kupata makaburi hayo katika eneo hilo. Sehemu nyingi za makaburi ya mawe yaliyo ndani na karibu na msitu ambao ninafanya kazi juu yake zilitekwa nyara katika siku za hivi karibuni, hakika kama za hivi karibuni kama miaka ya 1970. Lakini maeneo haya yanajulikana ndani ya jamii za wakusanyaji wa mikoa wanayoishi - mara moja walipokuwa wakichukuliwa, maeneo yao, ikiwa yanalindwa na wasimamizi wa rasilimali, sasa pia yanalindwa kama "mahali pazuri pa kuwinda" kwa vitu vya kale. Hivi karibuni, mimi na wenzangu tulikuwa na fursa ya kutembelea eneo la kaburi la sanduku la mawe lililoporwa ambalo liko karibu sana na Msitu wetu. Ilikuwa ardhi ya umma na upatikanaji wa umma, hivyo mimi si kuwa kushiriki habari ya eneo. Kwa kweli, marejeo ya geotag kutoka sehemu ya EXIF ya metadata katika picha zimeondolewa. Sehemu hiyo ilikuwa ya kuvutia, karibu sana na hifadhi ya maji ya kisasa lakini ingekuwa karibu na makutano ya mto Cumberland na mkondo wa msimu au labda wa kudumu. Wataalamu wengine wa vitu vya kale waliochaguliwa na serikali walikuwa katika eneo hilo karibu miaka kumi iliyopita, wakifanya vipimo vya jembe na kuamua kiwango cha eneo hilo na kile kilichobaki baada ya miaka ya uporaji. Kwa hiyo hatukutazamia kupata vitu vya kale. Tulipendezwa zaidi na mpangilio wa ardhi kwa ajili ya kulinganisha. Tulipofika kwenye maeneo ya zamani ya makaburi, tulianza kuona mkanda wa kuweka alama wa miaka kumi na, hatimaye, vijiti vikubwa vya chuma kwa ajili ya tarehe. Kisha tukatambua mapango ya armadillo. Watafiti wadogo wa shoveli wa asili! Katika udongo uliotolewa kwenye mashimo, tulipata vipande vingi vya vyombo vya udongo vilivyotengenezwa kwa makombora na vipande vilivyovunjika, ambavyo vilionyesha matumizi. Ni aina ya vitu ambavyo waporaji hupuuza. Wao kama sufuria nzima na intact <unk>arrowheads<unk> (ingawa wengi ni dhahiri si arrowheads. Ilikuwa ni kutembea ya kuvutia katika msitu. Sasa, kama tu tunaweza kupata aina hii ya tovuti, untouched na waporaji, juu ya Msitu wetu.