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Ossuaries on the Delmarva Peninsula and Exotic Influences in the Coastal Aspect of the Woodland Pattern

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

C. A. Weslager
C. A. Weslager*
Affiliation:
Museum of ArchaeologyUniversity of DelawareNewark, Delaware
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Extract

Additional details of a unique burial custom, practiced on the Delmarva Peninsula, have recently come to light. This practice involved preliminary treatment of the remains by bone-scraping and mummification and temporary incarceration in a temple or bone house and, secondarily, the use of an ossuary dug in the earth for the final and permanent disposal of the skeletons. The practice is reported on the Virginia and Maryland mainland and in the Carolinas by early writers. MacLeod has written a comprehensive account of the complex, and Willoughby discusses it in a paper on the Virginia Indians. From the viewpoint of archaeology, Bushnell and Stewart5 have made leading contributions in recording locations and excavations of ossuaries.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , October 1942 , pp. 142 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1942

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