American Indian cremation pit found on Ga. island

AP via WRALNews.com ^ | December 19, 2008 | RUSS BYNUM

[NCDragon]

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Exposed by erosion at the edge of a crumbling bluff, the pit discovered beneath 2 feet of sandy dirt at first appeared to be a grave just long and deep enough to bury a human body.

An excavation by archaeologists on Ossabaw Island revealed something more puzzling - just a few small bones, apparently from fingers or toes, mixed with charcoal, bits of burned logs and pottery shards more than 1,000 to 3,000 years old.

The find has led researchers to suspect that American Indians used the ancient pit to burn bodies of the dead, making it a rare example of cremation among the early native inhabitants of the southeastern U.S.

"It's a special sort of burial," said Tom Gresham, an Athens archaeologist who worked on the excavation and serves on Georgia's Council on American Indian Concerns. "The way Indian tribes over time buried their dead varied tremendously. But cremations are fairly rare."

[doodad]

That is cool. Ossabaw is fairly untouched IIRC. Beautiful area, but not surprising that with high groundwater not much choice but cremation.

[stockpirate]

ping

[bert]

It was a beach Barbecue site

[snowsislander]

... apparently from fingers or toes, mixed with charcoal, bits of burned logs and pottery shards more than 1,000 to 3,000 years old.

Too early, then, to be Westo.

[Perdogg]

In El Paso they built a Walmart over a Indian graveyard. I wonder if it is haunted.

[Sacajaweau]

Or...Cannibalism

[org.whodat]

They could just as well have been cooking them!! Damn!!

[SunkenCiv]

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[wolfcreek]

Maybe scraps from magic feast.

http://www.texasindians.com/karank.htm