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Collective Burial in Late Prehistoric Virginia: Excavation and Analysis of the Rapidan Mound

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gary H. Dunham ,
Debra L. Gold  and
Jeffrey L. Hantman
Gary H. Dunham
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska Press, University of Nebraska, 312 North 14th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588
Debra L. Gold
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, St. Cloud State University, 720 4th Avenue South, St. Cloud, Minnesota 56301
Jeffrey L. Hantman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 100 Brooks Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903
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Abstract

Recent excavation and analysis of the remaining section of the endangered Rapidan Mound site (44OR1) in the central Virginia Piedmont provide new insights into a unique complex of burial mounds in the Virginia interior. Known since Thomas Jefferson's eighteenth-century description, the mounds are both earth and stone and accretional earthen mounds. Thirteen are recorded, all dating to the late prehistoric and early contact era (ca. A.D. 900-1700). Typically containing few artifacts, the accretional mounds are unusual in North America in the numbers of individuals interred, more than one thousand in at least two cases, and in the nature of the secondary, collective burial ritual that built up the mounds over centuries. Following a review of the characteristics of the mound complex, we focus on the Rapidan Mound and the analysis of the collective, secondary burial features in the mound. Precise provenience information and bioarchaeological analyses of two large and intact collective burial features provide new information on health and diet, and several lines of evidence for demographic reconstruction. Finally, we discuss the mortuary ritual conducted at the mounds within the cultural and historical context of the region.

Résumé

Résumé

Excavaciones y análisis recientes de la sección restante del sitio del Monticulo Rapidan (44OR1) que está en peligro en Virginia Piedmont central provee nueva información sobre un complejo sistema de sepulturas en montí culos en el interior de Virginia. Conocidos desde la descripción que hiciera Thomas Jefferson en el sigh dieciocho, los montículos están formados por tierra y piedras y montículos de barro. Se han registrado trece, todos de fechas de los últimos años prehispánicos y primeros momentos de contacto (ca. 900-1700 DC). Típicamente, estos montículos que contienen pocos artefactos no son muy comunes en Norte América en cuanto al numero de individuos enterrados, en dos casos mas de mil, y en cuanto a la naturaleza de los rituales colectivos secundarios de los entierros que dan forma a los montículos a través de los siglos. Después de una revisión de las características del complejo de montí culos, concentramos nuestra atención en el Monticulo Rapidan y en el aná lisis de los rasgos secundarios de las sepulturas colectivas en el montí culo. Informacion precisa del origen y el analisis bioarqueologico de dos elementos intactos de sepulturas colectivas nos permiten obtener mayor informacion tanto en las áreas de la salud y dietas como en varias diferentes líneas de reconstrucción demográfica. Finalmente, discutimos el ritual mortuorio realizado en los montículos dentro del contexto histórico y cultural de la región.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 68 , Issue 1 , January 2003 , pp. 109 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2003

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