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Urn-Burial in Central Alabama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Peter A. Brannon*
Affiliation:
Alabama Anthropological Society, Montgomery, Alabama

Extract

The custom of burying the dead in earthenware vessels, or more briefly, urn-burial, was widely distributed throughout the world. Before the coming of the Europeans the Indians living in what is now the state of Alabama practiced this custom extensively, for records of urn-burial exist from a number of archaeological sites in central Alabama along the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers and their tributaries. For many years there have been reports of the finding of human bones in pots by farmers during plowing or while examining recently eroded banks of streams. In 1884 Dr. Edward Palmer made a report upon such finds to the Smithsonian Institution.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1938

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References

197 This paper is based upon information secured from the notes and material which several members of the Alabama Anthropological Society, especially Dr. R. P. Burke,have placed at the disposal of the author.