Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 3

The Armstrong Mound on Rainy River, Ontario

by Walter A. Kenyon

Burials

Two of the four burials associated with the mound were multiple secondary burials. None contained grave furniture. In addition to the three burials listed below (Fig. 4), parts of a disturbed intrusive burial were found in the northwest quadrant, very near the surface. This burial was so fragmentary that it is worthy of no comment beyond the fact that it was probably a flexed burial.

Burial No. 1

Burial No. 1, a multiple secondary burial, contained the disarticulated skeletons of six individuals, four adults and two children. Like all the bones from the site, the bones from Burial No. 1 had suffered very seriously from post mortem erosion and decay. Almost all of the articular surfaces were missing from the long bones, and the diaphyses themselves were soft and flexible. This condition of the bones at the site is difficult to explain, since the soil, with a pH of 7, is neither acid nor alkaline.

All of the bones from this burial were examined for evidence of gnawing, as this is frequently found on bones when the body has been placed on a scaffold at death. None was found. Cut-marks, suggestive of dismembering, were found, however, on the costal surface of a left scapula, and on the distal end of a right humerus.

Of the adults, two were at least 45 years old, and probably males. Neither age nor sex of the other two could be determined. The children were aged about 6 and 13. The bones were thoroughly mixed together, and appear to have been liberally sprinkled with powdered hematite prior to their burial, as the hematite appears on all surfaces, not just the upper surfaces of the bones. The four adults were all seriously afflicted with arthritis.

Burial No. 2

The second burial was that of a child aged about 5 years. This skeleton, the only primary burial in the mound, was tightly flexed, lying on its left side and heading northeast.

Burial No. 3

Like Burial No. 1, this was a multiple, secondary burial. Unlike the first, however, this grave contained four bundle burials, placed side by side, with the long bones oriented in a north-south direction. The bundles contained the bones of three adults, probably in their thirties or forties, and one younger person about 14 or 16 years old. In addition to the four discreet bundles, the grave also contained scattered bones of two children aged about three and six.

A peculiarity of this burial was the presence of a vivid, purple pigment on a number of the bones. Analysis showed this to be a mechanical mixture of two sizes of hematite particles. The finely divided particles were red ochre, while the coarser black crystalline particles were hematite.