Remarks on the Prone Burial Position in China and North America

Abstract

Some ten years ago Dr. Herrlee Glessner Creel in his Studies in Early Chinese Culture discussed briefly the four Shang period burials (Nos. 18.2, 18.3, 18.4, 18.S) excavated at Anyang in 1929. The unusual position of the skeletons (lying fully extended on the face) intrigued the Chinese archaeologists of the National Research Institute, and they made inquiries about parallels elsewhere. All their queries drew blanks, and their conclusion therefore was that this burial posture was unique and had never been recorded in the literature prior to 1930. More recently Li Chi has treated these four burials in greatest detail, and of them he says, “As far as can be determined, these four instances [of prone burials] in China are unique in the world.“In October, 1938 after reading Dr. Creel's Studies, I wrote to him and described the prone (or as we call them, ventrally extended) burials of the Early Central Cali-. fornia culture horizon and sent a photograph of one such interment. This information apparently was not communicated farther by Dr. Creel, judging from Li Chi's printed article of more recent date.