V / Disposal of the Dead

Abstract

Somewhat more than 221 burials have been recovered from Mogollon sites which can be assigned to the periods covered by this study. The precise number cannot be given, nor is it important other than as an index to the validity of our reconstruction of the burial customs represented.Burials of Mogollon 1 have been found at Cave Creek, Chiricahua:3:25, San Simon, SU, Bluff, Crooked Ridge Village, and Tularosa Cave. At Cave Creek two burials, flexed on the side, occurred in pits cut through the floor of an abandoned pithouse; a third, that of an infant, came from a shallow pit outside the house. Two additional burials, an infant and an adult, were placed in shallow depressions in the silt at Chiricahua:3:25. None of these burials, all Penasco Phase, contained grave furniture. Numerical data are not available on Penasco Phase burials at San Simon Village, but according to Sayles (1945:62-64) the body was commonly flexed on the side and placed in a pit sometimes cut through the house floor, but usually outside the house.