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| Bundled burial from Horseshoe Caves, as it was found. According to the thesis report by Charles Butler, the AV1 burial contained the loosely flexed body of a child, roughly one year of age, that had been placed on its back on a large twilled mat made of bear grass (Nolina) fibers. "The body was then covered with a large split decorated sacahuisiti [bear grass] fiber basket, and the underlying mat folded over left side first, then right side, followed by the folding over of the ends. The bundle thus formed was then apparently placed in a large netting bag, some fragmemnts of which were still clinging to the bundle at the time of excavation." A large number of grave offerings were included with this bundle, including diamond-shaped and crennelated mussel shell pendants—two resembling projectile points— one of which apparently had been suspended on a cord, and nearly a dozen Olivella shell beads. Two small baskets woven of bear grass, both decorated with alternating rows of red, diamond-shaped designs, also contained in the burial. One, described as a skull cap, had been placed over the child's head; the other placed over its right arm and hand. Interestingly, the large basket covering the body had been destroyed by splitting at the time of the burial. As Butler notes, this may be an example of a "killing" ritual evidenced in graves in the Big Bend and perhaps analgous to the "killed" vessels in graves of the Southwest. TARL Archives. |