Hale County 7 Foot Six
MUSEUM PARTY DISCOVERS MANY ANCIENT GRAVES
Burial-Rites Of Moundsmen Revealed By Excavation Of Mounds; One Skeleton Seven Feet And Six Inches Tall. THOUGHT BURIED 1,000 TO 5,000 YEARS AGO
Numerous Pots, Pipes, Beads, Stones, Copper Ornaments And Animal Effigies Also Found Interred With Bodies
(BY JEROME SCHWEITZER) University News Bureau
Some 400 skeletons, the sizes of which vary from unborn infants to male adults, buried between 1,000 and 5,000 years ago, have been uncovered at the Indian mounds at Moundville by the Alabama Museum of Natural History. From his offices at the University of Alabama, Director Walter B. Jones of the Museum announced that one skeleton measured seven feet, six inches in height.
Excavation Work Nears End
The museum party, headed by Director Jones and Curator William L. Haltom and consisting of David de Jarnette, assistant curator, and Carl T. Jones, topographer, is completing its first period of excavations. The party is digging in an area recently purchased by the Museum and which has been designated as Mound Park.
In addition to the remains of 400 skeletons, the excavation party has uncovered from the mounds hundreds of valuable artifacts.
Director Jones announces that among the group of artifacts, 150 pots of various kinds, four pipes, 10 stone disks, one copper pendant, six copper ear plugs, about 75 bone awls or piercing instruments, 100 discoidal stones, some made of igneous rocks brought in from other localities, and thousands of shell beads ranging from one and a half inches in length to very minute objects. Many of the beads were spool-shaped, barrel-shaped, some discoidal, and others irregular.
All skeletons unearthed with bones strong enough to be preserved have been brought to the Museum. Most of the large skeletons brought out were found in the vicinity of Mound “O,” Dr. Jones said. The majority of these measured six feet or more in height, while others were even taller.
All of the graves from which the skeletons were taken were earthen except one, which was a very fine type of stone burial box, which is so prominent in Tennessee and Kentucky.
As a whole, all teeth were in remarkably sound condition. Very few cavities were noted. However, some of the older people had many teeth missing.
- The race of Indians residing on (Continued On Page Twenty)
- Cecelia Hall, New Giant Reports, Google Earth.
- the tuscaloosa news, 25 february 1930 pg 1