https://doi.org/10.4081/jbr.2005.10181
Transitory mummies: hopewell tombs and the conservation of the dead
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Many Eastern North American Indians practiced secondary burial, and a wide variety of beliefs were attached to the stages of decomposition of the corpse. Evidence is presented for protracted corpse manipulation at the Lawrence Gay Mounds, Pike County, Illinois. Unfired clay face painting, rearticulation of skeletons, and partial disarticulation of dried corpses were features of mortuary practices at this site. Middle Woodland tombs slowed decomposition, because corpses were protected to such an extent that bodies remained in a mummified state for months or years. Inferences about funeral rites and ritual specialists two thousand years ago are suggested.
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