31 101 1 A The three largest of the Hopewell burial mounds at Norton lie parallel to the Grand River, with fourteen smaller mounds laid out in an arc around them.
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4 103 3 A Mound M cross section.
5 102 3 B Traces of a rectangular structure built of wooden posts that may have been a charnel house (chamber for storing bones). This was demolished before the mound was constructed.
32 101 4 A The upper portion of the mound was made up of light sandy loam soil in which were sherds of Hopewell pottery showing that the soil came from around the mound builders' settlement. It was constructed immediately after the cap was built. An elk scapula found beneath the cap may have been used as a shovel.
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14 103 6 A Burial 3, was accompanied by pots, mussels spoons, turkey bone awls, bird claws and bones, flint flakes and two mussel shells cut in the shape of bear teeth.6 dishes of turtle shell with a set of 6 flint points.
15 103 6 B Burial 8 is a young woman, placed in the grave at the foot of burial 3 as a bundle of bones. With her were a conch shell vessel, a deer bone pin, a small pot containing three engraved turtle shells and something which may have been a pine cone.
19 103 6 C Awls (piercing tools) of turkey bone and a necklace of shell beads.
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12 102 6 D A container made from a Busycon shell.
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9 102 6 E Decorated Norton pots accompanied some of the burials.
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18 102 6 F The incomplete remains of two children lay between burials 2 and 3, accompanied by a number of turkey bone awls, a bear tooth and a bear claw, a sheet of mica (a shiny, laminated stone), some fish bones and a broken fish hook, jaws of eagle and merlin, a conch shell vessel, a pot and a mussel spoon.
17 102 6 G About half the skeleton of burial 2 was present. With it were seven pieces of elk antler, twelve beaver incisors, a turtle shell dish, a hammerstone and a grindstone, perhaps representing a set of tools and the material they were being used to work on.
16 104 6 H Turkey bones used as awls (piercing tools) and stone tools.
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10 101 6 I Most of the unusual grave goods are associated with burials 2 and 3. Unlike other mounds in the Norton complex this mound contained no copper artefacts or pipes.
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8 101 6 K Most of the bones of burial 1, a man aged 40-45 years, were present. Like many of the burials, his skull was artifically flattened in infancy. Three very fragmentary baby burials were placed beside him. A number of pots, shell beads and turtle shell dishes were found in the area around them.
11 102 6 L A mussel shell spoon and a shell used as a container.
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40 101 6 M Burial 5, a young man represented only by skull fragments, was accompanied by a dish made from a turtle shell as well as the usual grave goods of mussel spoon, bone awls and flint chips
41 101 6 N Burial 6, a man aged about 20, is the only individual whose skeleton is virtually complete. This shows the mound was constructed shortly after his death and burial. His grave goods included a mussel shell spoon, flint chips and two awls made of turkey bones, typical offerings with burials in this mound cemetery.
42 101 6 O A floor of puddled yellow silt was constructed over the scraped surface and a series of parallel trenches, wooden poles and bark slabs were laid out over it.
60 101 6 P Burial 3 was an old man over 60 who had suffered from arthritis and dental abscesses. A small plaque of bone had been cut away from his skull, for some unknown reason. Most of his bones were scattered, showing that some time had elapsed between his burial here and the construction of the mound.
47 102 6 Q Stone arrowheads.
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-1 101 1 Z These burial mounds, found on the Grand River in the state of Michigan, belong to a branch of the Hopewell culture - the Goodall Hopewell. This group is outstanding, both for its burial customs and for the exchange networks that traded raw materials and finished artifacts over vast areas of North America. Trade networks united hunter-gatherers with societies that regularly cultivated a variety of plants including native tobacco.
