Abstract

This report provides a site description of the Highwood Burial site in southern Alberta. The burial was that of a young individual, about 10 years old, whose body had been defleshed prior to burial. Interment had been in a small, sub-surface pit excavated into the bank of a high river terrace. The bones had probably been covered with red ochre and placed in a bundle. Also placed with the burial were grave goods consisting of a Pelican Lake projectile point, several other lithic tools, eleven perforated grizzly bear claws, several dozen perforated bison teeth, freshwater calm shell beads, a piece of native copper, and several exotic marine shells. A radiocarbon date indicates that the burial took place some 2,725 years ago. The Highwood site is compared with a number of other burial sites from the northern Plains, and it is concluded that a systematic manner of interring the dead was practiced in this region during the later part of the Middle Prehistoric Period. The most common, and potentially diagnostic, traits of this burial pattern are presented.