EXCAVATIONS IN PILLOW MOUNDS AT HIGH BEACH. 217
Mound D.—This was the last mound that we sectioned, but
perhaps partly because one had then had the experience of digging
in several others, it will form the best introduction to their
general character.
The most noteworthy general feature revealed by the section
is the lateral spread of the mound beyond its original contour
This feature was common to all the mounds (except Mound 0)
that we tested, and is sufficiently indicated in the scale drawings.
Although the depth of the ditches was so slight, in all the
mounds their original inner margin (now silted over) was clearer
and more, conspicuous than might have been expected, owing
to the clean finish of the work. In no case was the original
work done in the ordinary manner of digging straight down with
Fig. 2. Section across Mounds D and B.
a spade, but the soil was scraped off on a slope of about 6 inches
to a foot per yard. Upon the outer side of the ditches the
upward slope was much more gradual, and it was difficult
to identify a definite outer margin; the constructors evidently
scraped up the soil as far on either side as they needed to make
the mound.
The north-western sides of the mounds A, B, C, and D were
different. The surface slope is here notably steeper, and less
spread out than usual, and the ditch more conspicuous. Our
trenches showed that a new ditch had been at some time cut
along this side, in the ordinary manner of spade digging, straight
through the floor of the original ditch. The difference in the
method of digging was very marked.
The whole material of Mound D was very greatly disturbed