Life and Death at the East St. Louis Mound Complex

Analysis of the burials and isolated human remains identified at the East St. Louis Mound Complex provide a unique perspective on mortuary practices practiced by the inhabitants of this large mound center from the Terminal Late Woodland through the Early Mississippian periods. Using a combination of archaeological contextual information and skeletal analysis, we discuss the significance of isolated human elements and burials in domestic contexts as well as the deliberate place-ment of select elements or burials in ritual contexts such as post pits, prehistoric borrow pits, a previously unidentified mound, and discrete burial clusters. The mor-tuary practices represented are consistent with other contemporaneous examples from the American Bottom, and reflect a wide diversity in the treatment of dead.