Variation in mortuary practices of the East St. Louis Mound Complex

East St. Louis Mound Complex excavations have identified burials in a variety of ritual contexts. These remains demonstrate significant variation in mortuary treatments from the Terminal Late Woodland to Early Mississippian periods. Human remains have been recovered from post pits, prehistoric borrow pits, a previously unidentified mound, as well as in isolated burial features and discrete burial clusters. The mortuary practices represented within East St. Louis Mound Complex are consistent with other contemporaneous examples from the American Bottom. The wide diversity in the treatment of dead will be explored as it relates to available demographic and taphonomic characteristics of the remains.