The Carnegie Museum's first excavation, at McKees Rocks Mound in 1896, recovered 33 skeletons. Carnegie Archives have no report, but a Smithsonian scrapbook preserves contemporary clippings that described skeletons as giants, with bone crowns, bracelets and anklets, plus brachycephalic and miniature 'Mexico type' skulls. The video's comparison with K'inich B'alam at Palenque is interpretive, not an established archaeological connection. A Smithsonian file also holds an April 5, 1935 envelope from BYU anthropologist Albert B. Reagan. Historical-marker accounts call the mound Western Pennsylvania's largest Native American burial mound and the Pittsburgh area's only documented excavated mound.
1896 McKees Rocks clippings described 'giant' skeletons and miniature skulls
Site mentioned
📍 McKees Rocks Mound
Key facts
- The Carnegie Museum excavated McKees Rocks Mound in 1896, its first excavation project; historical-marker accounts report that 33 skeletons were recovered.
- Carnegie Archives hold no excavation report, while Smithsonian Archives hold a scrapbook of contemporaneous newspaper clippings.
- The clippings described skeletons as giants wearing bone crowns, bone bracelets, and bone anklets. The cited sources do not independently establish giant skeletal dimensions.
- The clippings described brachycephalic and miniature skulls called 'Mexico type'; that is the period newspaper terminology, not a separately verified osteological classification.
- The video compares the reported bone regalia with depictions of K'inich B'alam in Palenque's Cross Group. The comparison is the video's interpretation, not an established archaeological connection.
- The Smithsonian folder contains an envelope dated April 5, 1935, from Albert B. Reagan, identified with Brigham Young University's Department of Anthropology.
- Historical-marker accounts describe McKees Rocks as the largest Native American burial mound in Western Pennsylvania and as the only documented excavated mound in the Pittsburgh area.
Sources
ExplorePAHistory.com - Imageexplorepahistory.com
Carnegie Museum conducted the first excavation of the McKees Rocks Mound and discovered three construction layers, each of which contained human burials.
McKees Rocks Native American Burial Mound - ReligYinzreligyinz.pitt.edu
The only part of the mound that has been preserved are artifacts recovered when the mound was excavated by the Carnegie Museum in 1896.
How The Ancients Honored The Dead: The McKees Rocks Moundwesanews.org
The McKees Rocks burial mound used to sit atop the bluff overlooking the Ohio River. Humans have lived in the region for close to 16,000 years.
Charlie's Monday Markers ~ Episode 16: McKees Rocks Moundbattleofhomestead.org
THIS episode of “Charlie's Monday Marker” looks at the legacy of Pittsburgh “working-class” sports in 20th-century baseball, football and boxing.THIS episode of ...
Indigenous Series - McKees Rocks Burial Moundfriendsoftheriverfront.org
Today the mound no longer exists. The McKees Rocks mound was excavated by archeologists of the Carnegie Museum in 1896, and the artifacts ...
McKees Rocks Burial Mound - ReligYinzreligyinz.wordpress.com
When the McKees Rocks mound was excavated, 33 bodies were found ... Gerrodette, leader of Carnegie Museum excavation, stands on the mound in 1896.
McKees Rocks Moundexplorehere.app
McKees Rocks Mound is the largest Native American burial mound in Western Pennsylvania, standing 16 feet high and 85 feet wide.
McKees Rocks Mound Historical Markerexplorepahistory.com
Initial excavation of the mound (July or August 1896) – person with long white. zoom. Initial excavation of McKees Rocks Mound, 1896. Judging from the log-lined ...
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