In 1883 the Smithsonian Institution excavated the South Charleston Creel (Criel) Mound and found remains of an elaborate burial tomb, 13 skeletons, and many artifacts dating to about 500-100 B.C. The top of the mound had already been leveled to 33 feet to build a judge' stand for horse racing. Excavation began by sinking a 12-foot-wide shaft through the center of the mound, with finds discovered all along the way. In the upper burial area at 4' depth, two skeletons lay face up on a bed of mixed clay and ash, with heads to the south and feet toward the mound's center, and near their heads were two celts, two stone hoes, a projectile point, and two stone disks. At the base of the mound at 24'-31' depth was a master tomb, 16' wide and 7' high, with a conical roof and timber sides built of logs, poles, animal bones split lengthwise, and bark. Its floor was lined with elm bark and covered with a thick layer of cleaned, fine, white hickory-wood ashes, on which a central body was placed under similar bark with head facing north. Copper headdress remnants, six shell beads, and a large flint lance remained with this body. On each side lay five others, similarly bark wrapped and arranged in two semi-circles with their feet facing the center individual, not quite touching. Each skeleton on the east side had a fine new lance head, and the northernmost also had a fish dart, three projectile points, and mussel shells, while nothing was found with those on the west. A smaller clay conical vault, 5' wide and 4' deep, containing decayed wood, bark, and human and other bones, extended two feet below the natural ground surface. Beneath its basin-shaped bottom were two blue clay lined holes, each storing a flint spearhead, and elaborate channels connected these holes to similar pairs of holes beside each head of the ten surrounding skeletons.