The
fourth question we asked of the Seven Site was whether the hole that we
noticed when we first found the site in 1996 might be where the work party
buried the skull that was later exhumed by Gallagher. We reasoned that a
careful excavation of the hole might provide clues to its purpose and, if
it was really the “skull hole,” meticulous screening of its contents
might even turn up teeth that had become dislodged from the skull in the
process of burying it and digging it up. It was a long shot, but the possibility
of obtaining a DNA sample from a tooth was worth the effort.
As
we excavated the hole it became apparent that its original shape fit the
“skull hole” hypothesis very nicely. It appears there were two
holes – an original hole of fairly small proportions, and a subsequent
larger hole that was not centered over the original one.
Unfortunately, no
teeth were found, but neither can we be certain that we got to the bottom
of the original hole before we ran out of time. |