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CERTAIN 


ABORIGINAL   REMAINS 


OF   THE 


ALABAMA  RIVER. 


BY 


CLARENCE  B.  MOORE. 


REPRINT   FROM  THE  JOURNAL  OF  THE   ACADEMY   OF    NATURAL 

SCIENCES   OF    PHILADELPHIA,   VOLUME   XI. 

PHILADELPHIA,   1899. 


">ve*sm  ' 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

P.  C.  STOCKHAUSEN, 

53-55  N.  7th  St., 
1899. 


PCtAIEOBNt 


MONTCOMERV 

Mound 


MAP  or  THE  MOBILE  AND  ALABAMA  RIVERS 

1899 

Ar^J 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA    RIVER. 

BY  CLARENCE  B.  MOORE. 
• 

The  union  of  the  Coosa  and  Tallapoosa  rivers,  in  the  central  part  of  the  State 
of  Alabama.,  forms  the  Alabama  river,  which,  running  in  a  westerly,  and  then  in  a 
southerly,  course  through  the  State,  about  375  miles  by  water,  is  joined  by  the 
Tombigbee  river  and  thence  on,  under  the  name  of  the  Mobile  river,  continues  a 
distance  of  50  miles,  by  water,  to  Mobile  bay.  a  part  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

The  Mobile  and  Alabama  rivers  are  navigable  by  flat-bottomed  steamers  of 
light  draft  between  Mobile,  at  the  head  of  Mobile  bay,  and  Montgomery,  about  400 
miles  farther  up,  and  in  high  water  even  beyond  the  "  Forks,"  though  for  years 
Montgomery  has  been  the  terminus  for  the  regular  line  of  steamers. 

This  Report  treats  of  certain  aboriginal  remains  bordering  the  Mobile  and 
Alabama  rivers.1 

The  time  devoted  by  us  in  person  to  the  location  and  investigation  of  the 
aboriginal  remains  of  these  rivers  was  about  three  months  of  the  early  part  of  1899, 
during  which  time  a  great  number  of  landings  were  visited,  and  at  important  ones 
conversation  was  had  with  persons  familiar  with  the  territory  for  miles  around. 

In  addition,  Mr.  L.  D.  Cutting,  engineer  of  our  boat  for  years  and  thoroughly 
familiar  with  mounds,  twice  went  from  Mobile  to  Selma  on  the  regular  steamers  in 
the  busy  season,  making  inquiries  at  landings  and  of  passengers,  and  also  visited 
Montgomery  in  prosecution  of  the  search. 

Farthermore,  a  resident  of  Montgomery,  familiar  with  the  river,  accompanied 
by  a  companion,  was  employed  by  us  to  go  down  the  river  in  an  open  boat  from 
Montgomery  to  Matthews'  Landing,  about  200  miles  by  water,  making  inquiries 
along  the  way. 

Although  the  attention  given  by  us  to  the  Mobile  and  Alabama  rivers  does  not 
compare  with  that  accorded  by  us  to  the  St.  Johns  river,  Florida,  and  to  the  Georgia 
coast,  yet  it  was  fully  ample  to  indicate  that  mounds  along  these  rivers  were  of  rare 
occurrence  and,  as  a  rule,  insignificant  in  size.  It  must  not  be  supposed,  however, 
that  the  meagre  list  of  aboriginal  remains  investigated  includes  all  located  by  us 
and  by  those  working  in  our  interests.  While  the  majority  of  owners  of  property 
along  the  river  hastened  to  give  cordial  permission  to  investigate,  a  number  ignored 
our  communications,  though  several  times  addressed.  However,  the  aboriginal 
remains  investigated  were  presumably  representative. 

1  The  map  is  mainly  taken  from  the  Government  report,  as  are  the  distances,  which  are  by 
water,  "Annual  Report  of  the  Chief  of  Engineers,"  1884,  Ex.  Doc.  I,  Pt.  2,  Vol.  2. 

37  JOURN.  A.  N.  S.  PHILA.,  VOL.  XI. 


290      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA    RIVER. 

The  Mobile  river,  running  mainly  through  swamps,  could  have  offered  few  sites 
for  aboriginal  abode;  but  the  banks  of  the  Alabama,  though  swampy  in  places,  often 
vise  into  loftv  bluffs,  and  on  them  might  be  expected  mounds  far  exceeding  in 
number  those  which  seem  to  be  present.  In  many  places  pebbles,  chips  of  stone, 
sherds,  arrowpoints.  mussel-shells,  indicating  dwelling  sites,  strew  the  surface,  and 
we  think  it  likely  that,  as  mounds  are  so  often  wanting  near  such  sites,  the  people 
who  lived  there  buried  rather  in  cemeteries,  which,  unmarked  above  the  surface, 
have  escaped  notice. 

But  even  allowing  for  many  places  of  sepulture  not  located  by  us,  it  is  not 
likelv  the  borders  of  the  Mobile  and  Alabama,  rivers  were  as  thickly  settled  as  were 
those  of  Florida's  greatest  river.  The  shad  which  visit  the  St.  Johns,  the  bass  so 
abundant  in  its  clear  waters,  are  wanting  in  the  Mobile  and  Alabama  rivers.  In 
the  great  Florida  stream,  shell-fish  were  so  abundant  that  shell-heaps  covering  acres 
remain  along  the  banks,  some  a  score  of  feet  in  thickness.  Along  the  Mobile  are 
shell-heaps  of  insignificant  size,  while  on  the  Alabama  scattered  shells  only  mark 
former  places  of  abode.  But  even  apart  from  these  considerations,  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  Mobile  and  lower  Alabama  run  largely  through  swampy  ground, 
malarial  in  summer,  a  fact  which  aborigines  choosing  a  place  of  abode  would  doubt 
less  take  into  consideration.  Yet  we  are  told '  that  De  Soto  found  the  Mobilian 
Indians  living  along  the  banks  of  the  Alabama,  between  the  present  sites  of  Mont- 
gomerv  and  Mobile,  and  later,  remnants  of  the  Mobilians  dwelt  near  the  coast; 
bands  of  Alabamas  were  settled  from  the  union  of  the  Coosa  and  Tallapoosa  to 
below  where  Montgomery  now  stands  ;  Creeks  and  Choctaws  occupied  other  portions 
of  the  river.  Still  these  Indians  had  villages  on  elevated  points,  doubtless  avoiding 
the  swamps,  and  did  not  line  the  banks  as  did  the  Indians  of  the  St.  Johns. 

No  systematic  investigation  of  the  Mobile  and  Alabama  rivers  has  been  made 
previous  to  our  own.  In  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology3  we  find 
brief  notices  of  investigation  conducted  at  two  points  on  the  Alabama  river,  one  of 
which  is  not  definitely  located  ;  but  beyond  this  we  believe  excavations  have  been 
limited  to  ignorant  search  for  treasure  or  to  the  spasmodic  digging  of  the  seeker 
after  relics. 

Aboriginal  Remains  Investigated. 

Mound  near  Twenty-One-Mile  Bluff,  Mobile  county  (Mobile  river). 

Mound  near  Twenty-Four-Mile  Bend,  Mobile  county  (Mobile  river). 

Mound  near  Little  river,  Monroe  county. 

Mound  near  Potts'  Landing,  Monroe  county. 

Morrisette  Mound,  Clarke  county. 

Cemetery  at  Nancy  Harris  Landing,  Monroe  county. 

Mound  near  Webb's  Landing,  Wilcox  county. 

Mound  near  Burford's  Landing,  Wilcox  county. 

1  "The  History  of  Alabama,"  Pickett.     Reprinted  1896. 

2  1890-91,  page  289-290. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA    RIVER.      291 

Mound  on  Bnrford  Place,  Wilcox  county. 

Mounds  near  Matthews'  Landing,  Wilcox  county  (4). 

Mound  on  Joel  Matthews'  Place,  Dallas  county. 

Mound  on  Hunter  Place,  Dallas  county. 

Cemetery  at  Durand's  Bend,  Dallas  county. 

Mounds  on  Charlotte  Thompson  Place,  Montgomery  county  (4). 

Mound  on  Rogers  Place,  Montgomery  county. 

Mound  near  Horseshoe  Bend,  Elmore  county. 

Mounds  in  Thirty  Acre  Field,  Montgomery  county  (2). 

Mound  in  Big  Eddy  Field,  Montgomery  county. 

Mound  at  Jackson's  Bend,  Elmore  county. 

MOUND    AT    TwENTY-ONE-MlLE    BLUFF,    MOBILE    COUNTY    (MOBILE    RlVKR). 

Twenty-one  miles  above  Mobile  is  one  of  the  few  spots  of  high  ground  on  the 
low-lying  banks  of  the  Mobile  river.  About  three  hundred  yards  west  of  the  land 
ing,  close  to  the  road,  was  an  unstratified  mound  of  clay,  6.5  feet  high  and  having 
a  basal  diameter  of  58  feet,  A  large  trench  had  previously  been  dug  into  the  center 
through  the,  southern  part  of  the  mound.  The  remainder  of  the  mound  was  investi 
gated  by  us  with  the  kind  consent  of  Mr.  George  R.  Dupree  of  Mobile,  resulting  in 
the  discovery  of  parts  of  two  disturbed  skeletons.  No  pits  or  graves  were  found. 
Loose  in  the  clay  were  numerous  sherds,  mainly  undecorated  ;  the  bottom  of  a  small 
vessel  with  four  feet;  three  stone  hones;  one  chert  arrowhead;  one  smoothing 
stone ;  three  large  glass  beads. 

MOUND  NEAR  TwENTY-FouR-MiLE  BEND,  MOBILE  COUNTY  (MOBILE  RIVER). 

About  three-quarters  of  a  mile  in  a  westerly  direction  from  the  landing  at 
Twenty-Four-Mile  Bend,  in  a  cultivated  field,  is  a  low,  irregular  mound  much 
ploughed  down,  the  property  of  Mrs.  Smith,  reported  to  be  a  Choctaw  Indian 
of  almost  pure  blood. 

The  mound,  which  is  of  sand  with  a  large  admixture  of  clay,  has  been  dug 
through  by  a  former  owner  in  a  vain  search  for  treasure. 

A   small  amount  of  digging  done  by  us  was  without  result. 

MOUND  NEAR  LITTLE  RIVER,  MONROE  COUNTY. 

Little  river  enters  the  Alabama  about  one  hundred  miles  above  Mobile. 

In  a  cultivated  field,  about  one-half  mile  from  the  mouth  of  Little  river,  on 
the  left-hand  side,  going  up,  was  a  mound  long  ploughed  over  and  consequently 
much  extended.  When  investigated  by  us  its  height  was  about  2  feet.  Its 
original  diameter  of  base  probably  did  not  exceed  50  feet.  The  mound  was  dug- 
through  by  us  with  the  cordial  permission  of  Mr.  T.  S.  Moore,  of  Tensaw,  Ala., 
the  owner. 

There  was  no  evidence  of  previous  investigation,  though  sherds  of  excellent 
ware  and  interestin<>;  decoration,  evidently  from  burial  urns,  scattered  over  the 

o  J 

surface,  told  of  wreckage  wrought  by  the  plough. 


292       CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

Tin.'  mound  was  a  mixture  of  cluy  and  sand  without  stratification.  Bits  of 
charcoal  and  other  evidence  of  fire  were  present  throughout. 

The  burials  remaining  were  largely  central  or  near  the  center.  A  number  had 
been  disturbed  by  the  plough  and  doubtless  many  more  had  been  taken  from  the 
mound  in  former  time  by  the  same  agency.  Such  as  remained  were  of  the  bunched 
variety  '  with  three  exceptions.  One  of  the  bunches  had  six  femurs  of  adults  with 
two  skulls  and  other  bones  of  adults,  and  at  one  side  the  skull  and  certain  bones 
of  an  infant. 

A  skeleton  was  extended  in  anatomical  order  from  the  pelvis  down.  Below  it 
was  a  skull  with  a  few  ribs.  Nearby  was  another  skull. 

Just  below  the  surface,  crushed  to  small  pieces,  were  parts  of  the  remains  of 
one  or  more  vessels.  Among  them  lay  the  bones  of  an  infant. 


Fro.  1. — Earthenware  vessel.     Mound  near  Little  river.     (About  four-ninths  size.) 

Almost  in  the  center  of  the  mound  were  many  fragments  of  two  vessels 
crushed  by  the  plough  and  wanting  certain  parts,  doubtless  ploughed  away.  The 
remaining  portions  have  been  reunited  and  are,  with  nearly  all  the  collections  made 
by  us,  at  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia. 

The  under  vessel,  B,  contained  the  bones  of  an  infant.  The  ware  was  of 
fairly  good  quality,  without  admixture  of  pounded  shell.  Height,  G.5  inches; 
maximum  diameter,  13.7  inches;  diameter  of  aperture,  10.7  inches.  The  vessel 
is  semi-globular  in  shape,  with  a  small  upright  rim  decorated  with  notches  around 
the  exterior  edge.  The  body  bears  a  complicated  incised  decoration  partly  shown 
in  Fig.  1. 

1  For  forms  of  burial  see  our  "Certain  Aboriginal  Mounds  of  the  Georgia  Coast,"  pg.  (>  et  »eq. 
Journ.  Acatl.  Nat.  Sci.,  Vol.  XI. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       293 

Vessel  B  had  been  capped  by  Vessel  A,  a  handsome  circular  dish  of  excellent 
ware  without  admixture  of  shell,  black  in  color,  thick  and  highly  smoothed.  The 
edge  of  the  rim  is  decorated  with  notches  and  its  interior  surface  with  incised, 
parallel  lines  at  intervals.  Below  the  rim.  on  the  inside,  is  incised  cross-hatched 
decoration.  Diameter,  1C  inches;  depth,  4.5  inches  (Fig.  2). 


FIG.  2.— Vessel  A.     Mound  near  Little  river.     (Three-eighths  size.) 

With  a  burial,  near  the  head,  were  :  a  neat  lance-head  of  quartz  ;  a  small 
vessel  of  inferior  ware,  irreparably  broken  into  fragments,  and  a  pair  of  ear-plugs 
somewhat  decayed  and  broken.  Each  ear-plug  has  been  made  of  two  discs  of 
shell,  each  somewhat  over  one  inch  in  diameter.  Each  pair  of  discs  has  been 
joined  together  by  a  sort  of  mortar  composed  of  calcined  shell,  pulverized  and  clay.1 
1  Determined  by  Mr.  S.  H.  Hamilton  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia. 


294       CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 


We  shall  have  occasion  later  in  the  Report  to  refer  at  greater  length  to  ear 
plugs  of  this  type. 

In  caved  earth  was  a  rude  vessel  with  pointed  projections  around  the  outside 
of  the  rim.  Height.  2.7  inches;  maximum  diameter,  4  inches  (Fig.  3). 


FIG.  3. — Vessel  of  earthenware.     Mound  near  Little  river.     (Full  size.) 

A  head  of  a  predatory  bird,  modelled  in  red  earthenware,  blackened  exteriorly, 
which  doubtless  had  seen  service  as  the  handle  of  a  vessel,  lay  loose  in  the  earth. 
Part  of  the  bill  is  missing  (Fig.  4). 

Also  in  loose  earth  was  a 
disc  of  earthenware,  cut  from  a 
sherd.  In  former  Reports  we 
have  had  occasion  to  mention 
these  discs  which  doubtless  were 
used  in  games.  They  occurred 
in  great  numbers  in  some  of  the 
mounds  of  the  Alabama  river, 
and  their  presence  has  been  noted 
from  South  Georgia  to  Canada. 
Curiously  enough  they  are  almost, 
if  not  entirely,  absent  from  the 
Florida  mounds  investigated  by  us,  which  is  likewise  the  case  as  to  the  discoidal 
stone.  They  are  referred  to  in  Mr.  Stewart  Culin's  exhaustive  "  Chess  and  Playing 
Cards."  ' 

Three  discoidal  stones  were  in  caved  earth  or  were  thrown  back  by  the  diggers 
in  the  mound.     A  handsome  one,  probably  of  clay-stone  colored  with   iron,  is  2 
1  "  Report  of  the  U.  S.  National  Museum,"  for  1896. 


FIG.  4. — Earthenware  head  of  bird.     Mound  near  Little 
river.     (Full  size.) 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       295 


inches  in  diameter  and  1  inch  in  thickness.  Another  is  of  the  same  size,  while 
the  third  has  a  diameter  of  3.5  inches,  a  thickness  of  1.5  inches.  These  two  are  of 
a  close-grained  volcanic  rock,  the  larger  being  probably  porphyry.1 

With  the  large  bunched  burial,  to  which  we  have  already  referred,  were  :  two 
undecorated,  circular  gorgets  of  shell,  both  badly  broken  ;  six  massive  shell  beads, 
finely  preserved ;  numerous  glass  beads ;  one  small  sheet  copper  bead ;  one  per 
forated  pearl,  the  only  one  met  with  by  us  in  Alabama,  though  the  chroniclers  of 
De  Soto  speak  of  their  great  abundance  there;  one  pair  of  ear-plugs  and  a  single 
one,  the  mate  to  which  was  doubtless  overlooked  by  us,  all  of  the  type  referred  to 
before  ;  two  shell  pins  in  fragments,  of  the  ordinary  type,  made  of  the  columella  of  a 
marine  univalve  cut  down  for  the  shank  with  the  original  diameter  left  for  the 
head.  With  all  these  were  three  handsome  shell  pins  differing  from  the  usual 
type,  aptly  described  by  Professor  Holmes  2  as  follows  :  "  They  differ  from  the  pins 
heretofore  described,  being  in  all  cases  unsymmetrical.  The  shaft  is  flat  and 
somewhat  curved  and  joins  the  mushroom-shaped  head  near  one  edge.  This 
results  from  the  peculiar  shape  of  the  portion  of  the  shell  from  which  the  pin  is 
derived  .  .  .  ." 

Such  pins  have  the  shaft  cut  from  the  parietal  wall  of  the  shell  and  the  head 
from  parts  extending  to  either  side  of  the  suture,  as  shown  in  Fig.  5. 


FIG.  5. — Fulgur  showing  part  from 
which  the  pin  is  made.  (Not 
to  scale.) 


FIG.  6. — Shell  pin.     Mound  near 
Little  river.     (Full  size.) 


The  three  pins  are  about  equal  in  size,  each  being  about  2.5  inches -long  with 
diameter  of  head  of  1.5  inches.  One  is  shown  in  Fig.  6. 

All  shell  pins  found  by  us  have  been  near  the  skull ;  therefore,  we  believe 
them  to  have  been  used  as  ornaments  in  the  hair. 

1  All  identifications  of  rock   in   this   Report    have    been    made   by  Dr.   E.  Goldsmith,  of  the 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia.     As  we  have  not  furnished  microscopical  slides  from 
the  specimens,  exact  determination  lias  been  impossible. 

2  "Art  in  Shell  of  the  Ancient  Americans."    Second  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology, 
page  216,  Fig.  8,  PL  XXX. 


290      CKRTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA    RIVER. 

Near  the  surface,  together,  were:  the  iron  or  steel  blade  of  a  knife,  two  gnu 
Hints,  vermilion  paint  and  a  brass  object  presumably  belonging  to  a  musket  or  rifle. 

In  this  mound  was  an  intrusive  burial  which  bad  been  made  in  a  large  pine 
box  fastened  with  hand-made  nails.  With  the  skeleton  were  two  brass  buttons. 

MOUND  XKAK  POTTS'  LAXDIXG,  MONROE  COUNTY. 

This  mound,  the  property  of  Dr.  G.  G.  Scott,  of  Mt.  Pleasant,  Ala.,  who 
kindly  consented  to  its  investigation,  is  about  one  mile  in  a  southerly  direction 
from  Potts'  Landing. 

The  mound,  in  a  cultivated  field,  ploughed  over  lor  a  long  period,  is  much 
spread  out  and  very  irregular  in  shape.  Its  height  at  present  is  5  feet  7  inches ;  its 
basal  maximum  and  minimum  diameters  are  118  feet  and  100  feet,  respectively. 

The  central  part  of  the  mound,  dug  out  by  us,  showed  the  material  to  be  a 
mixture  of  clay  and  sand.  There  were  no  indications  of  use  as  a  burial  ground. 

MORRISETTE    MoUND,    CLARKE    CoUNTY. 

This  mound,  not  far  from  Marshall's  Bluff  Landing,  in  a  cultivated  field,  is 
about  6  feet  high  and  40  feet  across  the  base,  approximately.  Untouched  by  the 
plough,  owing  to  the  steepness  of  its  sides,  it  is  the  most  symmetrical  mound  met 
with  by  us  on  the  Alabama  river,  almost  a  perfect  truncated  cone  in  shape. 

The  owner,  Mr.  Robert  Morrisette  of  Perdue  Hill,  did  not  reply  to  our  request 
for  permission  to  investigate.  We  refer  to  the  mound  here  only  in  the  idea  that  it 
richly  deserves  a  systematic  investigation,  permission  for  which  might  be  obtained 
should  there  at  any  time  be  a  change  of  ownership. 

CKMETERY  AT  NANCY  HARRIS  LANDING,  MONROE  COUNTY. 

The  neighborhood  of  this  landing  suffered  greatly  by  the  freshet  of  1880 
which  wrought  such  havoc  along  the  banks  of  the  Alabama. 

In  conversation  with  persons  living  along  the  river  and  with  colored  people 
resident  at  the  landing,  we  heard  of  pots,  broken  and  whole,  of  tobacco  pipes  and 
of  human  bones,  washed  up  by  the  flood  and  left  scattered  over  the  surface  on  the 
•subsidence  of  the  water. 

A  careful  examination  was  made  by  us  and  sounding  rods  were  used  in  all 
likely-looking  territory,  unfortunately  without  material  success,  though  scattered 
human  bones,  fragments  of  pottery  and.  in  one  case,  the  earthemvare  head  of  a  bird, 
which  had  served  as  the  handle  for  a  vessel,  wrere  met  with. 

The  territory  around  the  landing  is  of  clay  covered  with  sand.  This  sand,  in 
nearly  every  instance,  had  been  swept  away  with  the  burials  it  contained,  leaving, 
we  fear,  little  chance  for  future  archaeological  work  in  this  vicinity. 

MOUND  NEAR  WKKH'S  LANDING,  WILCOX  COUNTY. 

The  mound,  showing  no  mark  of  cultivation,  was  in  a  ploughed  field  on  the 
flat  summit  of  a  small  hill,  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile  in  a  northwesterly  direc 
tion  from  the  landing. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.      297 

The  mound,  which  was  dug  down  with  the  kind  permission  of  Mr.  M.  L. 
Stabler,  of  Peach  Tree,  Ala.,  had  a  height  of  4  feet;  a  basal  diameter  of  38  feet. 
A  small  hole  had  previously  been  dug  into  the  center  of  the  mound  which  was  of 
sand  with  slight  admixture  of  clay. 

Human  remains,  very  badly  decayed,  were  met  with  at  seven  points  and  were 
represented  by  a  .skull  here,  a  skull  with  a  single  long  bone  there,  and  the  like. 
Once  the  crowns  of  teeth  alone  remained. 

With  one  burial  was  a  beautifully  wrought  celt,  probably  of  greenstone,  9.7 
inches  in  length,  measuring  across  its  evenly  ground  blade  2.5  inches,  gracefully 
tapering  at  the  other  end  to  a  rounded  point  .4  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 

Near  another  burial,  one  on  the  other,  were  two  small,  rude,  undecorated 
gorgets  of  shell,  roughly  circular. 

Several  arrowheads  were  loose  in   the  earth. 

MOUND  NEAR   BUKFORD'S   LANDING,  WILCOX   COUNTY. 

Our  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  W.  P.  Murphy,  of  Rockwest,  P.  ().,  for  permission 
to  investigate  this  mound,  which  is  situated  in  woods  which  apparently  have  grown 
on  ground  previously  cleared,  about  1.5  miles  in  a  southerly  direction  from  Burford's 
Landing.  The  height  of  the  mound  was  6  feet  8  inches ;  across  the  base  it  was  58 
feet.  The  only  previous  examination  apparent  was  a  small,  shallow  hole  near  the 
summit. 

A  large  trench  made  by  us  showed  the  mound  to  be  of  sand.  With  the 
exception  of  fragments  of  decaying  bones,  several  arrowheads  and  two  rough 
knives  of  stone,  nothing  was  met  with. 

MOUND  ON  BURFORD'S  PLANTATION.  WILCOX  COUNTY. 

This  plantation  is  on  the  left-hand  side  of  the  river  going  up,  about  one-half 
mile  below  Holly  Ferry.  The  mound  is  about  one  mile  W.  S.  W.  from  the  landing, 
in  the  heart  of  a  swamp.  It  had  been  much  trampled  by  cattle  and  consequently 
spread  out  and  reduced  in  height,  which,  at  the  time  of  the  investigation,  was  3 
feet.  The  diameter  of  base  was  about  45  feet.  It  was  thoroughly  investigated 
with  the  cordial  permission  of  Mr.  W.  P.  Burford,  of  Rockwest  P.  0.,  Ala.,  and 
proved  to  be  of  rich  clayey  sand. 

At  several  points  were  decayed  remains  of  parts  of  skeletons.  Two  arrow- 
points  lay  loose  in  the  sand. 

MOUNDS  NEAR  MATTHEWS'  LANDING,  WILCOX  COUNTY  (4). 

About  1.5  miles  in  a  southwesterly  direction  from  the  landing,  in  a  ploughed 
field,  about  100  yards  from  the  river,  was  a  mound  much  ploughed  down  and  irregular 
in  shape.  Two  great  depressions  nearby  showed  whence  the  material  was  derived. 

The  present  height  of  the  mound  is  5  feet  4  inches ;  the  major  and  minor  axes 
of  its  base  are  120  feet  and  70  feet,  respectively. 

38  JOURN.  A.  N.  S.  PHILA.,  VOL.  XI. 


298      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

It  was  investigated  by  kind  permission  of  Messrs.  Miller  and  Bonner,  of  Cam- 
den.  Ala.,  through  whose  courtesy  all  our  work  near  Matthews'  Landing  was  done. 

Extensive  trenching  of  the  mound,  which  was  of  clay  covered  with  sand, 
showed  it  to  have  been  of  a  domiciliary  character  with  no  yield  beyond  sherds,  one 
perforated  mussel  shell  and  one  earthenwaite  "  checker." 

About  50  yards  in  a  southwesterly  direction  from  the  mound  just  described, 
near  the  river  bank,  with  the  plantation  road  passing  over  it,  was  an  irregular 
undulation  from  1  to  2  feet  in  height.  Its  exact  area  was  impossible  to  determine 
though  it  was  considerably  less  than  that  of  the  neighboring  mound.  A  large 
portion  was  dug  through  by  us.  The  upper  stratum  was  of  clay  4  or  5  inches 
thick.  Next  came  a  layer  of  yellow  sand  18  inches  to  2  feet  in  thickness,  having 
a  slight  admixture  of  clay,  while  the  bottom  layer,  from  1  to  2  feet  thick,  wsis  of 
clay  blackened  with  charcoal  and  organic  matter  and  containing  many  sherds.  In 
it  were  a  large  number  of  pottery  "  checkers"  and  one  small  one  of  shell,  also  the 
earthenware  head  of  a  duck,  formerly  the  handle  of  a  vessel.  The  ware  was  of 
good  quality,  containing  an  admixture  of  pounded  shell,  while  some  was  black  and 
highly  polished. 

Burials  were  met  with  at  two  points  :  one  being  the  bunched  remains  of  an 
ndult  and  of  a  child ;  the  other,  also  of  an  adult  and  of  a  child,  had  the  bones  in 
anatomical  order. 

The  crania,  badly  broken,  showed  artificial  flattening.  The  Choctaws,  we  are 
told,1  compressed  the  skulls  during  infancy,  and  hence  were  called  "flatheads"  by 
the  traders.  Probably  other  Indians  along  the  Alabama  practised  this  same 
custom  of  cranial  compression. 

This  mound  had  every  appearance  of  having  been  a  dwelling  site  like  its 
neighbor,  with  burials,  perhaps  of  a  later  period  than  the  mound  itself. 

About  400  yards  in  a  W.  S.  W.  direction  from  the  landing  is  a  mound  on 
undulating  country,  with  probably  an  average  height  of  7  feet.  The  sides,  washed 
bv  the  river  in  times  of  unusual  flood,  probably  originally  ran  steeply  up  to  a 
perfectlv  level  plateau,  most  likely  intended  for  domiciliary  purposes.  Pine  trees, 
some  2  feet  in  diameter,  are  on  the  mound  which  bears  no  appearance  of  previous 
cultivation.  The  mound  at  present  has  somewhat  the  shape  of  a  blunt  wedge, 
probably  conferred  by  wash  of  water  and.  doubtless,  formerly  was  rectangular  in 
shape  like  other  mounds  of  its  class.  The  summit  plateau,  in  an  easterly  and 
westerlv  direction,  has  a  diameter  of  about  138  feet,  with  a  base  diameter  about  35 
feet  greater.  Across  the  western  portion  of  the  plateau,  the  thick  end  of  the  wedge, 
the  diameter  is  about  100  feet,  the  base-diameter  about  45  feet  in  excess. 

Various  trenches  and  pits  indicated  the  mound  to  have  bee'n  made  of  sandy 
clay,  with  a  superficial  layer  of  sand,  of  varying  depth,  say  from  1  to  3  feet. 
About  3  feet  down,  extending  through  the  mound  on  the  same  level,  was  a  thin 
layer  of  earth  blackened  probably  by  fire  and  admixture  of  organic  matter,  seem 
ingly  indicating  a  long-continued  period  of  occupation.  No  interments  were  found 
1  Pickett,  quoting  Adair,  "History  of  Alabama,"  page  125  et  seq. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA    RIVER. 

below  this  layer,  though  some  lay  on  it,  from  which  we  concluded  that  the  original 
mound  had  been  increased  3  feet  in  height  and  subsequently  used  for  burials. 

About  three-fourths  of  the  plateau  was  dug  through  by  us  to  a  depth  of  o  feet, 
resulting  in  the  discovery  of  burials  as  follows  : 

Burial  No.  1. — With  its  top  I)  inches  below  the  surface,  was  a  vessel  (A)  of 
coarse  ware,  consisting  of  clay  with  admixture  of  pounded  shell.  The  body,  which 
is  semi-globular,  is  undecorated  ;  the  neck  is  upright  and  surrounded  with  perpen 
dicular  ridges;  the  rim  is  flaring.  A  good  example  of  this  type,  Vessel  BB.  is 
shown  in  our  account  of  the  aboriginal  cemetery  at  Durand's  Bend. 


KIG.  7.— Vessel  containing  skeletons  of  infants.     Mounil  at  Matthews'  Landing.     (About  one-third  size.) 

The  vessel  has  a  height  of  8.5  inches;   a  maximum  diameter  of  14.")  inches; 
a  diameter  at  the  mouth  of  12  inches. 

Ranged  around  the  sides  were  disconnected  parts  of  skulls  of  several  infants. 

O  J. 

having  beneath  them  and  partly  around   them    many  other   bones,    probably  the 
remainder  of  the  skeletons  which  had  been  disarticulated  and  carefully  packed  away. 


300       CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

With  those,  occupying  ;i  central  position,  was  tin1  skeleton  of  a  very  young 
infant  which  had  been  buried  in  anatomical  order.  All  these  bones  have  been  kept 
exactly  as  found,  and  now,  soaked  with  glue  and  coated  with  shellac  to  impart 
solidity,  occupy  their  original  position,  a  certain  amount  of  earth  which  had  entered 
through  a  crack  having  been  removed.  The  arrangement  of  the  bones  is  well 
shown  in  Fig.  7. 

Over  A  essel  A.  inverted,  was  a  circular,  undecorated  dish  of  very  coarse  ware — 
clay  and  pounded  shell — having  a  maximum  depth  of  '-\  inches  and  a  diameter  of 
13.5  inches.  In  this  dish  is  a  large  crack,  dating  from  early  times,  as  is  shown  by 
a  perforation  in  either  side  through  which  had  been  passed  a  cord  or  sinew  to  lash 
the  parts  together,  after  the  aboriginal  fashion. 

<  >n  top  of  the  upturned  base  of  the  dish  (B)  were  a  number  of  fragments  of 
earthenware  which  had  formed  part  of  another  vessel,  doubtless  put  on  for  addi 
tional  protection. 

We   have   here  a  form    of  burial   new   to   our  work,  namely  plural  burial  of 
skeletons  in  a  single   urn.      Along  the  Georgia  coast  we  found  urn-burials  of  single 
skeletons  and  urns  filled  with  cremated  remains  of  various  individuals.      Later  in 
this  report  we  shall  see  a  repetition  of  this  plural  form  occuring  in  the  aboriginal 
cemetery  at  Durand's  Bend. 

Burial  No.  '2. — '2  feet  below  the  surface  was  the  skull  of  an  adult  in  fragments, 
as  were  all  crania  found  unenclosed  in  this  mound.  No  other  bones  were  in  asso 
ciation.  With  the  skull  was  an  undecorated  vessel  with  globular  body  and  upright 
neck.  Height,  3.70  inches;  diameter  of  body,  3.5  inches.  With  this  vessel  was  a 
diminutive  bowl,  1.9  inches  in  diameter,  1  inch  in  height.  This  little  toy  had 
incised  decoration  over  the  entire  exterior  surface  (Fig.  8). 

Such  vessels  are  usually  supposed  to  have  been 
placed  with  children.  In  the  skull,  which  this  little 
bowl  accompanied,  the  wisdom  teeth  were  present. 
With  the  other  objects  was  a  little  bowl  1.7  inches 
long.  1.5  inches  broad,  .75  inch  deep  wrought  from 
a  pebble,  which,  possibly,  to  a  certain  extent,  had 
been  hollowed  out  by  nature. 

Burial  No.  3. — A  bunched  burial  consisting 
of  certain  bones  of  a  child,  without  the  skull,  lay 
18  inches  below  the  surface.  This  burial  was  sur 
mounted  by  part  of  a  bowl,  crushed,  from  which 

FIG.  8.— Earthenware  vessel.     Minimi  at  ,j 

Miittliews'  Landing.     (Full  size.)  tftC    11111    W  as    mifeSlllg. 

Burial  No.  4. — 13  inches  down  were  parts  of 

skeletons  of  an  adult  and  of  a  child,  mingled.  Alongside  was  part  of  an  undeco 
rated  vessel  of  about  one  quart  capacity.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  canny  aborig 
ines  who  built  this  mound,  as  in  other  sections  of  the  country,  were  sometimes 
inclined  to  be  quit  of  tributes  to  the  dead  by  interment  of  objects  otherwise 
useless.  Still,  their  gifts  to  the  departed  compare  favorably  with  those  of  the 
present  time. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE   ALABAMA    RIVER.       301 

Burial   No.   5. — Fragments  of  a  skull   in  caved  earth. 

Burial   No.   C. — Certain   bones  of  an  adult,  without  cranium,   o  feet   down. 

Burial  No.  7. — 1.0  feet  down,  upright,  was  a  vessel  of  about  two  quarts 
capacity,  with  semi-globular  body  and  flaring  rim  decorated  with  knobs  around 
the  outer  margin  of  the  mouth.  This  vessel,  badly  broken  by  blows  from  a  spade, 
contained  certain  bones  of  a  young  child,  namely  :  one-half  of  a  lower  jaw,  one 
clavicle,  certain  ribs,  pelvic  bones,  and  one  piece  of  a  vertebra.  With  these  bones 
was  an  undecorated,  imperforate  ornament  of  shell,  a  trapezoid  in  shape,  2  inches 
long  with  an  average  breadth  of  1.5  inches.  Beneath  the  vessel  were  certain  bones 
of  an  adult. 

Burial  No.  8. — A  bunched  burial  consisting  of  a  cranium  with  a  few  bones,  all 
apparently  belonging  to  one  person,  2  feet  below  the  surface. 

Burial  No.  9. — A  bunch  consisting  of  twelve  tibia?,  thirteen  femurs  and  other 
long  bones,  o4  inches  down.  Scattered  among  these  bones  were  fragments  of 
earthenware  representing  part  of  a  vessel. 

Burial  No.  10. — A  few  scattered  fragments  of  bone  just  beneath  the  surface. 

Burial  No.  11. — A  large,  inverted  vessel  with  rude  line  and  punctate  decora 
tion  lay  over  the  skull  of  a  child,  which  surmounted  a  number  of  its  bones  heaped 
together.  This  vessel,  broken  in  small  pieces  by  roots  and  pressure,  was  sent  to  the 
Peabody  Museum,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  as  were  the  bones  which,  soaked  in  glue  and 
allowed  to  dry  in  place,  are  preserved,  as  to  position,  exactly  as  (bund. 

Burial  No.  12. — This  burial  consisted  of  one-half  of  the  lower  jaw,  some  ribs 
and  a  clavicle  with  the  cranium  to  one  side,  all  belonging  to  an  adult.  In  associa 
tion  were  two  shell  beads  each  about  .0  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 

Burial  No.  13. — 2  feet  down  was  a  bunched  burial  consisting  of  one  humerus, 
bones  of  both  forearms,  two  femurs,  two  tibia1,  one  fibula. 

Burial  No.  14. — Isolated  skull  of  an  adult,  20 
inches  down.  With  it  was  a  discoidal  stone  of  ferru 
ginous  claystone,  1.8  inches  in  diameter.  On  the 
major,  or  lower,  surface,  are  cut  two  concentric 
circles  (Fig.  9).  Somewhat  farther  in  the  mound, 
on  the  same  plane,  were  pairs  of  femurs,  huineri, 
tibia*,  radii,  ulna>.  all  parallel  to  each  other  with  a 
cranium  to  one  side  and  above. 

Burial  No.  15. — On  the  same  plane  as  Burial 
No.  14  and  1  foot  north  of  it,  was  a  bunch  of  adult 
long  bones,  all  parallel.  .lust  beyond  was  the  skull 

.  .  \  .  FIG.  9.— Discoidal    stone.      Mound  at 

of  an  infant  with  a  few  bits  of  decayed  bone.  Matthews'  Landing.   (Full  size.) 

Burial  No.  10. — Certain  crushed  and  decayed 

bones  of  an  infant,  including  the  cranium,  lay  15  inches  below  the  surface.      With 
the  skull  was  an  undecorated,  imperforate  disc  of  shell,  3  inches  in  diameter. 

Burial  No.  17. — Two  femurs,  one  tibia,  one  fibula,  one  humerus,  the  cranium, 
all  belonging  to  an  adult,  29  inches  down.  All  these  were  surmounted  by  two 
fragments  of  a  large  vessel. 


302       CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

Burial  No.  18. — .lust  under  the  surface  was  a  bunch  of  certain  bones  of  an 
adult  and  of  an  infant,  mingled.  No  crania  were  present. 

Burial  No.  19. — Two  crania  of  adults  with  one  of  a  child.  With  these,  30 
inches  down,  were  a  few  bones  belonging  to  at  least  two  adults. 

Burial  No.  20. — 20  inches  down,  a  few  fragments  of  crushed  and  decayed  bones. 

Burial  No.  21. — !•">  inches  down,  a  bunched  burial  of  a  skidl  and  a  few  long 
bones  of  a  child. 

Burial  No.  22. — Isolated  skull  of  adult,  2  feet  down. 

Burial  No.  23. — A  few  bits  of  decayed  bone  belonging  to  a  child,  1  foot  below 
the  surface. 

The  high  percentage  of  interments  of  children  in  this  mound  is  worthy  of 
remark. 

Morxi)  ox  THE  JOEI.   MATTHEWS'    PLACE,   DALLAS  COUNTY. 

This  estate,  about  one  mile  below  Cahaba,  on  the  right  side  of  the  river  going- 
down,  had  a  mound  in  a  large  cultivated  field,  about  40  yards  from  the  woods. 
Investigation  was  made  with  the  courteous  permission  of  Mr.  B.  F.  Ellis,  of  Orrville, 
Ala.,  the  lessee  of  the  property. 

As  near  as  we  could  judge,  the  mound,  before  the  cultivation  it  had  undergone, 
had  been  about  32  feet  across  the  base.  Its  height  above  the  general  level  was  4 
feet  3  inches,  though,  at  the  center,  a  burial  lay  5  feet  0  inches  from  the  surface. 

The  mound  was  about  three-quarters  dug  through  by  us,  including  the  entire 
central  portion.  It  was  of  dark  brown,  loamy  sand  without  stratification. 

Human  remains,  encountered  at  twenty -one  points,  consisted  of  small  bunches 
of  human  bones  and  sometimes  a  single  skull.  In  no  case  was  a  skeleton  present 
or  had  there  been  any  attempt  to  bury  in  anatomical  order.  In  one  instance  there 
was  a  small  deposit  of  fragments  of  charred  and  calcined  bones,  the  only  instance 
of  cremation  met  with  by  us  on  the  Mobile  or  Alabama  rivers. 

No  artifacts  were  present  with  the  burials,  and  the  sole  yield  from  the  mound 
was  a  few  rude  arrowpoints. 

MOUND    ON    THE    HUXTKK    PLATE,    DALLAS    COUNTY. 

The  Hunter  Place,  on  the  right-hand  side  of  the  river  going  down,  is  about 
four  miles  from  Selma  by  land. 

About  300  yards  from  the  landing,  on  the  edge  of  a  cultivated  field,  was  a 
mound  about  50  feet  across  the  base  and  7  feet  in  height.  Its  sides  were  too  steep 
to  permit  cultivation.  Unfortunately,  a  narrow  trench  running  N.  and  S.  had  been 
dug  completely  through  the  mound.  We  are  indebted  to  Mrs.  Fanny  Pollard,  one 
of  the  Hunter  heirs,  residing  on  the  estate,  for  permission  to  dig. 

Owing  to  the  previous  disturbance  a  complete  investigation  was  not  attempted. 
The  eastern  part  of  the  mound  was  mostly  dug  through  by  us  and  a  small  portion 
of  the  western  part. 

The  mound  was  composed  of  a  mass  of  clay  covered  to  a  depth  of  several  feet 
with  sand. 


CERTAIN   ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       303 

Human  remains,  a  bunched  burial,  were  met  with  but  once. 

In  the  debris  thrown  out  by  previous  diggers  was  a  spool-shaped  ornament  of 
copper  of  the  pattern  often  found  in  Ohio  mounds,  and  a  sheet  copper  disc  2.5  inches 
in  diameter  with  a  central  repousse  boss  having  in  the  middle  a  perforation  for 
attachment. 

AIU>KK;I\AL  CEMETERY,  DUKAND'S  BEND,  DALLAS  Cor.vrv. 

Durand's  Bend,  formed  by  a  long  curve  of  the  Alabama  river,  is  about  thirteen 
miles  above  Selma  by  water.  At  one  point  the  land  is  only  about  150  yards  across, 
and  there,  during  the  great  flood  of  1886,  when  the  territory  was  under  water,  the 
river  cut  through  in  several  places,  washing  away  superficial  portions.  On  the 
subsidence  of  the  flood  it  was  found  that  parts  of  an  aboriginal  burial  place  had 
been  laid  bare  and  that  human  bones,  earthenware  vessels,  whole  and  in  fragments, 


FIG.  10. 

and  various  other  objects  of  aboriginal  make,  were  scattered  over  the  surface. 
Many  persons  from  Selma  visited  the  ground,  reaping  a  rich  harvest,  we  were  told, 
and  since  then  others  visiting  the  spot,  have  located,  by  the  aid  of  iron  rods, 
numerous  vessels  under  the  surface,  which  they  dug  up  and  carried  away. 

Dr.  W.  J.  Stoddard,  of  Selma,  the  owner  of  the  property,  a  gentleman  greatly 
interested  in  scientific  matters,  determined  to  end  reckless  digging  by  unauthorized 
persons  and,  for  a  considerable  period,  has  withheld  permission  to  dig.  We  are 
indebted  to  Doctor  Stoddard  for  cordially  placing  his  entire  plantation  at  our 
disposal  with  fullest  permission  to  investigate  to  any  extent  we  saw  fit. 


304      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

Over  six  days  were  spent  by  us  at  DuramVs  Bend,  having  a  considerable 
number  of  colored  men  living  on  the  place  in  addition  to  the  trained  workers 
from  our  steamer,  some  of  whom  have  been  with  us  for  years. 


FIG.  11. 


The  territory  in  which  urn-burials  were  found  by  us  was  a  cultivated  field  of 
about  three  acres,  almost  on   the   river  bank   and  its  immediate  vicinity.     The 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       305 


FIG.  13. 


FIG.  14. 

FIGS.  10,  11,  12,  13,  14.— Fragments  of  earthenware  vessels.     Cemetery,  Durand's  Benii.     (Full  size.) 
39  JOURN.  A.  N.  S.  PHILA.,  VOL.  XL 


30G      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 


discoverv  of  vessels  elsewhere  on  the  place  was  reported  by  colored  people  living 
there,  but  none  was  found  by  us  though  a  really  exhaustive  search  was  made  and 
much  territory,  in  addition  to  the  field  we  have  referred  to.  gone  over  by  lines  of 
men  prodding  at  short  intervals  with  iron  rods. 

The  surface  of  the  field  and  some  of  the  other  territory  was  covered  with 
broken  pebbles,  chips  of  stone  and  numerous  sherds.  Some  of  these,  evidently 
from  burial  urns  broken  by  the  flood  or  by  previous  visitors,  are  .shown  in  Figs. 
10.  11.  12.  1:5.  14. 

Other  sherds  were  undecorated,  or  had  the  check  stamp  and  probably  belonged 
to  cooking  utensils.  Among  all  these  were  a  few  bearing  the  complicated  stamp  so 
familiar  in  Georgia  and  Carolina. 


FIG.  15. — Head  of  ex  rt  lien  ware. 
Cemetery  at  Durand's  Bend. 
( Full  size.) 


FIG.  16. — Perforated  pebbles.     Cemetery  at  Durand's  Bend. 

(Full  size.) 


In  addition,  scattered  over  the  field,  were  :  arrowpoints  of  quartz ;  smaller 
ones  usually  of  black  chert ;  hammer-stones ,  discoidal  stones  made  from  fiat 
pebbles  pecked  into  shape ;  many  discs  made  from  fragments  of  pottery ;  a 
human  head  in  earthenware,  about  2  inches  high,  somewhat  injured  on  one  side 
(Fig.  lo) ;  fragments  of  various  implements  and  a  number  of  pebbles,  some  clayey 
and  soft,  others  of  a  silicious  character  and  hard,  each  having  a  perforation,  seem 
ingly  artificial,  though  in  no  case  was  the  perforation  of  that 
even  character  such  as  was  made  by  the  tubular  drill  used 
with  sand  by  the  aborigines  to  cut  resistant  rocks.  The  holes, 
on  the  contrary,  were  irregular  in  shape,  some  showing  a  certain 
polish  as  to  the  interior  surface.  These  pebbles  were  not  found 
associated  with  the  dead,  but  singly  and  loose  in  the  earth. 

Professor  Putnam  declares  them  to  be  natural  formations. 
It  is  not  even  likely  they  were  utilized  by  the  aborigines  since, 
as  we  have  said,  they  lay  apart  from  burials.  Certain  of  these 
formations  are  shown  in  Fig.  16. 

During  trenching  of  part  of  the  field  and  the  excavation 
of  vessels  many  objects,  similar  to  some  of  those  enumerated, 
were  met  with  and  it  is  probable  that  those  on  the  surface 
were  left  there  by  the  subsiding  water. 


Kl<i.  17. —  Notched  pebble. 
Cemetery.  Durand's 
Bend.  (Full  size.) 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA    RIVER.       307 


During  our  excavation  we  met  with  a  discoidal  stone  of  Fclsite,  highly 
polished;  a  flat  pebble  notched  for  suspension  (Fig.  17);  two  canine  teeth  of  large 
carnivores,  one  grooved  at  the  base  for  suspension  ;  an  interesting  little  chisel 
made  from  a  flat  pebble  of  silicious  rock  colored  with  iron,  with  the  beginning 
of  a  perforation  (Fig.  18),  about  2.2  inches  long  and  1.75  inches  across  the  blade. 


FIG.  19.— Pendant  of  earthen 
ware.  Cemetery  at  Du- 
raud's  Bend.  (Full  size.) 


FIG.  20. — "Bannerstone"  of  hematite. 
Cemetery  at  Duraml's  Bend. 
(Full  size.) 


FIG.  18. — Chisel  of  silicious  rock. 
Cemetery  at  Duraud's  Bend. 
(Full  size.) 


Fi(i.  21. — Cross-sec 
tion  of  Fig.  20. 


From  colored  inhabitants  we  got  a  small  pendant 
of  earthenware  with  a  single  perforation  (Fig.  19),  and 
a  "  bannerstone  "  of  polished  hematite  with  an  uncom 
pleted  perforation  (Figs.  20,  21). 

As  iron  rods,  as  a  rule,  located  only  urns,  numbers  of  trenches 
were  dug,  always  over  2  feet  in  depth,  through  the  sand  into  undis 
turbed  material  beneath.  This  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  twenty- 
seven  unenclosed  burials  from  2  to  3  feet  below  the  surface.  Two 
of  these  were  bunched  burials ;  one,  a  burial  of  part  of  a  skeleton, 
mainly  in  order ;  one,  part  of  a  skeleton,  disturbed  by  a  burial 
beneath ;  one,  a  child  on  its  back  with  its  thighs  drawn  up ;  one, 
also  a  child,  on  its  left  side.  Twenty-one  skeletons  lay  extended 
at  full  length  on  the  back,  all  but  three  with  arms  parallel  to  the 
trunk.  In  one  instance  the  right  arm  crossed  the  lumbar  vertebras  ;  in  another,  the 
right  hand  lay  upon  the  pelvis.  A  child  had  both  hands  raised  to  the  shoulders. 

The  skeletons  had  no  uniformity  of  direction,  but  headed  to  all  points  of  the 
compass. 

Sixteen  were  of  adults,  seven  were  of  adolescents  or  of  children.  The  skeletons 
probably  had  been  interred  when  denuded  of  flesh,  though  still  fairly  well  connected 
by  ligaments.  This  was  evidenced  in  a  number  of  cases  where  bones  were  wanting, 
or  were  placed  in  improper  order  or  turned  in  the  wrong  direction. 

Crania  were  so  badly  decayed,  crushed  or  penetrated  by  roots  that  but  two 
were  preserved.  These  two,  found  near  together,  close  to  the  bluff,  belonged  to 
singularly  well-preserved  skeletons.  One,  of  a  male  (Collection  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences,  No.  2,168)  seems  to  partake  strongly  of  the  negro  type.  Its  companion, 
however  (Collection  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  No.  2,169),  shows  marked  arti 
ficial  flattening.  Adair  tells  us  that  the  Choctaws  practised  flattening  of  the  skull. 
These  skulls  may  belong  to  comparatively  recent  interments. 


308      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

Inhumation  of  artifacts  with  unenclosed  dead  was  met  with  but  once  at 
Durand's  Bend.  Two  leet  from  the  surface,  extended  on  its  back,  was  the 
skeleton  of  a  delicately  formed  man  or  of  a  woman.  The  bones  of  the  feet  were 
missing,  except  one  heel  bone  which  lay  against  the  pelvis.  Near  the  hand  and 
forearm  were  eight  tines  cut  from  stag  horn.  They  were  neither  grooved  nor  per 
forated,  but.  nevertheless,  doubtless  formed  part  of  a  wristlet  and  were  attached 
together  by  a  partial  insertion  through  some  material 

Near  the  chest  of  the  skeleton  were  a  number  of  small  imperforate  shell  discs, 
and  across  the  chest,  near  the  chin,  was  a  so-called  "hoe-shaped  implement"  of 
volcanic  rock,  5.5  inches  in  length,  and  4.5  inches  in  maximum  breadth  across  the 
blade.  As  usual  with  these  "implements"  it  had  a  countersunk  perforation  in  the 
shank. 

Objects  of  this  type  are  by  no  means  common.  In  all  our  mound  work  we  had 
met  with  them  but  twice  before,  one  in  a  mound  near  Blue  Creek,  Lake  county, 
Florida ;  another  in  a  mound  near  Lake  Bluff,  on  the  Altamaha  river,  Georgia. 
Later,  the  reader  may  see  that  this  type  was  fairly  abundant  in  mounds  near 
Montgomery,  where  several  imperforate  specimens  were  found,  as  well  as  certain 
ones  having  perforations  and  one  with  a  perforation  begun,  but  not  completed.  It 
may  be  as  well  to  say  here,  since  we  are  on  the  subject  of  the  "hoe-shaped  imple 
ment,"  that  we  do  not  believe  it  to  have  been  used  as  a  hoe.  All  specimens  found 
by  us  and  those  found  by  others,  which  we  have  examined,  have  the  edge  finely 
ground  and  without  notch  or  chipping,  which  would  not  be  the  case  had  they  seen 
service  as  hoes.  Besides,  farther  up  the  Alabama  river  we  found  part  of  a  so-called 
"hoe-shaped  implement"  made  from  the  soft  blue  clay  found  along  the  banks  of  the 
Alabama.  Such  an  object  could  never  have  been  intended  for  active  use.  Farther- 
more,  the  shanks  of  several  of  the  implements  found  by  us  show  by  a  discoloration 
where  there  has  been  a  handle,  allowing  a  portion  of  the  shank  to  project  behind. 
The  perforation  comes  along  the  margin  and  was  doubtless  used,  where  it  was 
present,  to  lash  the  handle  more  firmly.  We  are  convinced  that  the  "  hoe-shaped 
implement"  was  a  ceremonial  axe. 

No  fractures,  and  in  one  case  only,  an  osteitis,  was  a  pathological  condition 
present  in  the  bones.  The  skeletons  showred  less  muscular  markings  than  we  have 
met  with  in  other  sections. 

A  considerable  number  of  urn-burials  were  met  with  by  us  at  Durand's  Bend, 
consisting  usually  of  a  vessel  holding  the  remains,  capped  by  another,  inverted,  to 
keep  out  the  earth.  As  a  rule,  the  up-turned  base  of  the  upper  vessel  was  about  G 
inches  from  the  surface,  though  doubtless  before  the  freshet  swept  across  the  bend, 
the  depth  was  considerably  greater. 

But  the  mortuary  vessels,  so  far  as  noted,  are  made  of  a  mixture  of  clay 
and  pounded  shells.  In  shape  and  decoration  they  present  no  marked  variety,  but 
for  that  matter,  at  the  present  day,  we  can  hardly  boast  of  a  great  diversity  of  type 
in  mortuary  receptacles.  The  under  vessel  was  usually  of  the  type  found  by  us  at 
Matthews'  Landing,  with  the  same  undecorated  body  and  often  with  similar  perpen- 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       309 

dicular  ridges  around  the  neck  beneath  the  flaring  rim,  or  with  loop-like  handles  in 
place  of  ridges.  This  under  vessel  was  usually  surmounted  by  a  bowl  with  little 
Hare  to  the  rim  and  with  incised  and  punctate  decoration.  Sometimes  the  decora 
tion  was  exclusively  on  the  inside  of  the  neck  and  rim.  At  times,  however,  there 
had  been  utilized  as  a  surmounting  vessel  the  body  of  a  vessel  of  the  type  ordinarily 
used  as  a  receptacle  and  placed  beneath.  In  such  cases  the  rim  and  neck  were 
missing  and  presumably  a  broken  vessel  had  been  utilized. 

When  not  otherwise  specified  in  the  description,  the  vessels  are  imperforate  as 
to  the  base.  The  reader  may  recall  that  in  Florida  many,  and  along  the  Georgia 
coast  some,  vessels  were  found  by  us  from  the  bottoms  of  which  pieces  had  been 
broken,  possibly  to  "  kill "  the  vessel  to  permit  its  soul  to  accompany  the  spirit  of 
its  master  to  the  happy  hunting-grounds ;  or  perhaps,  in  the  case  of  mortuary  urns, 
to  allow  the  soul  to  escape.  It  is  interesting  to  note  on  the  Alabama  river  the 
occasional  occurence  of  this  curious  custom. 

It  will  be  noted  that  no  cremated  remains,  so  abundant  among  the  urn-burials 
of  Georgia  or  parts  of  Georgia,  were  met  with  by  us  in  the  cemetery  at  Durand's 
Bend. 


Flu.  22. — Vessel  A.     Cemetery,  Durand's  Bend.     (Three-sevenths  size.) 

Nearly  all  the  vessels,  when  discovered  by  us,  were  more  or  less  cracked  and 
the  cracks,  as  the  vessel  dried  and  contracted,  tended  to  widen.  Moreover,  many 
vessels,  through  long  exposure  to  moisture,  were  soft  and  friable.  In  every  case 
we  dug  carefully  around  the  vessels  and,  brushing  the  earth  from  them,  permitted 
them  to  harden  in  the  sun,  at  the  same  time  applying  a  quick-setting  cement 
between  the  margins  of  the  cracks.  Before  lifting,  when  the  state  of  the  vessels 


310      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA   RIVER. 

required  it,  stout  cotton  bandages  tightened  by  improvised  tourniquets  were  adjusted 
with  advantage,  and  these  bandages  were  allowed  to  remain  in  place  until  the 
vessels  had  made  their  journey  North.  In  certain  cases  where  vessels,  crushed  into 
small  fragments,  had  had  principal  parts  irrecoverably  carried  away  by  the  plough, 
and  the  remaining  parts  bore  no  decoration  of  interest,  they  were  abandoned. 

We  shall  now  give  in  detail  a  description  of  the  vessels  and  their  contents. 
All  measurements  are  approximate.  The  vessels,  when  not  otherwise  specified, 
may  be  seen  at  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  Philadelphia. 

Vessels  A  and  B. — Vessel  B,  of  the  type  already  referred  to  as  coming  from 
Matthews'  Landing,  which  we  shall  hereafter,  for  convenience,  call  the  receptacle 
type,  has  beneath  the  rim  on  the  outside,  instead  of  the  upright  ridges,  four  small 
loop-shaped  handles,  such  as  are  shown  on  the  figure  of  vessel  E  E.  Its  maximum 
diameter  of  body  is  14  inches ;  its  height,  10  inches.  The  rim  is  badly  shattered 
and  parts  are  missing.  In  B  were  splinters  of  decaying  bones,  one  humerus  of  a 
very  young  infant  and  a  mussel  shell  (Unto  crassidens}. 

Vessel  B  was  capped  by  an  inverted  bowl  (A)  with  incised  and  punctate  deco 
ration  as  shown  in  Fig.  22.  Maximum  diameter  of  body,  14  inches ;  height,  7 
inches.  In  the  base  was  a  perforation  which  could  not  have  come  from  the  metal 
rods  in  use  for  sounding,  as  the  splintering  showed  a  blow  from  the  inside  and, 
moreover,  the  piece  was  missing.  This  is  the  first  case  in  any  section  of  the 
country  where  we  have  found  a  surmounting  vessel  with  basal  perforation. 

Vessel  C. — A  short  distance  below  the  base  of  Vessel  B,  to  one  side,  was  a 
bowl  (C)  intact,  with  incised  and  punctate  decoration,  practically  the  same  as  that 
on  Vessel  A,  having  a  maximum  diameter  of  7  inches,  a  height  of  8.5  inches. 

It  lay  inverted  about  4  inches  above  a  skull  belonging  to  the  skeleton  of  an 
infant,  in  anatomical  order. 

Vessel  D. — This  vessel,  similar  in  shape  and  decoration  to  Vessel  B,  was  badly 
bivoken.  It  contained  a  few  fragments  of  bones  of  an  infant  and  a  mussel  shell  of 
the  kind  found  in  Vessel  B.  Vessel  D  was  surmounted  by  fragments  of  what  had 
probably  been  a  part  of  a  vessel.  These  fragments,  with  Vessel  D,  were  sent  to 
Peabody  Museum,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Vessels  E  and  F. — Vessel  F,  of  the  usual  receptacle  type,  11.7  inches  high, 
17.2  inches  in  maximum  diameter,  contained  the  bones  of  an  infant,  with  a  shell 
bead,  a  perforated  cockle-shell  (Cardium)  and  a  small  oval,  undecorated  shell  gorget 
with  double  perforation.  Vessel  F  was  capped  by  Vessel  E,  inverted,  from  which 
the  rim  had  been  broken  prior  to  its  burial.  The  body  has  a  maximum  diameter 
of  18  inches;  the  height  of  the  fragment  is  8  inches.  These  vessels  were  sent  to 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia. 

Vessels  G  and  II. — Vessel  H,  2o  inches  across  the  body  and  16  inches  in 
height,  of  the  receptacle  type  as  to  shape,  with  the  ridges  and,  in  addition,  six 
small  loops  beneath  the  margin,  contained  parts  of  the  skeleton  of  an  adult, 
namely  :  two  shoulder  blades,  two  collar  bones,  breast  bone,  twenty-four  ribs, 
the  pelvic  bones  and  nineteen  vertebrae.  The  shoulder  blades  and  corresponding 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       311 

vertebrse  were  in  anatomical  order.  The  skull  and  all  bones  of  the  extremities, 
except  those  of  the  feet,  were  wanting.  These  bones  were  in  fairly  good  condition, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  ascribe  the  absence  of  the  other  bones  of  the  skeleton  to 
decay.  The  bones  filled  but  a  small  portion  of  the  vessel,  so  the  interment  of 
but  part  of  a  skeleton  was  not  necessitated. 

Surmounting  and  partly  covering  Vessel  H  was  an  inverted  vessel  (G),  without 
rim,  of  the  type  of  Vessel  E. 

Vessels  I  and  J. — Vessel  J,  of  the  receptacle  type,  15  inches  through  the  body 
at  its  maximum  and  11.8  inches  high,  contained  the  bones  of  an  infant,  apparently 

in  anatomical  order,  though  exact 
determination  was  difficult  owing  to 
disarrangement  caused  by  removal  of 
infiltrated  sand.  Near  the  neck  was 
a  stopper-shaped  ornament  of  shell, 
1.25  inches  long  and  presumably  a 
necklace  made  up  of  forty-four  rec 
tangular  pieces  of  shell,  incised  and 
doubly  perforated,  all  closely  resem 
bling  one  another.  Certain  of  these 
beads,  with  the  ornament,  are  shown 


®  * 


£^ 


in  Fig.  23. 


Fi(4.  23. — Beads  and  ornaments  of  shell. 
Durand's  Bend.     (Full  size.) 


Cerueterv  at 


mum  diameter  and  5.5  inches  in  height. 


Turned  over  the  mouth  of  Vessel 

J  was  a  bowl  (I),  12.2  inches  maxi- 

Its  decoration  is  incised  and  punctate 


(Fig.  24).     It  has  two  small  perforations  made  by  the  sounding  rod. 


FIG.  34— Vessel  I.     Cemetery,  Durand's  Bend.     (One-half  size.) 


312      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

These  two  vessels  lay  among  mingled  fragments  of  two  other  vessels  with 
scattered  bones  of  an  infant.  Presumably  the  fragments  represented  an  earlier 
burial  broken  bv  the  introduction  of  the  later  one. 

Vessels  K  and  L. — Vessel  K,  of  the  regular  receptacle  type,  has  a  maximum 
diameter  of  20  inches;  its  height  is  14  inches.  It  contained  certain  bones  belonging 
to  the  skeleton  of  an  adult :  the  vertebrae  and  ribs,  beginning  with  the  fifth  dorsal 
vertebra,  down  ;  the  shoulder  blades ;  the  collar  bones ;  the  pelvic  bones  ;  the 
breast  bone  and  the  bones  of  both  feet.  Here  again  we  have  a  fragmentary  burial 
not  necessitated  by  a  limited  size  of  vessel.  In  the  mound  in  Dumoussav's  Field, 
Sapelo  Island,  Ga.,  we  found  the  upper  part  of  the  skeleton  of  a  woman,  buried  in 
a  vessel  of  earthenware  with  the  lower  part  buried  beneath.  In  this  case,  however, 
the  vessel  was  packed  to  its  full  capacity,  which  was  far  from  being  the  case  with 
Vessel  K. 

Over  the  bones,  on  the  base  of  Vessel  K  and  wholly  contained  in  it,  was  part 
of  an  inverted  bowl,  the  rim  from  which  was  entirely  missing. 

Vessel  M. — This  vessel,  of  the  usual  receptacle  type,  was  badly  broken  and 
deficient  in  certain  parts  which  doubtless  had  been  ploughed  away.  It  contained 
a  few  decaying  bones  of  the  skeleton  of  an  infant.  On  the  fragments  of  this  vessel 
lay  a  mass  of  small  pieces  of  a  dish,  once,  no  doubt,  a  surmounting  vessel.  This 
urn-burial  was  discarded. 

Vessel  N. — This  vessel,  just  under  the  surface,  had  lost  its  upper  portion  and 
the  surmounting  vessel  by  exposure  to  the  plough.  The  vessel  differed  from  others 
at  Durand's  Bend.  It  had  been  of  fine,  light-yellow  ware  with  incised  scroll  work 
painted  a  brilliant  red.  On  the  base  wrere  a  few  bits  of  decaying  bones  of  an  infant. 

Vessels  0  and  P. — Vessel  P,  of  the  receptacle  type,  with  loop  handles  in  place 
of  ridges,  fell  into  small  pieces  upon  removal.  It  contained  a  few  bones  of  an  infant. 

An  inverted  bowl  (0)  had  been  let  into  Vessel  P  for  a  short  distance.  This 
bowl,  with  slightly  flaring  rim  with  incised  decoration  on  the  inside,  has  a  maxi 
mum  diameter  of  12.75  inches,  a  height  of  5.2  inches. 

Vessels  Q  and  R. — Vessel  R,  of  the  receptacle  type,  contained  the  bones  of  an 
infant,  seemingly  in  anatomical  order.  It  has  a  height  of  13  inches;  a  maximum 
diameter  of  19  inches.  There  is  an  aboriginal  perforation  in  the  base. 

Over  Vessel  R  was  an  inverted  vessel  (Q)  without  a  rim,  which  fell  into  small 
pieces  upon  removal. 

Vessels  S  and  T. — Vessel  S,  of  the  usual  type,  having  loops  beneath  the 
margin,  has  a  maximum  diameter  of  20  inches ;  a  height  of  14  inches.  On  the 
base  were  certain  bones  of  a  skeleton  belonging  to  a  period  toward  the  close  of 
infancy.  These  bones  were  not  in  regular  order,  and  the  skull,  except  the  lower 
jaw.  was  wanting.  Above  the  bones,  which  were  lying  on  the  base  of  the  vessel, 
had  been  placed  a  sort  of  circular  dish  (T),  inverted,  having  a  maximum  diameter 
of  13.5  inches  and  2.8  inches  deep.  This  dish  bore  no  decoration  with  the  excep 
tion  of  certain  notches  around  the  margin.  While  most  of  the  bones  were  covered 
by  the  dish,  a  part  of  the  margin  lay  against  a  scapula  which  was  upright  and 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       313 


FIG.  io. — Vessel  V,  containing  burial.     Cemetery,  Durand's  Bend.     (One-half  size.) 
40  JOURN.  A.  X.  S.  PHILA.,  VOL.  XI. 


314       CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

parallel  to  the  side  of  the  larger  vessel,  and  certain  hones  lay  beyond  that  part  of 
the  base  of  Vessel  S  included  beneath  the  inverted  dish. 

Vessels  U  and  V. — Vessel  \  .  the  usual  type  as  to  shape,  with  loops  instead  of 
ridges  around  the  neck,  one  of  which  was  missing,  is  22  inches  in  maximum 
diameter  and  15  inches  high.  It  contained  one  of  the  most  striking  burials  which 
it  has  been  our  fortune  to  meet  with.  As  a  general  rule,  cracks  in  the  receptacle 
vessel  or  the  crushing  in  of  the  surmounting  one  permits  the  entrance  of  earth ; 
thus  covering  the  contents  of  the  burial-urn  and  making  difficult  their  uncovering 
without  disarrangement.  In  this  case,  however,  Vessel  U,  of  the  receptacle  type 
but  without  rim,  had  kept  out  all  foreign  matter,  except  a  slight  deposit  of  earth  on 


FIG.  26. — Vessel  VV.     Cemetery,  Dili-ami's  Bend.     (Six-thirteenths  size.) 

the  burial  beneath,  so  the  greater  vessel,  when  uncovered,  was  seen  to  be  filled  to 
the  level  of  the  rim  with  bones  presumably  belonging  to  twro  skeletons ;  the  smaller 
ones  at  the  bottom,  then  layer  upon  layer  of  the  major  long  bones,  capped  by  two 
skulls  side  by  side,  looking  toward  the  South.  One  cranium  was  of  an  adult  male. 
The  other,  of  an  adolescent,  seemed  to  indicate  artificial  antero-posterior  compres 
sion.  Near  it  were  a  few  shell  beads.  We  did  not  discover  whether  other  artifacts 
accompanied  the  remains  since,  to  keep  the  bones  exactly  as  found,  the  entire  mass 
was  deluged  with  glue  without  removal,  to  hold  the  bones  in  place  and  impart 
consistenc}'.  Subsequently,  certain  bones  in  contact  with  the  sides  of  the  vessel 
were  cemented  to  it  and  then  the  mass  received  two  coats  of  shellac.  Even  in  this 
condition,  the  vessel  being  somewhat  broken  and  the  bones  certain  to  fall  apart 
when  jarred,  it  was  deemed  impossible  to  secure  safe  transportation  North,  either  by 
freight  or  by  express.  Therefore,  the  vessel  with  its  contents  was  securely  packed 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA    RIVER.       315 

in  a  light  box  with  handles  and,  by  courteous  consent  of  J.  (J.  Morrison,  Esq., 
District  Superintendent  of  the  Pullman  Palace  Car  Company,  New  Orleans,  the 
box  was  brought  North  by  us  in  the  sleeping  car  on  our  return.  A  good  half-tone 
representation  of  the  bones  as  they  appear  in  the  vessel,  looking  down,  is  given 
in  Fig.  25. 

Vessels  W  and  X. — Vessel  X,  of  the  usual  receptacle  type,  having  loop 
handles,  is  9.7  inches  high  and  14.2  inches  across  at  its  widest  part.  It  contains  a 
pile  of  bones  probably  belonging  to  two  infants  whose  skulls  lie  on  top.  One  shell 
bead  was  visible  among  the  bones  which  were  not  removed  but  were  glued  in  place. 
On  Vessel  X,  the  aperture  down,  was  Vessel  W,  a  bowl  13  inches  in  maximum 
diameter  and  6.5  inches  high,  having  incised  and  punctate  decoration  as  shown  in 
Fig.  26. 

Vessels  Y,  Z,  AA,  BB,  CC. — These  vessels,  found  as  shown  in  Fig.  27,  consti 
tute  one  of  the  most  interesting  urn-burials  ever  met  with  by  us. 

Vessel  BB  (Fig.  28),  of  the  receptacle 
type,  17.7  inches  in  maximum  diameter 
and  12.2  inches  in  height,  contained  parts 
of  an  infant's  skeleton  in  anatomical  order, 
though  the  skull  and  certain  other  bones 
were  missing.  Shell  beads  were  in  asso 
ciation. 

BB  was  capped  by  a  vessel  (Z),  inver 
ted.  AA  and  Y  also  inverted,  the  lower 
part  of  their  rims  resting  against  BB,  were 
placed  obliquely,  so  as  nearly  to  cover  Ves 
sel  Z. 

A  small  vessel  (CC),  height,  2.5  inches, 
diameter  of  body,  4.3  inches,  lay  on  its  end 
in  the  earth  with  part  of  its  rim  pressing 

FIG.  27. — Urn-burial,  drawn  from  sketch  made  on  the  ji          i  p     TT-  i     T>T> 

spot.    Cemetery,  Dnrand's  Bend.    (One-ninth  size.)          against     the     lower     pOrtlOll     of      Vessel     BB. 

Vessel  CC,  of  very  poor  material,  is 

in  the  shape  of  a  bowl  with  rude  incised  decoration  and  handles  roughly  repre 
senting  the  head  and  tail  of  a  bird.  Portions  of  the  vessel  have  crumbled  awa^y. 
From  the  end  of  bill  to  tip  of  tail  the  diameter  is  7  inches. 

Vessel  AA  is  a  bowl  of  red  ware.  Its  maximum  diameter  is  12.8  inches ;  its 
height,  6.6  inches.  Its  somewhat  flaring  rim  has  a  series  of  <  incised  on  its 
inner  surface,  making  spaces  left  bare  and  filled  with  red  coloring  matter  alternately. 

Vessel  Z  is  the  counterpart  of  Vessel  AA,  with  the  exception  of  being  1  inch 
less  in  height  (Fig.  29). 

Vessel  Y,  with  basal  perforation,  is  of  the  receptacle  type,  though  used  as  a 
surmounting  vessel.  It  is  12.5  inches  in  maximum  diameter  and  8.6  inches  in 
height.  The  ornamentation  differs  from  the  usual  upright  or  loop  handles,  as  is 
shown  in  Fig.  30. 


FIG.  28. — Vessel  BB.     Cemetery,  Duranrt's  Bend.     'About  one-third  size.) 

V 


FIG.  29. --Vessel  X.     Cemetery.  Durand's  lli-nd.     (About  one-half  size.) 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA   RIVER.       317 


FIG.  30. — Vessel  Y.     Cemetery,  Durand's  Bend.     (About  one-half  size.) 

Vessels  DD  and  EE. — Vessel  EE,  the  usual  receptacle  type,  badly  broken,  had 
on  the  base  decaying  bones  of  an  infant,  with  an  undecorated,  circular  shell  gorget, 
1.7  inches  in  diameter,  having  a  double  perforation. 


FIG.  31. — Vessel  DD.     Cemetery,  Durand's  Bend.     (About  two-sevenths  size.) 


318      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

Covering  the  aperture  of  Vessel  EE,  was  an  inverted  bowl  (DD).  with  incised 
and  punctate  decoration,  14.3  inches  across  at  its  broadest  part  and  0.8  inches  in 
height  (Fig.  31). 

A  hole  had  been  knocked  in  the  base  of  Vessel  DD,  and  over  this  hole  had 
been  placed,  inverted,  the  base  of  another  vessel,  presumably  to  keep  out  the  earth. 

This  urn-burial  complete  was  sent  to  the  Peabody  Museum,  Cambridge,  Mass., 
where  broken  portions  have  been  pieced  together.  This  burial,  as  it  appeared  when 
found,  is  shown  in  Fig.  32. 

Vessels  FF  and  GG. — These  vessels  had  been  crushed  and  shattered  into  small 
pieces,  among  which  were  shell  beads  and  fragments  of  bones  of  an  infant. 


FIG.  32. — Vessel  EE  surmounted  by  Vessel  DD  in  position  as  found.     Cemetery, 
Durand's  Itand.     (About  three-fourteenths  size.) 

Vessels  HH  and  II. — These  were  crushed  to  small  pieces  and  parts  had  been 
carried  away  by  the  plough.  The  remaining  fragments,  among  which' were  a  few 
decaying  bones  of  an  infant,  were  abandoned. 

Vessels  JJ  and  KK. — In  all  respects  similar  to  the  preceding  ones. 

Vessels  LL  and  MM. — These  were  the  smallest  mortuary  vessels  met  with  by 
us  at  Durand's  Bend.  The  under  one  (MM)  has  a  maximum  diameter  of  9.5  inches. 
It  is  G  inches  high.  It  is  of  the  usual  type  and  contains  tire  skull  of  an  infant  and 
some,  perhaps  all,  of  the  skeleton  which  was  not  in  anatomical  order.  These  bones, 
in  better  condition  than  infant  remains  usually  are,  were  hardened  by  us  by  means 
of  glue  and  are  preserved  intact  in  the  urn. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       319 


Inverted  over  the  mouth  of  Vessel  MM  was  a  bowl  (LL)  in  fragments,  with 
flaring  rim  decorated  on  the  inner  surface  with  rudely  incised  lines.  Parts  of 
Vessel  LL,  recovered  and  glued  together,  showed  the  bowl  to  have  had  a  maximum 
diameter  of  10  inches;  a  height  of 
3.7  inches. 

Several  additional  vessels, 
found  in  small  fragments,  will  not 
be  particularly  described. 

Just  beneath  the  surface,  with 
no  human  remains  in  association, 
was  a  vessel,  heart  shaped  in  section 
and  decorated  as  shown  in  Fig.  33. 

Its  maximum  diameter  is  3.5 
inches;  its  height,  1.8  inches.  It 
unfortunately  received  a  blow  from 
a  spade. 

Two  small  un  decorated  pots 
lay  near  the  surface  apart  from 
human  remains,  while  another,  with 
rude  incised  decoration,  came  from 
the  vicinity  of  a  broken  urn.  This 
vessel  is  of  the  coil  method  of  manu 
facture  where  coils  of  clay  are  su 
perimposed  in  manner  much  as  we 
make  a  straw  hat,  and  of  all  the  ves 
sels  found,  so  far  as  noted,  contained  no  admixture  of  pounded  shell. 

MOUNDS  ON  THE  CHARLOTTE  THOMPSON  PLACE,  MONTGOMERY  COUNTY  (4). 

About  six  miles  below  Montgomery,  on  the  left  side  of  the  river,  going  down, 
in  a  cultivated  field,  about  one-quarter  mile  from  the  water,  was  a  mound  67  feet 
through  the  base,  approximately,  with  a  summit  plateau  having  a  diameter  of  about 
32  feet.  The  height  of  the  mound  was  about  9  feet  though  its  position  across  a 
natural  ridge  made  its  altitude  appear  somewhat  greater  on  two  sides. 

Though  the  mound  was  uninjured  by  cultivation,  unfortunately  a  trench  10 
feet  to  12  feet  broad  had  been  dug  from  the  margin  into  the  summit  plateau  some 
distance  though  stopping  short  of  the  center  of  the  mound. 

The  mound  was  investigated  by  us,  with  the  kind  permission  of  Mr.  W.  C. 
Henderson,  of  Montgomery,  the  owner. 

Beginning  at  the  margin,  a  trench  20  feet  across  was  run  below  the  base  of  the 
mound  to  the  margin  of  the  summit  plateau.  No  burials  were  met  with  outside  of 
4.5  feet  of  the  margin  of  the  plateau.  On  the  discovery  of  human  remains  at  that 
point  the  trench  was  widened  to  include  the  entire  plateau  and  4.5  feet  beyond  on 


FIG.  33. — Earthenware  vessel.   Cemetery,  Durand's  Bend. 
'Full  size.) 


320      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL   REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA   RIVER. 

oitluT  side.  This  trench  was  continued  through  the  mound  until  it  was  apparent 
no  farther  burials  lay  beyond.  In  this  way  a  mere  shell  was  left  standing,  in  which, 
presumably,  there  are  few.  if  any,  interments. 

Four  or  five  feet  in  from  the  margin  of  the  mound,  whose  outer  portion  was  of 
sand,  there  began  a  nucleus  of  clay  around  and  over  which  the  mound  was  built. 
The  clay  rose  sharply  and  speedily  attained  the  height  of  about  3  feet,  which  it 
maintained  with  slight  variation  throughout.  This  flat  table  of  clay  was,  as  we 
have  said,  surrounded  and  surmounted  by  sand. 

Human  remains  were  found  in  the  sand,  in  the  clay,  and,  in  a  few  cases,  in 
pits  extending  below  the  level  of  the  mound.  An  earnest  attempt  was  made  to 
keep  score  of  the  burials,  but  skeletons  in  anatomical  order  (flexed  and  parti \ 
flexed)  were  comparatively  few.  while  bunched  burials,  interments  of  parts  of 
skeletons  and  bones  scattered  in  all  directions,  were  so  numerous  and  so  inter 
mingled  that  the  task  was  given  up  as  hopeless. 

There  were  no  cases  of  cremation,  though  in  several  instances  thin  layers  of 
what  seemed  to  be  charcoal  lay  above  the  bones. 

This  mound  was,  to  us,  in  one  respect  of  peculiar  interest,  for,  from  top  to 
bottom,  were  objects  of  iron,  of  glass,  and  of  other  material,  derived  from  the 
whites,  which  proved  the  mound  to  be  of  post-Columbian  origin  and  emphasized 
what  has  always  been  our  contention,  that  in  a  mound  built  after  contact  with 
Europeans,  artifacts  obtained  from  them  will  be  amply  in  evidence. 

SHELL. 

Pins. — Shell  pins  were  present  in  great  numbers.  Indeed  it  seemed  as  though 
every  third  burial  was  provided  with  them.  In  one  case  four  lay  with  a  single 
skull.  Excluding  numbers  of  decayed  pins  and  others  broken  in  excavation,  no 
less  than  ninety  pins,  from  1.5  inches  to  7  inches  in  length,  were  recovered  from 
the  mound.  Among  these  were  four  of  the  interesting  variety  described  by  us  as 
coining  from  the  mound  near  Little  river. 

Gorgets. — Twenty-seven  shell  gorgets,  irregularly  circular,  from  1.8  inches  to 
4.9  inches  in  diameter,  lay  with  burials,  usually  those  of  children — one  child  having 
two.  Unfortunately,  none  bore  engraved  decoration,  though  nine  had  a  circle  of 
semi-perforations  on  one  side  near  the  margin  and  four  were  marginally  decorated 
with  notches  (Figs.  34,  35). 

Certain  gorgets  had  a  single  perforation  for  suspension,  while  some  were  doubly 
and  even  trebly  perforated.  In  several  cases  where  holes  had  worn  through,  others 
had  been  drilled. 

Beads. — Shell  beads  were  with  the  burials  in  bewildering  profusion  and  variety, 
some  no  larger  than  a  good-sized  pin's  head,  others,  great  sections  of  axes  of  marine 
univalves,  1.6  inches  in  length. 

A  few  flat  beads  with  incised  decoration  and  doubly  perforated,  somewhat 
resembling  those  from  Durand's  Bend,  were  present  (Fig.  36). 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA    RIVER.       321 


Witli    two    burials   were   numbers   of  small    marine    univalves   (Marginella) 
perforated  for  stringing. 

^*5ET— . 

e    fc 


FIG.  34. — Shell  gorget.     Mound  on  Charlotte  Thompson  Plare.    "(Full  size.) 

Ear-plugs. — As  is  well  known,  it  was  the  custom  of  many  of  our  aborigines  to 
pierce  the  lobe  of  the  ear  and  to  enlarge  the  opening  so  that  various  objects,  some  of 
considerable  size,  could  be  worn  by  thrusting  them  through  the  lobe.  This  curious 


FIG.  35. — Shell  gorget.     Mound  on  Charlotte 
Thompson  Place.     (Full  size.) 


FIG.  36. — Shell  heads.     Mound  on  Charlotte  Thompson 
Place.     (Full  size.) 


custom,  still  to  a  certain  extent  kept  up  by  women,  which  attained  its  maximum  as 
to  size  of  perforation  in  Peru,  permitted  the  buttoning  in  of  various  objects,  some  of 
copper,  such  as  are  found  in  Ohio  and  elsewhere,  or  of  stone,  copper-coated,  like 


41  JOURN.  A.   N.  S.  PHILA.,  VOL.  XI. 


322       CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 


those  taken  by  us  from  Mt.  Royal,  Florida,  or  of  shell,  of  the  type  referred  to  by  us 
as  coming  from  the  mound  near  Little  river.  In  the  mound  on  the  Charlotte 
Thompson  Place  were  three  pairs  of  shell  ear-plugs,  each  pair  taken  from  near  a 
cranium,  and  several  fragmentary  ones  decayed  and  broken.  One  pair  was  of  the 
type  found  in  the  Little  river  mound,  that  is,  discs  of  shell,  one  smaller  than  the 
other,  fastened  together  with  a  mortar  made  of  clay  and  pounded  calcined  shell.  In 
one  respect  this  pair  of  ear-plugs  differs  from  those  at  Little  river  in  that  one  disc 
of  one  ear-plug  is  centrallv  perforated.  The  other  two  pairs  have  each  ear-plug 
carved  from  a  solid  piece  of  shell,  with  one  flange,  doubtless  the  one  worn  on  the 
inside,  somewhat  smaller  than  the  other.  Both  pairs  are  perforated  centrally 
through  the  minor  axis.  But  one  ear-plug  is  sufficiently  well  preserved  to  furnish 
measurements  as  to  original  si/e.  This  shows  one  side  to  have  a  diameter  of  l.fi 
inches;  the  other,  1.4  inches. 

Fish-hook. — On  the  base  of  the  mound,  associated  with  human  remains,  with 

bone  piercing  implements  and  a 

bone  fish-hook  2.5  inches  long, 

was    a   neatly  made    fish-hook 

of  shell,  2.8   inches  in  length, 

grooved  for  attachment  of  the 

line.     In  this  instance,  though 

they  are  of  different  materials, 

we  shall  speak  of  the  fish-hooks 

together.     The   shell  fish-hook 

is  shown  in  Fig.  37  ;   the  bone 

one,  in  Fig.  38. 

In  relation  to  fish-hooks  in 

North  America,  Ran,  "  Prehis 
toric  Fishing."  page  122,  says, 

"  In  the  first   place   I  have  to 

allude  to  their  great  scarcity  in 

the  eastern  portion  of  North 
America  and  to  state  that  those 
which  have  been  found  within  that  area  are  almost  exclusively  of  bone.  They 
occur  more  frequently  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  especially  in  California  latitudes 
and  there  they  consist  of  bone  or  shell." 

Professor  Rau  cites  a  number  of  early  authors  on  North  America  who  refer  to 
fish-hooks  of  bone. 

Professor  Holmes,  "Art  in  Shell,"  2  page  207  el  seq.,  tells  us,  '•  The  use  of  shell 
the  manufacture   of  fishing   implements  seems  to   have   been   almost   unknown 


FIG.  37.— Shell  fisli-liook.  Mound 
on  Charlotte  Thompson  Place. 
(Full  size.) 


FIG.  39.— Bone  fish-hook.  Mound 
on  Charlotte  Thompson  Place. 
(Full  size.) 


in 


among  the  tribes  of  the  Atlantic  Coast  and  with  the  exception  of  a  few  pendant- 
like  objects,  resembling  plummets  or  sinkers  of  stone,  nothing  has  been  obtained 
from  the  ancient  burial  mounds  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Hooks  of  shell,  how 
ever,  are  very  plentiful  in  the  ancient  burial  places  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  .  .  ." 


'  "Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,"  1884. 
2  Second  An.  Report  of  Burenu  of  Ethnology. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       323 


Abbott,  "  Primitive  Industry,"  page  208,  figures  a  bone  fish-hook  and  com 
ments  on  the  rarity  of  such  objects  in  eastern  North  America. 

C.  C.  Jones  in  his  "  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians  "  points  out  the 
absence  of  fish-hooks  from  the  districts  described  by  him,  and  in  all  our  mound 
work  in  Georgia,  in  South  Carolina,  in  Alabama  and  in  Florida,  where,  in  addition, 
shell  heaps  were  exhaustively  searched,  we  have  met  with  fish-hooks  in  this  instance 
alone,  so  the  reader  can  appreciate  the  interest  of  this  discovery,  which  furnished, 
so  far  as  we  can  learn,  the  only  shell  fish-hook  found  east  of  the  Pacific  Slope. 

Scraper.  —  A  fine  mussel-shell  (Unio  heros)  was  found,  perforated  for  attach 
ment  to  a  handle  and  showing  marks  of  wear  at  one  end. 

Drinking  Cup.  —  A  marine  univalve  (Cassis  cameo),  with  interior  portions  cut 
out  to  form  a  drinking  cup,  lay  near  a  skull.  This  is  the  first  instance  where  a 
drinking  cup  has  been  found  by  us  wrought  from  a  shell  other  than  the  conch  (Fulgur). 

Shells.  —  Seven  mussel-shells  (Unio  /zeros)  were  found  near  a  burial,  while 
another,  filled  with  tines  of  a  stag-horn  and  decaying  piercing  implements  of  bone, 
lay  near  human  remains. 

A  cockle-shell  (Cardium  magnum}  lay  almost  in  contact  with  a  skull. 

EARTHENWARE. 

Discs.  —  A  number  of  discs  made  from  potsherds,  for 
use  in  games,  lay  in  midden  refuse  throughout  the  mound 
and  ft  disc  of  earthenware,  slightly  broken,  having  on  one 
side  a  central  depression  surrounded  by  six  rays,  also  was 
present  (Fig.  39). 

Vessels.  —  The  yield  of  earthenware  vessels  from  this 
mound  was  disappointing  in  view  of  the  fact  that  fragments 

n  i  ,     •         ,  ,  T          T 

of  good  ware  were  present  in  the  mound.     In  one  instance 
only  were  vessels  found  with  the  dead.     Two  bowls  lay  on 


FIG.  39.  —  E 

Mound 


arthenware  disc. 

on  charlotte 
° 


FIG.  40. — Earthenware  vessel.     Mound  on  Charlotte  Thompson  Place.     (Full  size.) 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 


FIG.  41.— Earthenware  vessel.     Mound  on  Charlotte  Thompson  Place.     (Full  size.) 

the  ribs  of  a  skeleton.  One.  with  incised  and  punctate  decoration  exteriorly  on  the 
rim,  has  a  maximum  diameter  of  4.8  inches  and  is  '2  inches  in  depth  (Fig.  40). 
The  other,  with  incised  decoration  on  the  interior  of  the  rim,  is  4.8  inches  in 
maximum  diameter  and  1.7  inches  deep  (Fig.  41). 


FIG.  43. — Tobacco-pipe  of  earthenware.     Mound  on 
Charlotte  Thompson  Place.     (Full  size.) 

A  handle  of  a  vessel,  modelled  after  an  animal- 
head,  was  loose  in  the  earth  (Fig.  42). 

Fio.  42-HaDdle  of  earthenware.  TobaCCO-plpeS.—T\lC  tobaCCO-pipeS,  three  ill  11U111- 

pi'ac"'1  '(Fun  si'"''6  Tl'or"1>s""          her,  from  this  post-Columbian  mound,  were  poor  in 

quality  and  uninteresting  as  to  design. 
One  lay  with  midden   refuse  in  the  margin  of  the  mound  (Fig.  4o). 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.      325 

Another,  somewhat  broken,  has  a  handle  and  a  decoration  of  notches  around 
the  margin  of  the  bowl  (  Fiji1.  44). 


FIG.   45. — Tobacco-pipe  of  earthenware.     Mound  on 
Charlotte  Thompson  Place.     (Full  size.) 


FIG.  44. — Tobacco-pipe  of  earthenware     Mound  on 
Charlotte  Thompson  I'lace.     (Full  size.) 

The  third  is  undeco rated  (Fig.  45). 
The  two  latter  lav  with  human  remains. 


Stopper-shaped  Object. — In  caved 
sand  was  an  object  of  earthenware  re 
sembling  a  mushroom  in  shape,  having 
a  height  of  1.5  inches;  a  maximum 
diameter  of  2.5  inches.  This  may  have 
served  as  a  stopper  for  a  water-bottle 
(Fig.  40). 

BONE. 

Piercing  Implements. — A  number  of 
piercing  implements  of  bone  of  the  usual 
type,  often  badly  decayed  and  broken, 
came  from  the  mound  ;  also  a  bone  imple 
ment  showing  oblique  wear  at  one  end, 
the  use  of  which  we  cannot  determine. 

Anklet. — At  the  feet  of  one  skeleton  were  a  number  of  tines  in  close  associa 
tion,  cut  from  stag-horn,  which  had  doubtless  been  attached  to  an  anklet.     Similar 
ones  came  from  near  the  wrist  of  a  skeleton  in  the  cemetery  at  Durand's  Bend. 
Fish-hook. — Reference  has  been  made  to  this. 


FIG.  46. — Stopper-shaped  object  of  earthenware.     Mound 
on  Charlotte  Thompson  Place.     (Full  size.) 


STONE. 


"  Celts'' — Excluding  broken  implements,  there  came  from  the  mound,  nearly 
always  with  burials,  thirteen  hatchets  and  chisels  of  the  usual   rocks,  from  o  to  7 


inches  in   length. 


320      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 


*' Hoe-shaped  Implements?' — Always  with  burials,  wore-  three  "hue-shaped 
implements"  or  ceremonial  axes,  as  we  believe  them  tu  be,  each  perforated  through 
the  shank  somewhat  above  the  blade  and  none  showing  breakage  or  chipping. 
Plainlv  visible  on  two,  were  marks  where  a  handle  had  encircled  the  shank,  leavinsr 

»/ 

part  of  it  projecting  behind.      The  length  of  each  is  about  5.5  inches ;  in  breadth 
of  blade  they  vary  between  4.5  and  5.3  inches. 

The  material  in  one  case  is  Grannlyte  ;  in  the  other  two,  Felsite. 
A  part  of  a  "  hoe-shaped  implement"  made  from  the  soft  blue  clay  of  the  bluffs 
of  the  Alabama  river,  lay  loose  in  the  earth. 

Gorget. — A  beautiful  gorget  of  Felsite.  2.G  inches  long  and  2  inches  across  the 
blade,  is  modelled  exactly  after  the  "hoe-shaped  implement"  in  shape,  though  the 
perforation  comes  higher  on  the  shank.  Its  length  is  but  2.5  inches ;  its  breadth 
across  the  blade,  2  inches.  Should  we  consider  this  a 
"  hoe-shaped  implement,"  it  is  the  smallest  on  record 
(Fig.  47).  It  was  found  with  the  bones  of  an  adult. 
Discoidal  Stones. — Three  discoidal  stones,  hand 
somely  polished,  were  met  with  and  a  number  of  flat 
pebbles  rounded  by  chipping. 

Miscellaneous. — During    the    excavation    were 
found  several  rude  arrowheads  ;   a  neat  little  one  of 

black  flint ;  a  rude  cutting 
implement  of  quartz  ;  ham- 
merstones ;  and  a  curious 
little  object  of  silicious  rock, 
1 .4  inches  in  length,  resem 
bling  a  fiddle  bow,  seemingly 
of  artificial  design  (Fig.  48). 

COPPER. 

At  all  depths  in  the  mound  were  ornaments  of  sheet  copper,  always  with 
interments  and  often  associated  with  shell,  stone,  glass  or  iron.  On  one  side  of 
some  was  a  coarse  woven  fabric  preserved  by  copper  salts. 

Pendants. — Eleven  pendants  of  sheet  copper  in  fairly  good  condition,  and  a 
number  of  fragments  of  pendants  were  met  with.  Nine  of  these  pendants  resem 
ble  in  shape  a  spearhead  with  rounded  point.  One  pair  of  these  found  together 
has  rude  incised  decoration  uniform  in  type  though  differing  slightly  in  detail.  In 
each  a  part  of  the  conventional  aboriginal  eye  is  represented  as  shown  in  Fig.  49. 
The  two  pendants,  which  differ  slightly  in  size,  are  about  4  inches  in  length  and  2 
inches  in  maximum  diameter.  Like  all  pendants  of  this  type,  each  has  a  single 
perforation  for  suspension. 

Three  of  the  pendants,  somewhat  smaller  than  those  described,  have  a  decoration 
conferred  by  pressure,  including  a  section  of  the  human  eye  toward  the  upper  end. 


FIG.  48.— Unidentified  object  of 
stone.  Mound  on  Charlotte 
Thompson  Place.  (Full  sine). 


FIG.  47.— Goi-jtet.     Mound  on  Charlotte 
Thompson   Place.     (Full  size.) 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE   ALABAMA    RIVER.       327 


One  pendant,  with  a  length  of  3.7  inches  and  a  maximum  width  of  1.5  inches, 
has  no  decoration  except  marginal  indentations. 

Two  other  pendants  are  too  much  corroded  for  exact  description. 


FIG.  49. — Pendants  of  sheet  copper.     Mound  on  Charlotte  Thompson  Place.     (Full  size.) 

One  pendant,  about  4  inches  long  and  with  a  maximum  width  of  2  inches,  is 
of  much  more  solid  material  than  the  others.  It  is  badly  corroded.  Still  clinging  to 

it  is  a  remnant  of  cord  upon  which  a  number  of 
shell  beads  are  strung. 

All  decoration  on  the  pendants  is  of  purely 
aboriginal  design.  We  shall  describe  and  illustrate 
this  type  more  fully  in  our  account  of  the  mounds 
in  the  "  Thirty- Acre  Field." 

A  pair  of  sheet  copper  pendants  found  end  to 
end  extending  across  the  vertex  of  a  cranium,  have 
a  wavy  outline  common  to  both  but  not  exactly 
coinciding.  The  material  of  one  is  thicker  than 
that  of  the  other  (Fig.  50). 

Breast-pieces. — We  call  by  this  name  oblong 
plates  of  sheet  copper  with  two  or  three  holes  in 
the  middle,  presumably  for  attachment  to  garments. 

Five  such  pieces  were  present  in  this  mound, 
one  somewhat  broken  by  pressure  against  a  bone. 
Two,  4  inches  by  8  inches,  and  3.5  inches  by  8.5  inches,  respectively,  seem  to 


FIG.  50. — Pendants  of  sheet  copper. 
Mound  on  Charlotte  Thompson 
Place.  (Full  size.) 


328      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

be  undecorated.  One  of  these  shows  distinct  lamination,  that  overlapping  of  the 
metal  in  places  through  rude  hammering  processes,  which  we  look  for  in  aboriginal 
copper. 

One  breast-piece.  2.8  inches  by  8  inches,  has  a  row  of  marginal  indentations 
and  on  one  side  punched  decoration  which  a  heavy  deposit  of  carbonate  rendered 
almost  indistinguishable  when  found.  This  deposit,  however,  yielded  to  dilute 
acid.  The  plate  was  submitted  to  Professor  Putnam,  who  writes  as  follows : 

"The  copper  band  was  just  received  and  studied  by  Willoughby  and  myself. 
The  following  are  our  conclusions  : 

"  The  band  is  very  likely  from  an  officer's  belt  or  perhaps  helmet.  The  small 
holes  about  the  edge  indicate  that  it  was  fastened  thoroughly  to  some  object  for 
which  it  was  made.  The  design  is  that  of  a  spread  eagle  with  a  lion  on  each  side 
facing  the  eagle.  The  design  was  made  by  a  series  of  punchings  with  a  metal  tool 
(thus  -  -  -  ).  It  is  not  in  drawn  lines  like  our  native  work. 

•*  The  design  is  European  and  of  the  heraldic  character.  I  believe  you  will  find 
some  such  design  on  IGth  and  17th  century  objects. 

•'  Is  it  not  likely  that  some  Indians  got  this  and  other  European  things  in  the 
mound,  from  some  of  the  early  soldiers  or  settlers,  that  this  piece  was  punched  in 
the  center  and  worn  by  an  Indian  ?  " 

Of  the  remaining  two  pieces,  one,  2.2  inches  by  0  inches,  has  for  decoration 
indentations  around  the  margin  and  transverse  rows  of  indentations.  The  other, 
1.1  inches  by  3.2  inches,  greatly  carbonated,  is  seemingly  without  ornamentation. 
A  small  fragment  of  cord  still  remains  in  the  two  perforations. 

Upon  most  of  these  ornaments  fragments  of  coarse  vegetable  fibre  adhere. 

In  addition  to  these  was  a  piece  of  sheet  copper  with  the  two  longer  sides 
straight  and  parallel,  and  the  other  two  curving  outward.  Its  length  is  5.5  inches  ; 
its  breadth,  >5.5  inches.  About  .75  of  an  inch  apart,  longitudinally,  are  two  raised 
bosses  and  apparently  other  decoration  near  the  margin.  The  piece  is  badly  carbo 
nated  and  broken.  On  the  side  which  lay  nearest  the  skeleton  still  remain  rem 
nants  of  a  comparatively  fine  fabric,  doubtless  belonging  to  a  garment.  On  the  out 
side  a  coarse,  woven  vegetable  fabric  still  remains,  which  probably  enveloped  the 
entire  skeleton. 

Disc. — On  the  skull  of  a  child,  8  feet  7  inches  from  the  surface,  with  diminu 
tive  shell  beads,  was  a  sheet  copper  disc,  .8  inch  in  diameter,  decorated  on  one  side 
with  three  concentric  circles. 

In  the  second  part  of  our  "  Certain  Sand  Mounds  of  the  St.  Johns  River, 
Florida"  '  we  included  a  monograph  on  aboriginal  copper  as  viewed  from  a  chemical 
standpoint.  Our  conclusions,  we  believe,  have  been  universally  accepted.  As 
certain  of  our  readers,  unfamiliar  with  the  question,  may  not  have  access  to  the 
work  referred  to,  we  venture  upon  a  brief  resume  of  our  conclusions  and  the  way 
they  were  arrived  at. 

Native  copper,  that  is  metallic  copper  found  in  nature,  is  of  great  purity,  as 
pure  as,  or  purer  than,  can  be  produced  by  any  smelting  processes  of  the  present  time. 
In  addition,  there  is  no  reliable  record  of  the  discovery  of  lead  in  native  copper. 

1  Journ.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.,  Vol.  X. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA    RIVER.       329 

This  native  copper  is  present  in  great  quantities  near  Lake  Superior,  where 
aboriginal  mines  have  been  discovered;  nuggets  are  found  in  the  "drift"  and 
native  copper,  to  a  certain  extent,  has  been  found  in  various  States  and  in  Cuba. 

In  Europe  the  supply  of  copper  is  not  obtained  from  native  copper  but  from 
ores,  almost  invariably  sulphide  ores,  which  are  rich  in  impurities  and  contain 
quantities  of  arsenic,  etc.,  which  even  now  are  hard  to  eliminate  and  which,  in 
earlier  times,  were  more  than  the  rude  smelting  processes  of  those  days  could  suc 
cessfully  cope  with.  It  is  stated  that  earlier  German  coins  have,  in  late  years,  been 
resmelted  with  profit  to  obtain  the  silver  contained  in  them. 

In  Europe,  fartherrnore,  it  was  the  custom  to  introduce  lead  during  treatment 
of  the  copper  ores. 

Now,  analyses  of  copper  found  in  aboriginal  mounds  in  which  no  objects  of 
European  provenance  are  present,  show  the  copper  to  be  of  the  highest  purity  and 
always  free  from  lead. 

Therefore,  we  know  that  the  aborigines  of  this  country  made  use  of  native 
copper.  They  could  not  have  obtained  the  metal  from  the  whites,  as  it  is  purer 
than  could  be  smelted  to-day  from  the  sulphide  ores  of  Europe  and  is  far  purer  than 
was  produced  by  the  comparatively  rude  processes  of  the  16th,  17th  and  18th 
centuries. 

The  reader  may  see  from  the  foregoing  that  there  should  be  little  difficulty  in 
determining  chemically  the  provenance  of  copper,  provided  a  careful  analysis  is  made.1 

In  the  Charlotte  Thompson  Mound,  which,  from  top  to  bottom,  contained  arti 
facts  of  European  origin  in  close  association  with  objects  of  aboriginal  make,  a 
study  of  the  copper  is  of  particular  interest. 

One  of  the  breas1>pieces  from  the  mound  had  an  irregular  appearance,  showing 
uneven  thickness  and  marked  lamination,  the  overlapping  of  parts  of  the  copper 
upon  other  parts,  which  we  often  see  in  aboriginal  work,  being  markedly  noticeable 
and  particularly  so  when  a  section  of  the  piece,  cut  out  for  analysis,  was  examined 
along  the  edge.  This  piece  was  marked  "A"  and  submitted  to  H.  F.  Keller,  Ph.D., 
Professor  of  Chemistry  of  the  Boys'  High  School,  Philadelphia,  and  long  an  expert 
in  copper  in  the  "  Lake  "  regions  of  Michigan.  The  analysis  of  the  plate  marked 
"A"  is  subjoined. 

"  This  metal  is  of  extraordinary  purity.  Minute  quantities  of  iron  and  silver 
are  the  only  impurities  distributed  throughout  its  entire  mass. 

"  Quantitative  determinations  yielded  : 

Silver 0.0022  per  cent. 

Iron 0.0272    "       " 

'•In  one  part  of  the  plate  a  very  small  proportion  (0.0016  per  cent.)  of  lead 
was  also  found,  but  this  must  be  regarded  as  due  to  local  contamination  from  an 
external  source,  for  other  parts  of  the  same  plate  are  absolutely  free  from  lead. 
Other  metals,  such  as  bismuth,  antimony,  arsenic,  nickel,  etc.,  are  also  entirely  absent. 

1  The  analysis  should  be  made  with  the  utmost  care,  bearing  in  mind  that  most  of  the  sulphuric 
acid  to  be  had  in  this  country  contains  lead.  Analyses  made  for  us  are  duplicated  in  blank  to  guaran 
tee  absence  of  foreign  matter  from  the  chemicals  employed. 

42  JOURN.  A.  N.  S.  PHILA.,  VOL.  XI. 


330       CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

'•  The  plate  is  coated  with  oxide  and  carbonate  of  copper  and  in  some  places 
also  with  clay,  and  with  oxide  and  phosphate  of  iron. 

"  The  percentage  of  copper  in  the  metallic  portion  of  the  plate  was  estimated 
to  be  99.969  per  cent," 

Here  we  clearly  have  an  ornament  of  native  copper,  of  aboriginal  make,  used 
by  the  Indians  along  with  objects  obtained  from  the  whites,  just  as  in  this  mound 
we  met  with  beads  of  shell  and  beads  of  glass  together. 

Just  where  this  native  copper  came  from,  of  course  we  cannot  say.  It  may 
have  come  down  the  Coosa  river  from  where  some  of  I)e  Soto's  men  saw  highly- 
colored  copper,  undoubtedly  native,  a  locality  believed  by  Pickett '  to  be  in  the 
present  De  Kalb  County,  Alabama, 

More  likely  it  came  from  the  "  Lake"  region  of  Michigan  and  worked  its  way 
southward  in  course  of  trade. 

Another  breast-piece  from  this  mound,  showing  no  lamination,  was  marked 
'•  B  "  and  submitted  to  Doctor  Keller  who  reports  as  follows : 

"  The  quantitative  analysis  of  the  copper  plate  marked  "  B  "  resulted  as  follows  : 

Copper 97.425  per  cent. 

Silver 0.037  " 

Lead 1.082  " 

Bismuth 0.035  " 

Antimony 0.378  " 

Arsenic 0.071  " 

Iron 0.024  " 

Nickel 0.013  « 

Residue,  O,  Cl.,  etc 0.935  " 

In  this  case  we  have  a  copper  loaded  with  impurities,  among  which  is  lead, 
evidently  the  product  of  an  early  smelting  process — in  a  word,  copper  supplied  to 
the  aborigines  by  Europeans. 

It  is  seldom  we  are  able  to  give  from  one  mound,  native  copper  showing 
aboriginal  methods  of  work  and  copper  undoubtedly  obtained  by  the  aborigines 
from  European  sources. 

BRASS. 

Bells. — Two  sheet-brass  bells  resembling  sleigh-bells,  were  found  with  one 
burial  and  one  with  another.  We  read  that  hawk-bells,  small  bells  attached  to  the 
legs  of  falcons,  brought  over  by  Europeans,  were  popular  among  the  aborigines,  but 
the  bells  found  in  this  mound,  each  about  1  inch  in  diameter,  were,  perhaps,  too 
large  for  use  in  falconry.  The  upper  part  of  a  small  but  heavy  brass  bell  was 
present  with  a  burial. 

Miscellaneous. — An  object  of  brass,  perhaps  the  base  of  a  candlestick,  also 
was  met  with. 

1  "  The  History  of  Alabama,"  p.  27. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       331 


IKOX. 


Five  objects  of  iron,  one  the  link  of  a  chain,  some  others  possibly  spikes,  were 
found  with  burials  at  all  depths — even  at  the  base  of  the  mound. 

SILVER. 

An  undecorated  gorget  of  silver,  roughly  circular,  1.9  inches  in  diameter,  lay 
near  a  burial. 

GLASS. 

Glass  beads  were  present  in  five  or  six  instances,  some  near  the  base. 

DOG. 

Close  to  the  base  was  the  skeleton  of  a  dog,  the  skull  of  which,  though  the 
skeleton  was  of  post-Columbian  origin  and  possibly  of  mixed  breed,  was  sent  to 
Professor  Putnam  who  is  now  engaged  in  a  careful  study  of  aboriginal  dogs,1  in  the 
hope  that  it  might  prove  useful  for  comparison. 

The  existence  of  a  pre-Columbian  dog  is  denied  by  no  one. 

Cabec,a  de  Vaca  on  his  long  journey  among  the  tribes  before  unseen  by  white 
men,  repeatedly  encountered  dogs,  as  did  the  expedition  under  De  Soto.  Upon  one 
occasion  many  dogs  served  as  food  for  De  Soto's  men  on  the  upper  Coosa,  a  part  of 
the  Alabama  river. 

We  have  found  skeletal  remains  of  dogs  in  Florida  shell-heaps 2  which  are 
undoubtedly  pre-Columbian  and  skeletons  of  dogs  were  present,  singly,  in  certain 
mounds  opened  by  us  in  Florida3  and  in  South  Carolina,4  while  in  some  of  the 
Georgia  sea-islands 5  man's  truest  friend  was  accorded  a  regular  sepulture  in  the 
general  burial  mounds. 

ASSOCIATION    OF    OBJECTS. 

In  a  post-Columbian  mound  the  association  of  objects  with  burials  is  of  pecu 
liar  interest,  showing  the  use  of  articles  obtained  from  the  whites  along  with  objects 
of  purely  aboriginal  origin.  Not  to  weary  the  reader  with  too  long  a  list  we  give 
a  few  examples. 

With  the  skeleton  of  a  child  were  two  shell  gorgets  and  two  pins  of  shell. 

With  bones  of  an  adult  were  :  an  undecorated  gorget  of  shell ;  two  fine  shell 
pins ;  massive  beads  of  shell ;  a  fiat,  oblong  shell  bead  with  double  perforation  ;  and 
two  glass  beads. 

A  stone  hatchet,  shell  beads  and  two  copper  pendants  lay  together,  8  feet  down. 

1  "Thirty-second  Annual  Report  Peabody  Museum,"  page  4. 

"  "American  Naturalist,"  July,  1893. 

3  "  Certain  Sand  Mounds  of  the  St.  John's  River,  Florida."  Part  II.  Journ.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci. 
Phila.,  Vol.  X,  pg.  157.  "  Florida  Coast  Mounds  North  of  the  St.  Johns  River,"  pg.  25.  Privately 
printed,  Philadelphia,  1896. 

*  "Certain  Aboriginal  Mounds,  Coast  of  South  Carolina."  Journ.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.  Phila.  Vol. 
XI,  pg.  149. 

"Certain  Aboriginal  Mounds  of  the  Georgia  Coast."     Journ.  Acad.  Nat.  Sci.  Phila.,  Vol.  XI, 
pg.  127  el  al. 


332      CERTAIN   ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA   RIVER. 


\V,< 


FIG.  51. — Huimin  thigh-bone 
showing  workmanship. 

Small  mound  on  Char 
lotte  Thompson  Place. 
(Full  size.) 


Five  feet  from  the  surface,  with  human  remain,  lay  a  brass 
bell,  the  brass  base  of  a  candlestick  and  shell  beads. 

Glass  beads  with  a  gorget  and  beads  of  shell  had  been 
placed  with  remains  of  a  child.  Near  the  base,  together,  lay  a 
stone  "  celt,"  two  discoidal  stones,  a  bit  of  iron  and  a  copper 
pendant. 

A  shell  drinking  cup,  a  stone  "  celt,"  sheet  copper  and  iron 
lay  together  with  human  remains  on  the  base. 

Not  far  from  the  mound  just  described,  was  an  undulation 
composed  of  midden  refuse.  No  burials  were  met  with  in  it. 

In  the  same  field  was  another  rise  in  the  ground,  composed 
of  dark  sandy  loam  with  many  sherds  and  mussel-shells. 

Lying  on  the  surface,  where  the  plough  had  thrown  it  out, 
was  the  central  portion  of  the  shaft  of  a  human  femur,  4.8  inches 
in  length.  At  one  extremity  of  the  fragment  was  an  interesting 
exhibition  of  workmanship,  the  end  being  reamed  out  almost  to 
a  cutting  edge,  probably  to  serve  as  the  handle  to  a  tool. 

Careful  search  was  made  in  the  refuse  heap,  resulting  in  the 
finding,  about  0  inches  below  the  surface,  of  another  fragment 
which  fitted  to  the  one  already  found,  making  a  total  length  of 
8  inches.  This  portion  of  the  shaft  of  the  femur,  presumably  a 
woman's,  is  the  proximal  part  with  the  articular  portion  roughly 
broken  off.  The  bone  is  highly  polished,  presumably  through 
wear,  and  a  part  of  the  linea  aspera  is  worked  or  worn  away. 

This  interesting  specimen  is  shown  in  Fig.  51,  where  it  is 
represented  as  raised  somewhat  at  one  end  and  is  consequently 
foreshortened. 

During  all  our  mound  work  we  have  but  twice  before  found 
human  bones  bearing  trace  of  workmanship. 

In  the  Tick  island  mound  was  a  piercing  implement  wrought 
from  a  human  femur,1  wrhile  from  the  mound  at  Bluffton  came 
a  part  of  a  parietal  bone  decorated  with  incised  lines,  probably 
a  portion  of  a  gorget. 

Professor  Jeffries  Wyman,2  the  pioneer  of  shell-heap  investi 
gation  in  Florida,  says  :  "  We  have  not  found  tools  made  of 
human  bones,  but  it  is  not  improbable  that  these  were  used  for 
such  purposes,  as  the  sawed  human  thigh-bone  found  at  Osceola 
mound  naturally  suggests."  Professor  Wyman,  in  a  foot-note 
refers  to  a  humerus  from  a  human  skeleton,  ground  and  scraped 
as  though  for  a  tool,  found  in  a  shell-heap  at  Ipswich,  Mass. 
Professor  Putnam  also  has  described  this  bone. 


"Certain  Sand  Mounds  of  the  St.  Johns  River,  Florida,"  Part  I. 
"Fresh-Water  Shell  Mounds  of  the  St.  Johns  River,  Florida,"  p.  51. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       333 

Three  human  bones  covered  with  elaborate  incised  carving  from  Ohio  mounds 
have  been  described  by  Professor  Putnam  and  Mr.  Willoughby,  jointly,  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  1896,  and 
we  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Willoughby  for  the  information  that  there  are  in  the  Peabody 
Museum  fragments  of  two  elaborately  carved  parietal  bones  from  an  altar  in  the 
famous  Turner  group  of  mounds,  Ohio. 

Less  than  half  a  mile  in  a  westerly  direction  from  the  large  mound  is  a  mound 
about  4  feet  high,  of  red  clay,  which  had  been  so  dug  into  previously  that  farther 
investigation  was  not  considered  advisable. 


•-• 


MOUND  ON  THE  ROGERS  PLACE,  MONTGOMERY   COUNTY. 

About  1  mile  in  an  easterly  direction  from  the  mound  on  the  Charlotte  Thomp 
son  Place  is  a  considerably  smaller  mound,  on  the  property  of  Mr.  Loraine  Rogers, 
of  Montgomery,  who  kindly  placed  it  at  our  disposition. 

The  mound  was  partially  investigated  by  us,  but  as  it  seemed  to  be  of  a 
domiciliary  character  it  was  not  extensively  dug  through. 

MOUND  NEAK  HORSE-SHOE  BEND,  ELMORE  COUNTY. 

About  5  miles  below  Montgomery,  on  the  right  side  of  the  river,  going  down, 
at  the  upper  end  of  a  bend  known  as  the  Horse-shoe,  in  a  cultivated  field,  about  100 
yards  from  the  river  was  a  mound  bearing  no  sign  of  previous  examination.  Its 
height  was  4  feet  9  inches ;  its  diameter  of  base,  40  feet.  It  was  trenched  in  from 
the  margin  considerably  beyond  the  center,  with  kind  permission  of  Mr.  Henry 
Irvin,  of  Montgomery,  the  owner. 

It  was  of  unstratified  clay  with  no  sign  of  sherds,  fire-places  or  bone,  and  was 
doubtless  erected  for  domiciliary  purposes. 

MOUNDS  IN  THIRTY-ACRE  FIELD,  MONTGOMERY  COUNTY. 

At  Big  Eddy  Landing,  about  one  mile  below  the  union  of  the  Coosa  and  the 
Tallapoosa  rivers,  is  the  plantation  of  Mr.  A.  M.  Baldwin,  of  Montgomery,  through 
whose  kindness  and  that  of  Mr.  T.  R.  Stacey,  of  Chisholm,  Ala.,  under  whose  care 
the  plantation  is,  we  were  permitted  to  make  full  investigation. 

The  Thirty-Acre  Field  mound,  in  the  midst  of  a  cultivated  field  bordering  the 
swamp,  about  one-half  mile  in  an  E.  by  S.  direction  from  the  Alabama  river,  had 
been  at  times  washed  by  freshets,  but  still  preserved  the  shape  of  an  inverted  bowl. 
Its  height  was  13  feet;  its  base  diameter,  88  feet;  the  diameter  of  the  summit 
plateau,  42  feet. 

In  order  to  determine  the  nature  of  the  mound,  about  one-half  the  circumfer 
ence,  the  eastern  and  the  northern  portions,  were  surrounded  and  excavation  along 
the  line  of  the  base  was  carried  in  for  about  10  feet  without  discovering  interments. 

Next  a  portion  of  the  trench,  about  26  feet  across,  was  carried  in  8  feet  farther, 
or  almost  to  the  margin  of  the  summit  plateau,  still  with  no  trace  of  human  remains. 


334      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

Then  the  mound  was  surrounded  at  a  height  of  7  feet  from  the  base,  where 
the  section  was  62  feet  in  diameter,  and  excavation  along  that  level  was  begun. 
The  first  burial  was  met  with  4.5  feet  from  the  start,  or  about  5  feet  outside  the 
margin  of  the  summit  plateau,  but  not  until  we  had  gone  considerably  nearer  to 
the  plateau  were  burials  in  any  number  encountered. 

It  became  evident  from  this  and  from  the  digging  which  preceded  it,  that  the 
mound,  which  was  made  of  small  layers  and  considerable  masses  of  sand  with 
strata  of  clay  blackened  by  fire  and  admixture  of  midden  refuse,  had  been  dwelt 
upon  and  then  increased  in  height  and  diameter  a  number  of  times,  and  that,  during 
the  various  periods  of  occupation  of  the  mound,  burials  had  been  made  by  digging 
down  from  the  surface  of  what  happened  to  be  the  summit  plateau  at  the  time  of 
the  burial.  For  instance,  burials  were  present,  dug  down  from  the  level  of  the 
summit  plateau  as  it  was  at  the  time  of  our  investigation,  while  other  burials  lay 
considerably  deeper  in  pits,  which  could  be  traced  only  as  far  as  unbroken  strata 
three  or  four  feet  above.  Well  in,  toward  the  center  was  a  grave  10  feet  from  the 
surface,  but  only  4  feet  2  inches  beneath  unbroken  strata. 

Our  excavation,  therefore,  was  concave  in  shape,  the  deepest  portion  being  at 
the  center  of  the  mound.  It  is  possible  some  burials  were  missed  by  us,  but  we 
believe  them  to  have  been  few  indeed. 

SKELETONS. 

Owing  to  a  considerable  number  of  burials  in  a  comparatively  restricted  area 
there  were,  as  may  well  be  imagined,  many  aboriginal  disturbances  by  digging  of 
other  graves. 

Without  considering  such  scattered  bones,  111  skeletons  were  met  with,  all  in 
anatomical  order,  some  flexed  to  the  right,  some  to  the  left.  Others  were  partly 
flexed,  that  is  to  say,  the  trunks  lay  upon  the  back  with  the  legs  drawn  up  against 
the  thighs  and  turned  to  the  right  or  to  the  left. 

Skeleton  No.  102,  adult,  lay  with  the  trunk  on  the  back,  the  head  pressed  for 
ward  on  the  chest,  upper  arms  along  the  body  and  forearms  across  the  trunk.  The 
legs  were  drawn  up  to  the  thighs,  the  knees  to  the  thorax.  The  feet  were  turned 
inward  toward  each  other,  the  toes  meeting  below  the  pelvis. 

As  this  skeleton  presented  certain  features  of  interest  as  to  form  of  interment 
and  was  in  much  better  condition  than  most  others  in  the  mound,  it  was  decided  to 
make  an  effort  to  save  it  intact.  The  clay,  except  that  immediately  under  the 
bones,  was  dug  away  until  the  skeleton  lay  a  couple  of  feet  above  the  general  level 
of  that  part  of  the  excavation. 

Next,  the  skeleton  and  the  bed  of  supporting  clay  were  saturated  with  glue 
and  a  slow  fire  was  built  around  to  aid  in  drying.  This  fire  was  kept  up  about 
six  hours. 

Then  the  skeleton  and  the  mass  beneath  were  allowed  twenty-four  hours  for 
additional  solidification,  a  platform  having  been  built  above  to  keep  off  dew  and  rain. 

The  next  step  was  to  sever  the  skeleton  with  about  one  foot  of  partially  dried 


2 

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330       CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 


clay  from  the  rest  of  the  mass,  with  the  aid  of  a  large  saw,  and  (day  and  hones, 
supported  by  the  saw,  were  gently  pushed  over  on  to  a  sort  of  stretcher  constructed 
for  the  purpose  in  advance. 

The  mass,  by  no  means  light,  was  carried  by  men  long  used  to  mound  work, 
across  the  field  and  down  a  slippery  clay  bank  to  a  bateau  in  which  the  journey  was 
safely  made  to  our  steamer  lying  in  the  river. 

After  this,  the  mass  was  treated  to  another  bath  of  glue  and  allowed  to  remain 
two  weeks  on  the  boiler  of  the  steamer.  The  next  stage  was  reached  in  our  labora 
tory  on  the  upper  deck  where  all  the  clay,  but  a  thin  layer,  was  worked  off  and  two 
iron  rods  were  placed  longitudinally  beneath.  The  base  of  the  clay  then  received 
a  coat  of  cement  which  included  the  rods. 

The  mass  was  carefully  packed  in  a  crate  and  the  crate,  in  its  turn,  encased  in 
a  box,  surrounded  by  elastic  packing,  and  the  whole  was  sent  North  by  express 
under  special  arrangement  as  to  care  in  transportation. 

This  burial  is  shown  in  Fig.  52. 

A  few  skeletons  of  infants  lay  apparently  at  full  length. 

The  skeletons  in  this  mound  headed  in  all  directions. 

The  bones,  which  were  badly  decayed,  no  cranium  with  the  exception  of  that 
of  Burial  No.  102  being  preserved,  showed  no  fractures  during  life  and  in  but  one 
case,  osteitis,  was  a  pathological  condition  present. 

SHELL. 

Beads. — With  a  considerable  number  of  skeletons  were  beads  of  shell,  usually 
at  the  neck,  but  at  times  extending  down  the  chest  and  occasionally  at  the  wrist. 
Some  were  small  marine  shells  (Marginelld]  pierced  for  stringing ;  others  were  of 
the  ordinary  type,  of  various  sizes,  including  sections  of  eolumellse,  2.3  inches  in 
major  diameter. 


Fl<[.  53. — Gorget  of  shell.     Mound  in  Thirty- 
Acre  Field.     (Full  size.) 


FIG.  53a. — Drawing  of  gorget  shown  in  Fig. 
5:5.     (Full  size.) 


With  one  skeleton  were  forty-eight  tint  beads,  almost  square,  as  a  rule,  with 
double  perforation,  somewhat  larger,  but  less  ornate  than  those  from  Durand's  Bend 
and  from  the  Charlotte  Thompson  Place. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       337 

Pins. — Quantities  of  shell  pins,  some  6.5  inches  in  length,  were  with  the 
skeletons,  always  near  the  skull.  No  less  than  six  were  found  with  a  single  burial. 

Gorgets. — Near  the  bones  of  an  adult  and  of  an  infant,  buried  together,  was  a 
circular  gorget  of  shell,  '2  inches  in  diameter,  slightly  broken  at  one  part  of  the  rim. 
The  decoration  is  carved  and  engraved  on  one  side,  as  shown  in  Fig.  53,  where  the 
figure  is  reversed,  and  shows  a  grotesque  head  probably  represented  as  wearing  a 
mask,  with  a  great  nose  and  a  huge,  protruding  tongue.  The  design  on  this  gorget 
has  been  carefully  drawn  to  scale,  much  enlarged  by  the  aid  of  a  magnifying  glass, 
and  reduced  to  natural  size  in  reproduction.  The  excised  portions  are  shown  in 
black.  Prof.  Frank  Hamilton  dishing  believes  the  figure  to  be  kneeling,  one  hand 
grasping  a  baton,  the  other  resting  on  the  exceedingly  flexed  knee.  The  teeth  are 
closed.  The  figure  is  probably  represented  as  blowing  or  hissing.  According  to 
Professor  Gushing  the  figure  has  the  double  beaded  forelock,  common  to  certain 
warrior  figures  on  shell  gorgets  and  copper  plates. 

In  General  Thruston's  "Antiquities  of  Tennessee,"  Second  Edition,  Chapter 
IX,  and  supplement  to  Chapter  IX,  is  a  comprehensive  account,  fully  illustrated,  of 
these  rare  and  interesting  human  figures  sometimes  found  on  gorgets  of  shell  and 
plates  of  copper,  and  they  are  also  described  in  Professor  Holmes'  "Art  in  Shell."  ] 

With  skeleton  No.  66,  a  child's,  was  an  oblong  gorget  of  shell  with  rounded 
corners,  having  double  perforation  for  suspension  at  one  corner,  1.8  inches  by  1.6 
inches.  In  the  center  is  an  incised  circle  with  semi-perforations  and  a  quarter 
circle  with  a  semi-perforation  in  each  corner,  as  shown  in  Fig.  54. 


FIG.  54.— Gorget  of  shell.     Mound  in  Thirty-  Fi«.  55.— Gorget  of  shell.     Mound  in  Thirty- 

Acre  Field.     (Full  size.)  Acre  Field.     (Full  size.) 

Skeleton  No.  90,  of  an  infant,  had  two  hairpins  of  shell  and  two  circular 
gorgets  of  shell.  Curiously  enough,  no  beads  were  met  with. 

One  gorget,  2  inches  in  diameter,  has  on  one  side  an  interesting  incised  decora 
tion  representing  two  birds,  standing,  facinsr  each  other,  their  bills  almost  in  contact 
(Fig.  55). 

1  Second  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  1880-1881. 
43  JOUEN.  A.  N.  S.  PHILA.,  VOL.  XI. 


338      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 


FIG.  56.— Gorget  of  shell.     Mound  in  Thirty-Acre 
Field.     (Full  size.) 


FIG.  56a.— Drawing  of  gorget  shown  in  Fig.  56. 
(Full  size.) 


FIG.  57. — Earthenware  vessel.     Mound  in  Thirty-Acre  Field.     (About  five-sixths  size.) 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF    THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       339 

The  other  gorget,  trebly  perforated  for  suspension,  shown  in  half-tone,  Fig.  56, 
where  the  figures  have  unfortunately  been  reversed,  and  drawn  in  Fig.  5Qa,  has  a 
design  we  have  been  unable  to  decipher. 

Professor  Gushing,  who  has  kindly  given  the  matter  of  these  gorgets  con 
siderable  attention,  considers  the  design  to  be  figures  of  blowing  gods  or  warriors 
surrounded  by  one  of  the  typical  gorget  serpents. 

Several  other  gorgets,  all  undecorated,  broken  beyond  redemption,  were  met 
with. 

Miscellaneous. — With  a  number  of  massive  beads  was  an  ovoid  object  of  shell, 
imperforate,  1.9  inches  long  by  about  1.4  inches  in  thickness. 

EARTHENWARE. 

Vessels. — With  burial  No.  54  was  a  vessel  of  the  type  in  use  at  Durand's 
Bend  though  much  smaller  and  having,  in  addition  to  the  upright  ridges,  the  small 
loop-shaped  handles.  This  vessel  has  a  maximum  diameter  of  4.3  inches  and  is  2.8 
inches  in  height.  It  was  unfortunately  broken  by  a  blow  from  a  spade,  but  has 
been  partly  pieced  together.  With  another  burial  was  a  water-bottle  witli  maxi 
mum  diameter  of  4.9  inches  and  a  height  of  4.2  inches  having  five  protuberances 
around  the  body,  enclosed  in  double  incised  lines.  Between  are  incised  lines 
running  diagonally.  The  vessel  had  fallen  to  pieces,  but  had  been  put  together 
with  the  exception  of  a  portion  of  the  base  (Fig.  57). 


FIG.  58.— Tobacco-pipe.     Mound  in  Thirty-Acre  Field. 
(Full  size.) 


Fie;.  59. — Handle  of  earthenware  vessel.     Mound  in 
Thirty-Acre  Field.     (Full  size.) 


Tobacco-pipe. — An  undecorated  tobacco-pipe  was  found  in  loose  dirt  thrown 
out  by  the  diggers  (Fig.  58). 

Miscellaneous. — Loose  in  the  mound,  in  midden  refuse,  were  numbers  of 
earthenware  discs,  wrought  from  sherds,  for  use  in  games  as  before  described. 

The  earthenware  head  of  a  bird,  which  had  seen  service  as  the  handle 
of  a  vessel,  was  found  loose  in  the  earth  (Fig.  59). 

STONE. 

Tobacco-pipe. — In  earth  thrown  out  by  the  diggers  was  a  rude  soapstone  pipe 
with  oblong  bowl,  similar  in  type  to  those  described  by  us  in  other  reports  as  coming 
from  the  lower  St.  Johns  river,  Florida,  though  smaller. 


FIG.  60. — "  Hoe-shaped  implement."     Mound  in  Thirty-Acre  Field.     (Full  size.) 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       341 


"Hoe-shaped  Implements"-— Burial  No.  79,  adult,  a  delicate  male  or  a  female, 
had  shell  beads  at  the  neck  and  a  "hoe-shaped  implement"  of  volcanic  rock,  5.3 
inches  long  and  4.5  inches  in  maximum  diameter  of  blade.  There  i,s  no  perforation. 
No  mark  of  use  is  apparent. 

Burial  No.  88,  adult,  had  shell  beads  and  hairpins  and  an  imperforate  "  hoe- 
shaped  implement  "  of  volcanic  rock,  6.3  inches  long  and  4.8  inches  across  the  body. 
It  also  bears  no  mark  of  use. 

With  burial  No.  105,  an  adult,  was  an  interesting  association  of  objects.  By 
the  neck  were  massive  beads  of  shell  and  an  ovoid  object  of  shell.  On  the  chest 
lay  a  "  hoe-shaped  implement "  of  felsitic  rock,  with  a  shank  unusually  long,  the  total 
length  being  9.4  inches,  while  the  maximum  diameter  of  blade  is  but  4.3  inches. 
On  one  side  of  the  shank  are  marks  where  a  perforation  has  been  attempted  with  a 
tubular  drill.  A  handle  has  encircled  part  of  the  shank  beginning  at  the  abandoned 
perforation  and  extending  back  to  about  1.5  inches  from  the  end,  as  may  be  seen 
in  Fig.  GO. 

Discoidal  Stones. — Throughout  the  mound,  in  midden  refuse,  were  a  number 
of  Hat  pebbles  rudely  rounded  for  use  as  discoid al  stones. 

At  the  elbow  of  Burial  No.  45  was  a  beautifully 
wrought  discoidal  stone  of  quartz,  3  inches  in  diameter, 
while  near  the  hand  of  Burial  No.  100  was  a  slightly 
larger  discoidal  stone  of  Granulyte.  Several  smaller 
discoidals  of  volcanic  rock  came  from  this  mound.  A 
discoidal  of  clayey  rock  bore  an  incised  cross  (Fig.  Gl). 

"  Celts." — Several  hatchets  and  chisels  of  the  usual 
rocks  were  present  in  the  mound. 

Miscellaneous. — Scattered  throughout  the  mound, 
but  never  with  burials,  were  numbers  of  perforated  peb 
bles,  natural  formations,  to  which  we  have  already  alluded. 

Several  unassociated  arrowheads  were  met  with  and  one  of  quartz  near  the 
head  of  a  skeleton. 

Fragments  of  mica  were  encountered  in  places. 

Near  skeletons  were  a  small  boivl  seemingly  made 
from  part  of  a  geode  and  a  beautiful  little  ornament  of  red 
jasper,  perforated  for  suspension  (Fig.  G2). 

COPPER. 

FIG.  02.— Ornament  of  red  jas-  Two   discs   of    sheet  copper   were   in   disturbed   earth 

Aci*  F^V.'VFuiYsizeo     near  a  skeleton,  while  two  other  skeletons  had  discs  of  a 

similar  type  on  either  side  of  the  skull.      These  ornaments, 

one  pair  of  which  was  2  inches  in  diameter  each,  the  other  1.5  inches  each,  were 
of  the  familiar  type,  namely,  an  incused  boss  in  the  middle  with  a  small  central 
perforation  for  attachment  and  marginal  decoration  of  concavo-convex  beading.  All 
apparently  had  been  mounted  on  a  thin  layer  of  wood. 

With  a  skeleton  were  the  remains  of  a  sheet  copper  pendant  in  the  shape  of 
an  arrowhead  with  blunt  point. 


FIG.  Gl. — Disc  »f  clayey  rock. 
Mound  in  Thirty- Acre 
Field.  (Full  size.) 


342       CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

A  rattle  consisting  of  a  tortoise  shell,  much  decayed,  containing  many  small 
pebbles,  lay  near  a  skeleton,  and  near  another  was  a  piercing  implement  of  bone 
pointed  at  either  end. 

REMARKS. 

Nothing  indicating  a  knowledge  of  the  whites  was  met  with  in  this  interesting 
mound  with  a  single  exception.  A  colored  man  at  work  at  a  place  across  which 
much  superficial  material  had  been  thrown,  found  a  leaden  bullet.  We  do  not  con 
sider  this  discovery  as  of  necessity  indicating  a  post-Columbian  origin  for  the 
mound,  and  are  inclined  to  believe  that  aborigines  having  a  leaden  bullet  would 
have  had  many  other  articles  of  European  make  which  would  have  found  their 
way  into  the  body  of  the  mound. 

SMALLER  MOUND  IN  THE  THIRTY-ACRE  FIELD,  MONTGOMERY  COUNTY. 

About  twenty-five  yards  in  a  westerly  direction  from  the  mound  in  the  Thirty- 
Acre  Field,  was  a  much  smaller  one  almost  ploughed  away.  In  fact,  had  it  not 
been  of  a  lighter  color  than  the  surrounding  soil,  it  might  have  escaped  our  notice. 
Its  height  was  about  1  foot ;  its  diameter,  about  50  feet. 

It  was  completely  dug  through  at  a  depth  of  about  I  to  1.5  feet  from  the 
surface  where  undisturbed  clay  was  met  with.  The  upper 
part  of  the  mound  was  of  yellowish  clay ;  the  lower,  of  dark 
material  consisting  of  clay  and  of  midden  refuse. 

Thirty-one    interments,   similar    to    those    found    in    the 
other  mound,  were  uncovered. 

In  the  debris  were  the  usual  pebbles,  chipped  into  dis- 
coidal  form,  polished  chisels,  broken  "  celts."  hammer-stones, 
FIG.  63.— DISC  of  earthen-     etc.     Also  a  perforated  disc  of  earthenware  and  another  with 
™r%-\mcreFieT1(KJn     the  perforation  surrounded  by  lines,  as  shown  in  Fig.  63. 

With  the  burials  were  many  shell  pins  and  beads  includ 
ing  a  considerable  number  of  flat  beads  Larger  than  those  found  before.  We  give 
a  selection  in  Fig.  64. 

In  addition,  were  a  handsome  discoidal  stone ;  a  stopper-shaped  object  of 
earthenware,  somewhat  broken  ;  four  cubes  of  galena ;  a  sheet  copper  pendant, 
badly  broken,  similar  in  style  to  the  one  from  the  other  mound  and  to  those  from 
the  Charlotte  Thompson  Place. 

With  burials  were  two  lots  of  sheet  copper  pendants  of  the  prevalent  blunt- 
pointed  arrowhead  type.  The  first  lot  of  seven  varied  in  length  from  2.8  inches  to 
3.(J  inches  and  in  maximum  breadth  from  1  inch  to  1.8  inches.  Two  lay  separately 
near  the  head,  while  five,  near  by,  piled  one  upon  the  other,  were  apparently  upon 
decayed  bark  enclosed  in  matting  which  the  copper  salt  had  preserved.  This 
matting  was  made  of  split  cane  which,  in  one  direction,  goes  once  under  and  four 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       343 

times  over  and,  on  the  same  side,  in  the  other  direction,  run.s  over  one  and  under 
four,  as  shown  in  Fig.  65.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  matting  the  pattern  is,  of 
course,  reversed. 


FIG.  64. — Shell  beads.     Smaller  mound  in  Thirty-Acre  Field.     (Full  size.) 

The  other  lot  of  pendants,  eight  in  number,  were  piled  one  upon  the  other. 
In  size  they  resembled  the  others. 

The  decoration  on  all  the  pendants  had  been  conferred  by  pressure.     On  the 


FIG.  65. — Matting.    Smaller  mound  in  Thirty-Acre  Field.     (Full  size.) 

upper  part  was  a  portion  of  the  aboriginal  eye,  and  as  this  eye  was  not  complete,  it 
seemed  to  us  at  first  as  though  the  pendants  had  been  cut  from  a  sheet  of  copper  previ 
ously  decorated.  Upon  closer  examination,  however,  it  was  noted  that  the  section 


344       CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 


FIG.  (iG. — Pendants  of  sheet  copper.     Smaller  mound  in  Thirty-Acre  Field.     (Full  size.) 

of  the  eye  always  occupied  the  same 
place  on  the  pendant,  and  that  the 
eyes,  though  having  a  general  resem 
blance,  were  in  no  case  exactly  alike. 
Moreover,  the  decoration  beneath, 
though  similar  in  a  general  way,  was 
never  identical  as  would  have  been 
the  case,  had  the  design  resulted  from 
a  stamp  rather  than  from  the  pressure 
of  a  moving  object  such  as  horn  pushed 
down  on  copper  placed  over  buckskin. 
We  have  not  been  able  to  learn  the 
meaning  of  this  design  which,  however, 
is  distinctly  aboriginal.  A  selection  of 
these  interesting  pendants  is  shown  in 
Figs.  GO,  07. 

There  came  also  from  this  mound 
a    small,  coarse,   undecorated    pot    and 
a  water-bottle  of  smooth    black   ware, 
badly  broken,   5   inches   high   and   4.3 
inches  in  maximum  diameter,  with  incised  decoration   (Fig.   OS). 


FKJ.  (>7. — Pendants  of  sheet  o.opper.    Smaller  mo:ind  in 
Thirty-Acre  Field.     (Full  size.) 


Morxi)  IN  BH;  EDDY  FIELD,   MONTCOMKKY  COUNTY. 

This  mound,  in  a  field  known  as  Big  Field  or  the  Big  Eddy  Field,  is  about  one- 
half  mile  in  a  southwesterly  direction  from  the  larger  mound  in  the  Thirty-Acre 
Field  and  is  under  the  same  ownership.  In  the  midst  of  a  level  field,  long  under 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER.       345 

cultivation,  it  is  a  great  landmark  looming  up  from  all  directions.  Though  washed 
by  rain  and  by  freshets  it  has  fairly  well  retained  its  shape  of  a  truncated  cone,  and 
has  been  a  place  of  refuge  for  stock  when  territory  for  miles  around  had  been  sub 
merged.  Its  height  was  10  feet  7  inches;  the  diameter  of  its  base,  108  feet,  and 
that  of  the  summit  plateau,  about  50  feet. 


FIG.  68.— Water-bottle  of  eartheuware.     Smaller  mound  in  Thirty-Acre  Field.     (Full  size.) 

Owing  to  its  advantage  in  flood  time  a  great  reduction  in  the  height  of  the 
mound  was  not  deemed  advisable.  We  were,  however,  permitted  to  dig  through 
the  upper  G  feet. 

The  mound,  so  far  as  investigated,  was  of  much  softer  material  than  the 
mound  in  the  Thirty-Acre  Field,  being  homogeneous,  composed  of  sandy  clay, 
without  layers  of  occupation,  though  midden  refuse  and  marks  of  lire  were  present 
in  places. 

It  transpired  during  the  digging  that  the  upper  part  of  the  mound  had  been  in  use 
as  a  sort  of  cemetery  in  comparatively  recent  times.  Curiously  enough,  as  though 

44  JOURX.  A.  N.  S.   PHILA.,  VOL.  XI. 


346      CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE    ALABAMA    RIVER. 

a  survival  of  the  aboriginal  custom  of  placing  objects  with  the  dead,  on  the  breast 
of  a  child  in  a  pine  coffin  was  a  Spanish  piece  of  eight  reals  of  the  year  1815 — one 
of  those  ''pieces  of  eight"  which  the  buccaneers  so  highly  prized. 

In  all,  nineteen  aboriginal  burials,  some  greatly  disturbed,  were  met  with,  the 
form  coinciding  with  that  in  vogue  in  the  mounds  in  the  Thirty-Acre  Field.  All 
bones  were  past  preservation,  through  decay. 

With  burials  were  a  handsome  "celt"  of  fine-grained  Syenite,  11.5  inches  in 
length  ;  a  chisel ;  quantities  of  shell  beads  and  pins ;  a  mushroom-shaped  object  of 
earthenware,  somewhat  broken  ;  a  deposit  of  copper  pendants,  in  small  pieces,  of 
the  type  already  described  ;  two  discs  of  copper  of  the  type  found  in  the  Thirty- 
Acre  Field  mound  and  another  deposit  of  pendants,  one  on  the  other,  similar  in 
type  to  the  other  lot.  These  pendants  lay  on  a  coarse  fabric  of  twisted  vegetable 
fibre,  which,  in  its  turn,  lay  upon  cane  matting.  This  material,  like  other  wrap 
ping  material  found  on  copper  in  other  sections,  was,  in  our  opinion,  not  to  envelop 
the  copper  alone,  but  was  simply  a  part  of  a  general  envelopment  of  the  entire 
skeleton  of  which  the  portion  found,  preserved  by  the  copper  salt,  alone  remains. 
We  see  how  the  Peruvians  wrapped  their  dead  and  doubtless,  in  many  sections,  a 
similar  custom  obtained  in  this  country. 

Mr.  Harlan  I.  Smith,  of  the  Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition,  has  recently 
published  the  results  of  his  work  in  the  southern  interior  of  British  Columbia.1  Of 
the  burials  there  he  tells  us,  "  the  bodies  were  buried  upon  the  side,  with  the  knees 
drawn  up  to  the  chest.  They  were  wrapped  in  a  fabric  made  of  sage-brush  bark, 
and  were  covered  with  mats  of  woven  rushes." 

MOUND  AT  JACKSON'S  BEND,  ELMORK  COUNTY. 

Jackson's  Bend,  having  the  Alabama  on  one  side,  the  Coosa  on  another,  has, 
on  the  Coosa  side,  a  farm  belonging  to  Mr.  Brown  Jackson,  colored,  overlooking  the 
water.  In  periods  succeeding  floods  it  has  been  the  custon  of  those  residing  near 

to  examine  the  section  of  the  bluff  laid  bare  and  to  dig 
where  dark-colored  earth,  running  down,  indicated  the  pres 
ence  of  a  grave.  We  were  shown  many  objects  of  interest 
taken  from  these  graves,  some  of  which,  kindly  presented 
to  us,  showed  contact  with  the  whites.  Among  the  objects 
of  aboriginal  make  was  a  portion  of  a  bowl  of  a  tobacco- 
pipe  in  the  shape  of  a  human  head  (Fig.  69). 

In  the  S.  E.  corner  of  the  Bluff  Field,  over  which  were 
scattered  numerous  arrowheads  of  quartz  and  of  chert,  was 
a  mound  long  under  cultivation,  about  3.5  feet  high  and  of 
indeterminable  basal  diameter.  This  mound,  which,  we  are 

told,  had  been  previously  dug  into,  was  trenched  to  a  certain  extent  by  us,  resulting 
in  the  discovery  of  the  head  and  shoulders  of  a  skeleton  with  a  number  of  marine 
shells  (Oliva  literatd]  perforated  longitudinally  for  stringing.     The  remainder  of 
1  "Science."  N.  8.,  Vol.  IX,  No.  224,  pp.  535  to  539,  April  14,  1899. 


CERTAIN    ABORIGINAL    REMAINS   OF   THE   ALABAMA    RIVER.       347 

the  skeleton,  presumably,  had  been  dug  away.  Not  far  distant,  near  the  surface, 
lay  a  skeleton  on  its  back  with  machine-made  nails  in  association — doubtless  a 
recent  burial. 

GENERAL  REMARKS. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  mounds  of  the  Alabama  are  small  in  size,  increasing 
somewhat  in  the  northern  portion  where  the  country  is  more  elevated,  and  present 
no  striking  features  structurally. 

Of  sites  of  former  cemeteries  reported  to  us  in  considerable  number,  revealed 
by  the  action  of  Hoods,  but  one  still  yielded  interments  to  a  careful  search,  so,  as  to 
these,  we  are  unable  to  draw  definite  conclusions. 

The  artifacts  of  the  early  inhabitants  of  the  banks  of  the  Alabama  resemble  in  a 
general  way  aboriginal  objects  used  elsewhere.  Quartz  largely  superseded,  as  a  mate 
rial  for  projectile  points,  the  chert  in  use  in  Florida  and  on  the  Georgia  coast.  Earthen 
ware  was  often  of  fairly  good  quality  and,  as  a  rule,  had  admixture  of  pounded 
shell  with  the  clay.  The  type  and  decoration  of  vessels  found  entire  by  us  were 
not  striking,  though  heads  of  birds  and  other  fragments  occasionally  found  indicate 
the  use  of  such  articles  as  handles  on  interesting  forms  of  ware,  and  with  the 
admixture  of  pounded  shell  and  with  loop-shaped  handles  suggest  Tennessean  influ 
ence,  while  occasional  polished  black  ware  recalls  the  vessels  of  Mississippi.  The 
gritty  ware  of  lower  Georgia  and  its  complicated  stamp  decoration  were  almost 
absent  from  the  Alabama  river,  though  occasional  sherds  with  decoration  of  the 
kind  prevailing  in  Georgia,  Carolina,  and  sometimes  found  in  upper  Florida  were 
met  with.  No  pottery  was  found  of  the  highest  standard  of  that  beautiful  ware  in 
use  along  the  Gulf  in  aboriginal  times. 

Perforation  below  the  rim  on  opposite  sides  of  the  vessel,  which  served  for 
purposes  of  suspension,  was  practically  absent  from  vessels  found  by  us  along  the 
Alabama  river. 

The  most  striking  feature  of  the  Alabama,  and  one  new  to  our  work,  was 
plural  burials  of  uncremated  bones  in  single  urns.  On  the  Georgia  coast,  while 
vessels  often  filled  to  the  top  with  calcined  remains  are  met  with,  we  have  never 
found,  or  heard  of  the  finding  of,  over  one  unburnt  skeleton  in  a  single  vessel. 

Another  feature  of  interest  was  the  almost  total  absence  of  cremation.  While 
in  Florida  this  rite  was  often  practised,  and  while  the  mounds  of  many  of  the 
rivers  of  Georgia  and  of  its  coast  teem  with  calcined  human  remains  contained 
in  urns  or  unenclosed,  but  one  case  of  cremation  was  met  with  by  us  along  the 
entire  Alabama  river. 


INDEX. 


Aboriginal  copper  chemically 
considered,  328,  329,  330. 

Animal  head  of  earthenware, 
used  as  handle  of  vessel,  324. 

Anklet  of  tines  of  stag  horn,  325. 

Association  of  objects  in  post- 
Columbian  mound,  331. 

"  Bannerstoue"  of  hematite,  307. 
Big  Eddy  Field,  mound  in,  344. 
Bird  head  of  earthenware,  used 

as  handle  of  vessel,  294,  296, 

298,  339. 
Brass,  330. 

Breast-pieces  of  copper,  327. 
Bui-ford's  Landing,  mound  near, 

297. 
Burford's  Plantation,  mound  on, 

297. 

Cemetery  at  Nancy  Harris  Land 
ing,  296. 
Charlotte    Thompson     Place, 

mound  on,  319. 
Copper,   aboriginal,   analysis  of, 

329. 
Copper,   aboriginal,    chemically, 

considered,  328,  329,  330. 
Copper  bead,  295. 
Copper  breast-pieces,  327. 
Copper  disc,  303,  341,  346.       • 
Copper,   European,   analysis   of, 

330. 
Copper  pendants,  326,  341,  342, 

346. 
Copper   spool-shaped   ornament, 

303. 
Cranial    compression,    298,   307, 

314. 
Cremation,  302,  347. 

Disc  of  copper,  303,  328. 

Discoidal  stones,  294,  301,  306, 
307,  326,  341,  342. 

Discs  of  earthenware,  294,  298, 
306,  323,  339,  342. 

Dog,  381. 

Drinking  cup  of  shell,  323. 

Durand's  Bend,  aboriginal  ceme 
tery  at,  303. 


Ear-plugs  of  shell,  293,  295,  321, 

322. 
Earthenware,  292,  293,  294,  299, 

300,  301,  31(1,  311,  312,  314, 

315,  317,  318,  319,  323,  339, 

344,  347. 

Fish-hook  of  bone,  322. 
Fish-hook  of  shell,  322. 

Galena,  342. 
General  remarks,  347. 
Glass  beads,  295,  331. 
Gorget  of  Felaite,  32(i. 
Gorget  of  silver,  331. 
Gorgets  of  shell,  295,  297,  310, 
317,  320,  337. 

"Hoe-shaped  implements,"  308, 
326. 

Horse-shoe  Bend,  mound  near, 
333. 

Human  bone  showing  workman 
ship,  332. 

Human  head  of  earthenware,  300. 

Hunter  Place,  mound  on,  302. 

Iron,  290,  331. 

Jackson's  Bend,  mound  at,  340. 
Jasper,  ornament  of,  341. 
Joel    Matthews'    Place,    mound 
on,  302. 

List  of  mounds  investigated,  290. 
Little  river,  mound  at,  291. 

Map,  288. 

Matthews'   Landing,    mounds 

near,  297. 
Matting  of  cane,  328,  342,  343, 

340. 
Morrisette  mound,  290. 

Nancy    Harris    Landing,    ceme 
tery  at,  290. 
Necklace  of  shell,  311. 

Pearl,  perforated,  295. 
Pendants   of   copper,  320,  341, 
342.  340. 


Perforation,  basal,  of  surmount 
ing  vessel,  310,  318. 

Perforation  of  base  of  vessels, 
occasional,  309,  312,  315. 

Piercing  implement  of  bone,  325. 

Pins  of  shell,  295,  320,  337,  342, 
346. 

Plural   burials  in   single   vessel, 

300,  347. 

Post-Columbian  mound,  associa 
tion  of  objects  in,  331. 

Potts  Landing,  mound  near,  290. 
Putnam,  Professor,  328. 

Rattle,  342. 

Rogers  Place,  mound  on,  333. 

Scraper  made  from  a  mussel- 
shell.  323. 

Shell  disc,  298,  301,  308. 

Shell  ornament,  311. 

Silver,  331. 

Skeleton,  flexed,  preservation  of, 
334. 

Spool-shaped  ornament  of  cop 
per,  303. 

Stopper-shaped  object  of  earthen 
ware,  325,  342,  340. 

Teeth  of  carnivores,  307. 
Thirty-Acre    Field,   mounds  in, 

333. 
Thirty- Acre     Field,     smaller 

mound  iu,  342. 
Tobacco-pipes,  324,  339,  340. 
Twenty-Four-Mile  Bend,  mound 

near,  291. 
Twenty-One-Mile    Bluff,  mound 

at,  291. 

Urn-burials,   292,  293,  21)9,  300, 

301,  308,  309,  310,  311,  312, 
314,  315,  317,  318,  319. 

Webbs'   Landing,  mound    near, 

296. 

Woven  fabric,  328. 
Wristlet  from  tines  of  stag  horn, 

308. 


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General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


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University  of  California 
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