1900] Mills — Baum Prehistoric Village Site 7 



were carefully covered over with slabs of slate. With those children 

 whose graves were carefully covered no implements or ornaments 

 of any sort were placed. Of the sixty-three skeletons found, 

 not a single perfect piece of pottery was found buried with them, 

 differing greatly from the Madisonville Prehistoric Cemetery 

 near Cincinnati, for at the latter cemetery quantities of pottery in 

 their perfect state was found, buried with the skeletons. The 

 pottery, implements and ornaments at Madisonville can be readily 

 duplicated from the village at Paint Creek. 



In the ash pits can be found specimens showing the master- 

 pieces of art wrought in stone, bone and shell, representing the 

 civilization which at one time inhabited this village. Of the bone 

 implements, the needle, made from the bones of the deer and elk is 

 most beautiful in design, at the same time showing the skill dis- 

 played in the manufacture of the implements. Some of them are 

 upward of nine inches in length Of the bone specimens perhaps- 

 the bead is the commonest. In some pits more than two hundred 

 have been taken out. In tliese ash pits were also found well wrought 

 specimens of aboriginal fish hooks, also specimens showing the var- 

 ious stages of manufacture of this implement, which differs some- 

 what from the manufacture of those found at Madisonville, a full 

 account of which appears in tlie 20tli Annual Report of the Trustees 

 of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, by Prof. F. W. Put- 

 nam, in which he fully describes the manufacture of the fish hooks 

 found in the prehistoric village site. In no instance was an unfinished 

 specimen found in the Baum Village which would, in any way, show 

 that a hole was first bored through the bone and the fish hook then 

 wrought from this Iiole as was shown by Prof. Putnam; on the con- 

 trary a piece of bone was selected and cut into sliape representing a 

 small tablet of bone two and one-half inclies long by from one-half 

 to three-quarters of an inch broad, with rounded edges at the ends. 

 The center was then cut oiit by rubbing with a stone on each side. 

 So that two fish liooks were made instead of one from the single 

 piece of bone. A great many perfect scrapers made from the meta- 

 carpal bone of the deer and elk were also found, while almost every 

 pit would contain from one to four broken halves of these scrapers. 

 Specimens were also procured showing the various stages in the 

 manufacture of this implement whicli resemble very much in every 

 particular those found at Madisonville, and also those found at the 

 village site at Fort Ancient. 



The pottery fragments found in these ash pits resemble those 

 found at Madisonville, in the ornamentation by incised lines, imple- 

 ment indentations arranged in figures, and handles ornamented with 

 effigies of birds and animals. Of the shell implements, perhaps the 

 most common is the shell hoe, which is made from the mussel shell 

 Unto plicatus. 



