128 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



ABCH^OLOGICAL 

 EXPLORATIONS NEAR MABISONVILLE, OHIO. 



PART II. 



SEPTEMBEE 1 TO DECEMBEK 8, 1879. 



On September 1st, three ash pits were opened, and two skeletons 

 exhumed; the latter were lying horizontall}- at a depth of eighteen 

 inches, and the cranium of one was missing. 



Friday, September 5th, two more skeletons were found, both of 

 adults. One of these was 5 feet 3 inches in length, while the other, 

 exclusive of the head, which was missing, measured 5 feet 4 inches. 

 The hands of the latter, judging from the position in which they were 

 found, had apparently been cut off before burial and laid upon the 

 chest. Immediately north of this last skeleton was a fire-place or 

 hearth 10 feet in length, 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep, containing cal- 

 cined limestone, broken boulders, sherds, ashes and animal remains ; 

 the earth in and on the sides of the excavation was baked and burned 

 red. Two similar hearths were found on the 8th and 9th, and two 

 skeletons exhumed. 



One of these skeletons was l3^ing in a horizontal position, two feet 

 below the surface, and directl}- under the decayed trunk of a walnut 

 tree, which was 3 feet 10 inches in diameter. 



Several ash pits were next explored, and on Saturday, September 

 •13th, a group of four skeletons was found, of which two were those of 

 children, about 8 or 10 years of age. 



The trunk and cranium of one of the adult skeletons exhumed to- 

 da}^ extended under an oak which measured 5 feet 9 inches in circum- 

 ference, two feet above its base. 



In one of the ash pits opened this week was found a curious in- 

 scribed stone, of which an illustration is given (fig. 24). 



It is an irregular piece of fossiiiferous limestone of a reddish brown 

 color, as though it had been stained by being deposited in a ferru- 

 ginous soil, the fracture on the edge showing the natural color of the 

 limestone; the markings are incised lines and the pointer is the most 

 prominent figure; the other lines are plainly visible although the sur- 

 face is much weathered and worn. The stone and markings, perhaps, 

 have reference to the pit of carbonized maize,* near which it was 



■'■ See first paper, No. 1, Vol. 3, this Journal, pp. 40-68. 



