454 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 112 



1930; Greenman, 1932; Webb and Snow, 1945; and Webb and Baby, 

 1957), Welcome Mound contained only three adult human skeletons. 

 Two of the bodies were placed on the base near center. There were 

 no pits or clay-lined tombs beneath the original surface of the ground 

 as were found in the other mounds. The stratum of glacial gravels 

 underlying the base probably discouraged such an operation by people 

 limited to primitive tools of wood or stone. The badly decomposed 

 skeletons were surrounded with the usual channels or molds, caused 

 by decayed logs lying in various directions. Layers of bark and the 

 residue of perishable things lay both beneath and over the skeletons. 



A mass of thick, coarse, grit-tempered potsherds and a handful 

 of fresh-water mollusk shells were found on the same level within a 

 few feet of the skeletons. After much effort to restore these hundreds 

 of sherds, I was able to construct a large (over 1-foot high) barrel- 

 shaped vessel with no neck or constriction and with a flat undecorated 

 rim. The rim is % 6 inch thick, and the wall thickens down the side 

 to % inch near the rounded base. The outside surface, especially 

 near the top, gives the appearance of smoothed-out cord marks. 

 In color, it varies from a dark brownish grey at the top, through a 

 pinkish tinge, to an off-white base. It is tempered with relatively 

 large and coarse water-worn gravelly pebbles. It is not as heavy and 

 crude as earlier Adena Fayette Thick pottery, but is in no way 

 comparable to the decorated pottery of the contemporaneous Hope- 

 well Indians, whose burial mounds are in the same general area. I 

 am inclined to place the pottery somewhere between Early and Middle 

 Adena periods. 



In the mouth of skeleton No. 3 was found a large tooth (plate 1), 

 subsequently identified as the canine tooth of the mountain lion, or 

 cougar, Felis concolor. The tooth in this position would seem to 

 be of little significance, but this finding must be correlated with 

 a previous discovery. W. S. Webb and R. S. Baby in 1949 (Webb 

 and Baby, 1957, pp. 61-71) found the front portion of the upper jaw 

 of a wolf, cut in the form of a spatula, associated with a human skull 

 in the Ayres Mound near New Liberty, Kentucky. This jaw, together 

 with the six other known associations of bear, cougar, and wolf 

 teeth, establishes an important ceremonial trait among these Adena 

 people. Thanks to the meticulous work of Webb and Baby, we now 

 know that the Adena people had men who served their society in a 

 capacity comparable to that of a shaman, medicine man, or witch 

 doctor. 



The mountain lion tooth in the mouth of skeleton No. 3 therefore 

 supports the belief that this skeleton is the remains of an important 

 religious leader. He was probably buried in a costume that included 

 an animal mask. If the bark and other discolorations surrounding 



