770 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



MOUNDS IN PUTNAM COUNTY, GEOEGIA. 

 By Benj. W. Kent, of Eatonton, Putnam Co., Ga. 



The most remarkable mounds in Putnam County were visited and 

 measured by Charles C. Jones, jr., and the writer, and reported by Mr. 

 Jones, namely, the Eagle Mounds, of which no description is needed in 

 this communication. Since the last rei)ort the stone tumuli on the 

 plantation of Dr. J. T. de Jorrette, east of Eatonton, have been dis- 

 turbed, and besides human bones taken therefrom, a pottery pijje of the 

 ordinary size, and shaped like the head of an eagle, was found. No 

 description is necessary of the other pipes in the series excepting the 

 one made to imitate a human foot, which is remarkable for the hardness 

 of the stone. From the stone tumulus on the i^lantation of Robert M. 

 Grimes was taken a soapstone finger-ring, not in the writer's collec- 

 tion, which is without ornamentation. Another finger-ring, found near 

 the Eagle Mound, on Scott's plantation, is made like a seal ring, with 

 a head or top. None of the pottery collected is remarkable ; one vessel 

 is about 14 inches high, and a bowl measures 13 inches across the top ; 

 all the remaining vessels are about the usual shapes. 



There is in this place a chungkee stone of white quartz or limestone 

 about 6 inches in diameter, owned by Thomas B. Harwell. It is beau- 

 tifully smooth, hollowed out on either side, and more smoothly finished 

 than any other implements ever seen by the writer except those of 

 Mexico or Peru. It has no hole through the center like the one drawn in 

 Foster's Prehistoric Eaces (p. 218). 



The human bones picked up from time to time reveal nothing unusual. 

 It is impossible, however, to get any whole skulls. Attention is drawn 

 to the fact of the existence of human remains under every conical- 

 shaped stone tumulus so far as examined ; but whether such will prove 

 true of the bird-shaped mound is not known, as the stones are too large 

 to be removed Eegarding the three mounds on Shoulder Bone Creek, 

 near Sparta County, pipes and pottery have been obtained from the 

 largest mound, but no human bones ; whereas from the middle mound, 

 which is the smallest, and but little above the level of the bottom lands, 

 having been plowed over for 7 years, many human bones and teeth and 

 beads were taken. Ashes and shells are often found, showing where 

 the aborigines lived. There existed hereabouts, so far as I know, no 

 cave dwellings, and neither masonry nor sculptured slabs. While an 

 isolated skeleton is sometimes found, many exist in the tumuli. No 

 skeleton in a cyst or other receptacle has been found, except one of an in- 

 fant, probably in Mellepueli. All the stone tumuli are on high hills, usu- 

 ally on the highest portion ; all the earth tumuli are in the bottom lands. 



There are various other mounds and shell-heaps in this and adja- 

 cent counties. There is an earth mound on the lands of Mr. C. Purifoy, 

 in Jasper County, once probably 6 feet high, but now much leveled by 



