141) BULLETIN 18 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the position of the burials near the bottom of a well-drained and 

 compact mound were sufficient. Very likely drainage was even bet- 

 ter when the mound was younger, since a decrease in height with 

 subsequent expansion of the area covered would doubtless result with 

 passage of the years. That the age is probably still greater is sug- 

 gested by the fact that the proto-historic Indians of the locality were 

 not mound builders, nor did they produce artifacts such as those said 

 to have been taken from this structure. 



The artifacts, which young Shepherd assured me were all taken 

 from this one mound and which are now the property of the National 

 Museum, are of considerable interest. They include seven restored 

 pottery vessels of diverse sizes and shapes, a few odd sherds, a stone 

 pipe, and about a dozen miscellaneous chipped flint and other 

 specimens. 



Figure 18. — Incised design on pottery vessel (U. S. N. M. No. 381551) from Shepherd 



mound. 



Outstanding among the vessels is the bowl shown in plate 39, a. 

 Dark gray in color, with nearly flat base and bulging sides drawn in 

 at the lip, it stands 12.5 cm. high and has a diameter of 15.8 cm. The 

 surface, which is generally polished, has pittings evidently caused 

 by leaching of shell fragments. Walls average 5 mm. or less in 

 thickness; the lip is rounded and plain, and at one point a flat, 

 rounded tab projects horizontally. On the opposite side, about 4 

 cm. below the lip, is the stump of a solid cylindrical handle slightly 

 over a centimeter in diameter. Rudely incised decoration is confined 

 to a zone 6 cm. wide encircling the bowl directly under the lip. Be- 

 ginning above the broken handle, there is first a series of four rec- 

 tangles, one within another, with the vessel lip forming the fourth 

 side of each. Eight and a half centimeters away is another smaller 

 series of three in similar relation to each other and to the lip. Be- 

 tween these two groups, looking across the smaller, is the head of a 

 human figure with one arm upraised at the rear. Facing this per- 

 sonage are two others; the first has one arm, the second both, uplifted. 

 A fourth figure has turned its back on these two and, with one arm 

 up, looks over the larger set of rectangles at the back of the first 

 individual. Each has the mouth open, and the whole scene sug- 

 gests, in caricature, a lively altercation or a free-for-all moment in 

 a primitive court of justice. Figure 18, from a rub drawing, shows 

 it in full and in all its crudity. 



