158 BULLETIN 183, LTSHTED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A brief digression is in order here to consider the rather unusual 

 features associated with Pearl mound A. This, it will be recalled, 

 contained no evidence of a vault, but beneath a disturbed layer of slabs 

 was found a rectangular pit filled with rocks, charcoal, and masses of 

 baked red brick-like clay. On some of the larger clay lumps were 

 flattened areas impressed with closely laid reeds or slender rods. The 

 north, west, and south walls of the pit, where not broken down by 

 previous excavators, showed shallow vertical flutings and to the east 

 there was a sort of chutelike opening. The latter feature may have 

 been due to the activities of relic collectors. Surrounding the pit, but 

 underlying the slab area, was a shallow basin. Unfortunately, the 

 mound had suffered such extensive damage in the spring preceding 

 our work that accurate reconstruction is not possible. It may be ob- 

 served, however, that the published data on mounds in the great 

 bend and on the lower Missouri offer nothing comparable to the mound 

 just described. There appear to be certain similarities to a "prehistoric 

 cremation furnace" described by Tiffany (1876, p. 64) a few miles below 

 Davenport, Iowa. His observations in full are as follows : 



Situated on the farm of Mr. J. Staffelbach, 7 miles below the city, and % mile 

 from the [Mississippi] river. , . . 



The mound explored was up( n the crest of a spur bearing a little south of west 

 from the main bluff, which here forms a prominent projecting point, known to river 

 pilots as Eagle Point. The mound was about 25 feet in lOiigth, and 2 feet high, 

 although from its peculiar position upon the very narrow and sloping ridge, its 

 dimensions were difficult to determine. 



The surface was of the usual black soil to the depth of from 6 to 12 inches. 

 Next was found a burned indurated clay, resembling in color and texture a medium 

 burned brick, and about 30 inches in depth. Immediately beneath this clay was 

 a bed of charred human remains 6-18 inches thick. This rested upon the unchanged 

 and undisturbed loess of the bluffs which formed the floor of the pit. Imbedded 

 in this floor of unburned clay were a few very much decomposed but unburned 

 human bones. No implements of any kind were discovered. 



The furnace appears to have been constructed by excavating the pit and 

 placing at the bottom of it the bodies or skeletons, which had possibly been 

 collected from scaffolds, and placing the fuel among and above the bodies, with 

 a covering of poles or split timbers extending over and resting upon the earth, 

 with the clay covering above, which latter we now find resting upon the charred 

 remains. The ends of the timber covering, where they were protected by the 

 earth above and below, were reduced to charcoal, parallel pieces of which were 

 found at right angles to the length of the mound. No charcoal was found 

 among or near the remains — the combustion there having been complete. The 

 porous and softer portions of the bones were reduced to pulverized bone black. 



"Wliether Tiffany was correct in his interpretation, I think it is 

 quite possible that a furnacelike structure more or less like the one 

 he describes occupied the central pit at Pearl A, and that the baked 

 clay represents its erstwhile roof. One can only regret the zealous 

 effacement there of the evidence, which properly excavated and pieced 



