8o SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



or even in wavy lines. Near the center of the mound cane sheets ap- 

 peared in five successive layers, varying from i to 20 inches in thick- 

 ness, and separated by carefully packed-in layers of clay. The highest 

 part of the mound had towered originally 75 feet over this section. 



The base of the mound lay from 4 to 6 feet below the present sur- 

 face. Beneath it was undisturbed sandy loam, showing in places in- 

 dications of fire where the vegetation had been burned prior to the 

 mound's erection. Clays of various shades from red to blue were the 

 building material used. We could see clearly how the large chunks 

 had been fitted together to produce the slope, because they came away 

 along definite lines of cleavage. What the method of transporting 

 them had been we could only guess ; probably the earth had been 

 carried in skins, as we found no basket impressions on the clay. We 

 did, however, discover a few isolated pieces of very thin matting, too 

 fragile to have been used for lifting such heavy clay. 



Close to the southern border of the mound, at what seemed to be 

 the edge of an earlier mound, we uncovered a series of 14 posts set in a 

 line only a few degrees off due east- west. They were of cypress, gum, 

 and locust, cut off at the ends by a blunt-edged tool, probably a stone 

 ax. Most of the tops had rotted away, but many of the butts were still 

 firmly in place, 3 feet down in the undisturbed sandy loam, tamped 

 with clay. Two logs had been piled against the outer side of the posts 

 and a few feet beyond them was a pile of nine more logs. Near the 

 westernmost post a human skull was found crushed into the clay, 

 the only human remains discovered. The great mound was built over 

 all of this. 



On the slopes of the earlier mound were slabs of wood split or 

 hewn, trimmed into boards found lying side by side ; some east and 

 west, others north and south. Two building periods of this mound 

 were indicated by stumps of trees that had grown on an upper level 

 littered with ashes, charcoal, animal bones, and fragments of pottery. 



Trenches were extended across the 300-foot block both ways, dis- 

 closing the base of the great mound as about 180 by 225 feet, nearly 

 the same as William Dunbar's estimate in 1804. At the outer edges 

 of the mound were seen deposits left by successive overflows. No 

 indications of buildings or tombs were found : yet the cane composing 

 the sheets had been placed almost exactly east and west or north and 

 south, marking it, undoubtedly, as something put there for a special 

 purpose. 



