NO. 13 ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN FLORIDA — FEWKES II 



are Very evident, situated stratigraphically one above the other and 

 distinguished by the nature of their contents. The third or upper- 

 most is naturally modern or deposited since the locality was aban- 

 doned for burial purposes. It is penetrated by roots of trees and gives 

 every sign of having been formed by blown sand, and reveals nothing 

 of Indian manufacture ; in other words, it seems to have been formed 

 after the Indians had ceased to use this mound for a cemetery. Its 

 depth averages about four inches and is fairly continuous over the 

 mound so far as it has been excavated. Immediately below this 

 superficial modern deposit came the first of two strata which are 

 supposed to indicate two successive occupations. The shallowest 

 burial (pi. 5, C) in this stratum was little more than four inches 

 below the surface. At the time the mound was abandoned this skull 

 must have been laid upon the surface of the ground or projected out 

 of it ; the modern layer had not yet formed. Down to the depth of 

 three feet (A, B) we have at all intervals numerous fine examples 

 of crania. Skulls and skeletons occur in numbers until we reach the 

 lower portion of this stratum. The skeletons found through this layer 

 were in bunches or bundles hastily deposited in their graves and 

 destitute of a covering of any kind. The upright appearance (pi. 5, 

 D) of long bones in the surface burials as they were uncovered led 

 more than one visitor to exclaim, " Why, they were buried standing 

 up ! " This appearance was brought about by projecting ends of thigh 

 bones and the skull being wrapped in large bones and the whole 

 deposited vertically in the grave.' The main portion of both layers 

 was of course formed by the blown sand, decaying refuse, and other 

 organic matter. 



Apparently a considerable time elapsed between the use of this 

 place as a cemetery in the interval between the deposit of the lower 

 stratum and the next in order. This is shown in places by black 

 deposits of vegetable matter. The pottery of this layer is as a rule 

 finely decorated and better made than that of the layer below. The 

 implements and pottery ' especially indicate a relationship with those 

 people that in prehistoric times lived in the northern area of Florida 

 and southern Georgia. 



The lowest of the three deposits (pi. 7, B, C, D) in the Weeden 

 Mound contains objects which belonged to an ancient people in 



^ The method adopted to free the bones from muscles is known and both 

 West Indians and some Florida tribes deprived the corpse of flesh before inter- 

 ment. (See Bushnell, Bull. 71, Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 95, 97. The skulls were 

 painted vermillion, according to Romans.) 



* See Clarence B. Moore's account of antiquities of this region. 



