NO. 13 ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN FLORIDA — FEWKES IJ 



The author has made a considerable search for deposits of fire clay 

 out of which the terra cotta objects of Weeden Island were made, 

 and has not been wholly unsuccessful. There is a considerable body 

 of marl mixed with clay but this generally becomes quicklime when 

 submitted to heat. A fairly thick stratum of almost pure clay of 

 excellent character was discovered by men working a steam shovel, 

 near Papy's Bayou, which may have been the material the ancient 

 potters used in the manufacture of their pottery. 



There is no evidence, however, that the ancient potters were 

 acquainted with the potter's wheel or that they glazed their work, 

 but it would appear that the apparent glaze which many of the 

 pottery objects possess was due to smooth gloss obtained with 

 polishing stones with which the rough clay was rubbed. No glazed 

 pottery was found in the author's excavation, and no designs were 

 painted on the vessels. 



Among the remarkable examples of unbroken pottery that were 

 found at Weeden Island there are four specimens which from 

 their general character and decoration are especially worthy of ex- 

 tended consideration. These are supposed to have been used by the 

 aborigines of that island for ceremonial purposes, and are figured 

 m the following plates : 



Plate 9, A, A, represents a thick-walled bowl which, when seen 

 from above, is oval in shape. The design, which is brought out in 

 plate 10, A, is limited to the upper region of the outside of the bowl 

 and is composed of dual units, that is, the figures on two opposite 

 diameters, while partaking of the same general character, are slightly 

 different in their appearance from those at right angles. It is impossi- 

 ble for the author to determine what these designs represent, but 

 there is little question that there are embodied in them feathers or 

 wings, organs of some bird, but highly conventionalized. We have, 

 for instance, in the center a circular figure that may represent the 

 head, from which are extensions on either side, in form conven- 

 tionalized wings. The body hangs below the head. In figure A (right) , 

 where another quadrant is represented, the avian character, although 

 preserving a general symbolic likeness, is somewhat different. A 

 remarkable feature about this bowl is the existence on the rim at the 

 ends of the shorter diameter of a small protuberance, connected along 

 the rim itself by a punctured line. This bowl, like all the others, was 

 perforated or " killed " before it was buried/ 



* As these bowls were buried in a cache containing ten specimens their 

 condition would indicate not that they were wholly mortuary but simply hidden 

 by burial in the mound. 



