NO. 13 ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN FLORIDA — FEWKES I9 



bowls ^ with very thick walls and their surfaces unadorned with a 

 design or with paralleled incised lines (pi. 12, B) were likewise 

 collected at Weeden Island. Some of these may have contained food, 

 others for condiments. A few had encircling or vertical parallel 

 incised lines on their outer surface and various other generally 

 rectangular figures, all very coarse and apparently purely decorative. 



Among the most remarkable ceramic objects found at Weeden 

 Island are those jars shaped like frustra of cones open at base and 

 apex, one of which is shown in plate 12, E, F, and G. There are 

 several of these jars in the collection, the use of which the author is 

 unable to determine. The decoration on the outside is crude, without 

 tattooed designs. Few vessels of this shape have yet been recorded 

 by students of Floridian archeology, and these forms may be peculiar 

 to the Tampa Bay region. 



There are a few larger fragments of particular interest. One of 

 the finest animal designs (pi. 14, fig. i) represents a bird, possibly 

 a pelican. The line bowl upon which it was made in relief was a 

 ceremonial one, which may account for the care used in its produc- 

 tion and suggests that the intention was to represent one of the 

 sacred birds of the ancient Florida Indians. Both head and beak 

 are in low relief, the head a circle with one eye (pi. i8, A). The 

 two clavate bodies on the head represent wings or feathers. The 

 greater part of the body that remains is indicated by punctations 

 but an open space enclosing a picture of the heart in form of a 

 puncture is left in the middle. This is a common way among primi- 

 tive people of representing internal organs. 



More or less conventional pictures that may represent various 

 birds appear on several bowls, and it would seem that, as among 

 the pueblo Indians, the feather was adopted by these Florida people 

 as a decorative element and appears in many dififerent forms. 



There are only a few representations of animals on the pottery 

 obtained at Weeden Island, one of which, with protruding eves and 

 serpentine body, bears a marked resemblance to a fish. The serpent 

 itself appears not to have been represented as in northwestern Florida 

 and Georgia. 



The number of realistic figures thus far found in the decoration 

 of Florida ceramics is small, but it would seem that there are several 

 conventionalized designs that have thus far not been determined. 



* These are sometimes cubical with almost vertical sides. South of Tampa 

 Bay, especially where clay is rarely found, these are made of hard wood, the 

 utensils being about the same shape as those made of clay. 



