NO. 13 ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLOR.\TIONS IN FLORIDA — FEWKES 23 



implements/ It is a modern formation, soft and very friable, a 

 kind of coral limestone which hardens somewhat on exposure to air, 

 but which never becomes very compact. It is of late formation ; 

 modern shells and even human bones are imbedded in it. We find 

 repeatedly in this region not only fragments of pottery imbedded 

 in this hardened limestone, but also various undoubted modern 

 objects. This rock is also prehistoric in formation, and was some- 

 times made into weights (pi. 21, A^ 1) for fishing nets. 



A kind of rock resulting from the tubes of certain marine worms 

 formed in compact masses also served for weights (pi. 21, A , i ) . This 

 rock is not very hard and is not suitable for utensils or implements. 

 These stones were possibly attached to nets and used for sinkers, 

 and generally have a triangular form. They are perforated through 

 the middle and apparently attached by means of strings. 



PROBLEAIATICAL STONE 



Among the stone objects obtained at Caxambas and presented to 

 the author was one supposed by the donor to have been used as 

 a primitive anchor, but the evidence indicates rather that it was 

 used in the preparation of meal from roots. Little is known of the 

 vegetable food of the ancient Floridians, but it is recorded that by 

 grinding certain seeds and roots, as those of nymphaea, meal was 

 obtained from which they made a pancake which was fried over 

 the fire. A circular object from southwest Florida may possibly have 

 been the nether stone of a mill upon which these seeds were ground. 

 This object is about a foot and a half in diameter, flat on one side, 

 rough on the other, with an eccentric hole. It was used somewhat 

 like a quern and into tliis hole was inserted the stick by means of 

 which a rotary motion was imparted to a millstone. 



CONCLUSIONS 



AGE OF WEEDEN CEMETERY 



The objects gathered from the excavation of the burial mound at 

 Weeden Island add nothing to our knowledge of the age of the 

 skeletons and mortuary objects found in it, save that these objects 

 are prehistoric, which in Florida means any date of the Christian Era 

 earlier than the advent of the Spanish conquerors, or 1500. The 

 natives probably never saw a white man or heard of a European, 



^ Arrow and spear points (pi. 21, A, 3) made of flint and occasionally 

 a banner stone are found on the surface of Florida mounds, but these bear 

 every evidence of modern introduction, possibly by the Seminoles. 



