holmes] aboriginal AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 103 



courts " were dug to accommodate the canoes of the villagers. Agri- 

 culture was practiced in favorable localities, as recorded by the early 

 explorers. 



Knowledge of the native culture is obtained largely through a 

 study of the contents of the burial mounds and shell heaps, and more 

 especially through a study of the earthenware, which is very plenti- 

 ful and presents numerous features of interest. The forms of the 

 vessels are often pleasing, and in the west life forms were modeled 

 with considerable skill. The figured stamp or paddle was employed 

 in decorating the surfaces in the east and north, while engraved and 

 indented designs are most common in the west. Curvilinear designs 

 and peculiarly conventionalized life forms prevail, and some of these 

 are thought to suggest jNIiddle American influence. The use of color 

 was elementary. Owing to the meagerness of sculptural remains 

 pottery takes the place in large measure of stone art as a means of 

 determining the culture status of the people. 



The remarkable finds of Cushing in an ancient village site on Key 

 IVIarco, through the accidental inclusion of articles of 

 Key M:irco Culture wood, bonc, and sliell in deposits of muck in an old 

 canal bed, give us a most instructive and interesting 

 glimpse of the Gulf Coast culture of which otherwise we should 

 have remained in almost total ignorance. The ceremonial masks, 

 figurines, implements, and other carvings in wood, and the con- 

 ventional and highly symbolic embellishments in color indicate a 

 degree of artistic accomplishment not suggested by the few arti- 

 cles of stone and pottery found in the same connection or, for 

 that matter, elsewhere in the south or west. That artistic devel- 

 opment of such pronounced characteristics should be possible, prac- 

 tically without the aid of stone, is a matter of much interest to the 

 student of culture history. It is probable that the culture was exotic 

 in some measure. Implements of shell and sharks' teeth appear to 

 have been a main reliance of the craftsmen of the keys. 



Flint occurs in association with the extensive limestone formations 

 of Georgia and northern-central Florida, and was utilized by the 

 natives in the manufacture of chipped implements of all the usual 

 varieties. Their abundance in Georgia is phenomenal. Varieties of 

 stone usually employed in the manufacture of pecked-ground imple- 

 ments do not occur except in limited parts of the area, and implements 

 of this type are comparatively rare, with the exception of the celt, 

 which is found in large numbers in mounds and graves and on village 

 sites; the grooved ax is of rare occurrence, a noteworthy circumstance 

 since it is observed that this implement is abundant in the northern 

 sections of most of the Gulf States and in intimate association with 

 the celt. Moore's great collection of relics from the peninsular region 

 includes hundreds of celts but not a single typical or fully specialized 



