FOWKK] ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 77 



here; were not in any way accidentally present; but had been 

 gathered up with the refuse and thrown in as a part of it. The 

 broken or burned condition of these, as well as of other human bones 

 found at random among the ashes of the main cave, are presumptive 

 evidence that dwellers here sometimes devoured the flesh of human 

 beings; and the fact that a majority of such bones are those of chil- 

 dren indicates that it was not eaten through a belief that the valor 

 and skill of an enemy could be thus absorbed by the victor, but that 

 it was used as food, like the flesh of any other animal. Such con-, 

 elusion may not be justified; but the facts are not readily accounted 

 for otherwise, except on the equally repulsive hypothesis that the 

 inmates of the cave were brutally indifferent to the bodies or skeletal 

 remains of their fellows. 



Omitting this question from consideration, however, there is still 

 ample evidence that the inhabitants of Miller's Cave were in a low 

 state of savagery, or, if the phrase be preferred, in a very primitive 

 stage of culture. There was a remarkable paucity of articles used 

 as ornaments or for personal decoration, and the few that were 

 found were simple and crude, being only rubbed stones or rough 

 pieces of bones which were possibly intended for beads or pendants. 

 The pottery, while strong and serviceable, was plain in form and 

 devoid of any ornamentation or design except that a few pieces 

 showed impressions such as would be made by scratching or press- 

 ing with the end of a small stick or bone. Nearly all of it was cord- 

 marked, though some was smooth, one red piece appearing almost 

 glazed. It varied much in thickness, hardness, and color. Most of 

 it was dark gray, some red, occasionally a piece yellowish or nearly 

 white ; due to the different clays of which it was made. So far as 

 observed it was tempered with shell. The shards w^ere small, as if 

 Avhen a pot was broken the fragments were still further demolished. 

 The curvature showed there was a wide range in size, from about a 

 pint to 2 gallons or more. 



Their mortars were natural blocks or slabs of sandstone, such as 

 may be picked up by thousands in the immediate neighborhood, and 

 showed no alteration of form beyond ordinary wear except that the 

 rough faces of a few were pecked, apparently with a pointed flint 

 tool, to make them less irregular. Some were flat and smooth from 

 use with a muller or grinding stone; most of them were worked or 

 hollowed on only one face ; a few showed depressions on both sides ; 

 one had a few hemispherical indentations near the margin, like those 

 observed in cup-stones. 



Only one pestle was dressed into any of the forms which we are 

 accustomed to associate with the name, and this was a truncated 

 cone with rounded top, shown at h in plate 29. All the others were 

 cobblestones from ravines or the river shore. A few had undergone 



