MyER] GORDON TOWN SITE 505 
ALTAR 
An ancient altar or fire bow] was found 3 teet south of the center of 
the house circle. This altar was built on top of the floor. It was 
still partially filled with the fine, firm, pure white ashes of the ancient 
fires. A photograph of this altar is shown in Plate 100. Its bowl is 
29 by 27 inches, outside measure, and the interior is 414 inches deep. 
The edge of the rim was 7 inches above the surface of the floor on 
which it rested. A diagram is shown in Figure 124. It appears to 
have been made by placing a layer of ordinary earth on the floor at 
this point. Inthe layer 
of earth a depression 
Was made, correspond- 
ing to the exterior of 
the basin-shaped altar. 
This carefully shaped 
depression was next 
lined with a coating of 
puddled clay about 14% 
inches in _ thickness, 
which was then hard- 
ened by fire. The hard- 
burned appearance of 
the altar and the floor 
under it indicated its 
long continued use. 
That this was an altar SS a 
and not merely a fire VLEET 
bow] for domestic cook- - Wy 
ing is shown by the fact We 
that the ashes in it con- 
tained no animal bones 
and no fragments of domestic or other pottery, such as are usually 
found in fires long used for the latter purpose.* 
Fic. 124.—Diagram of altar 
Fire Bep 
That this fire bowl was an altar which contained a ceremonial fire, 
not even to be profaned by use in warming the inmates, is further 
confirmed by the fire bed found at A, B, C, D, Figure 123. This 
fire bed probably was used for occasional heating purposes, and pre- 
paring feasts.° As already stated, it covered cache pit 27. It 
measured: D to C, 9 feet; A to B, 71% feet; B to C, 51% feet; A to D, 
5 feet. 
6 This altar was incased in reinforced plaster and removed to the Bureau of American Ethnology at 
Washington. 
6 See Charlevoix’s account of Natchez temple, reproduced on p. 508. 
