FOWKE] MOUNDS IN ALABAMA 451 
On the bottom, where they had originally lain, and in the body 
of the mound where they had been carried in with the earth, were 
occasional fragments of pottery, pieces of flint, and burned rocks, 
but such objects were very rare; much fewer than is usual in such 
structures. This is the more remarkable by reason of the surface 
in the vicinity being strewn with such evidences of former occupa- 
tion. Possibly the explanation is that the mound is older than this 
particular village, but there is no other place near which bears any 
evidence that the builders lived there. 
In the north wall of the trench, 5 feet within the line from which 
the west side of the mound begins to slope toward the bottom, was 
the outer edge of a hole 4 feet across, which had been dug 2 feet into 
the earth prior to the beginning of the mound. The sides and bot- 
tom were irregular and rough. It was filled with loose black earth; 
and the material composing the mound, for a distance of 5 feet above 
it, was also looser than the material surrounding it, as if the decay 
of some perishable substance had allowed it to settle. 
A similar but somewhat smaller hole was in the trench, 6 feet to 
the southeast of this one; but the earth above it seemed in nowise 
different from that around it. 
There was nothing artificially worked in either hole that had been 
intentionally deposited. A large post may have stood in each, but 
if so, no traces of wood, either burned or decayed, remained, though 
the dark color and loose texture could well have been produced by 
wood which had so thoroughly rotted that no marks of it remained. 
If they were graves, which is improbable, there was nothing in them 
to indicate such fact. 
Mounps Near THE FLar-Torrrep SrrRucTURE 
No. 1—About 100 feet south of the large mound was a mound 3 
feet high and 30 feet across at the base. Town Creek had under- 
mined and cut away 4 feet of the eastern side. 
At 2 feet south from the apex of the mound was a mass of burned 
earth and ashes, apparently from a fire made in a hole dug into the 
mound after its completion. At the bottom of this hole, if such it 
was, lay an irregular limestone slab measuring 22 by 25 inches across 
and from 3 to 5 inches thick, brought from the bed of the creek. 
Although this showed no evidence of having been exposed to heat, 
it was covered with a layer of ashes 3 to 4 inches deep. Above the 
ashes was a mass of burned earth; above this, mixed burned and un- 
burned earth; then hard-burned earth again. The entire mass was 
3 feet across and 2 feet high. The earth surrounding this filled-in 
material was burned to a brick-like hardness for 2 or 3 inches into 
the undisturbed part. Possibly a body had been cremated, but if so, 
