36 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 177 
feet above the surrounding swamp. A clear pool of fresh water fed by 
a spring offers a constant water supply even during the driest season. 
Excavations in the mound were carried to sterile sand through shell 
deposits consisting of striped Neritina snails, oysters, conchs, clams, 
crab remains, and mussels, with bones scattered throughout. Near the 
bottom of the refuse, ashes, charcoal, shell, and bones had cemented 
into a hard conglomerate. Human skeletal materials were scattered 
throughout the refuse, except for the upper 5 to 6 feet. Their hap- 
hazard arrangement is described by Brett (1868, p. 423) : 
. -- human bones [were encountered] in irregular positions, and at unequal 
depths. 
These bones were not found stretched out, either in horizontal or perpendicular 
positions, but huddled and jumbled together in a manner impossible to describe. 
The skulls, some of which were of great thickness, were in fragments ;—the 
long bones had all been cracked open and contained sand and dust. Each mass 
appeared to have been deposited without ceremony in the common heap. There 
they had become welded into singular clusters during the lapse of years. An 
elbow bone, for instance, was found so tightly fixed in the spinal vertebrae, that 
the brittle substance would break ere they could be separated. Bones from 
various parts of the body, and in some instances of more than one body, were 
dug up in masses, which also had fish-bones and shells adhering to and consoli- 
dated with them. Scarcely any were found in natural juxtaposition. 
In the extensive diggings by various people no pottery has been 
discovered. However, there is a discussion about “baked clay” in the 
writings of Brett (1868, p. 422), Im Thurn (1883, p. 414), and Osgood 
(1946, footnote 34, pp. 25-27), which should be mentioned. Brett 
(loc. cit.) describes “some hard slabs of clayey substance which re- 
sembled the baking-pans or plates used by the wilder tribes at the 
present day and which the shells, &c., plentifully adhered to and 
encrusted.” Im Thurn interpreted these as parts of burnt surfaces 
stretching in several parallel strata over the mound and resulting from 
Indian fires. Osgood’s comments about the fact that careful excava- 
tion would have solved the point are well taken, but his further state- 
ment that lumps of clay and platter fragments have been excavated 
by him from British Guiana sites is not wholly relevant. From 
our brief excavations in various Alaka Phase shell middens in British 
Guiana, it is our firm conviction that Im Thurn’s interpretation is the 
correct one. We found burnt areas in the shell midden refuse and 
attribute them either to a large fire for roasting purposes built immedi- 
ately on the spot, or the dumpings of a cleaned-out hearth or firepit 
on shell refuse. Although at times the clay has been fire burnt, the 
fragments do not resemble griddle sherds known in any of the ceramic 
sites of British Guiana. 
Unfortunately, descriptions of the stone artifacts leave much to be 
desired. Brett (1868, p. 438) illustrates and describes stone axes as 
“rude ... even those with sharpened edges.” The collection of arti- 
