THOMAS.) MOUNDS AT TVKONZA STATION. 205 



fire-bed.s or iucUcatioiis of fire, as beds of aslies, charcoal, etc.; the 

 cross-hatched, or shaded, short, liorizoiital dashes reiireseiit tlie burnt 

 clay beds, some of which formed the hard floors of dwellings and some 

 the fragments of plastered walls which have fallen over when the dwell- 

 ing was bnrned. as api)ears to have been the case in most instances. 

 The positions and relations of these beds, as shown in the figure, make 

 it evident that upon the site of one burned dwelling another was usually 

 constructed, not iufretpiently a third, and sometimes even a fourth, 

 the remains of each being underlaid and usually overlaid in jiart by very 

 dark, adhesive clay or muck from the adjacent excavations which are 

 found in the swamp as well as upon the ridge, and contain water and 

 occasionally fish. 



Fig. 113. — Section of Momul No. 8, Tyroiiza st.ition. Poin.sett county. Ark.tn.sas. 



The peculiar black color of these beds is chietiy in consequence of the 

 large iiroportion of charcoal with wliicli they are mixed, some of it 

 doubtless the fin<^ particles of burned grass and reed matting with 

 which the calnns appear to have been thatched. In and immediately 

 beneath these arc found the deposits of human skeletons, pottery and 

 other relics. 



In mound A (Fig. 115), and at the second red clay bed from the toj) 

 was found a. water vessel which is neatly ornamented with red figures, 

 and in the ne.xt betl below an image vessel. 



On the bottom hearth of mound B was a layer of what had the 

 appearance of hand-molded brick, well burned, and as red and hard 

 as modern brick. These bricks, as a matter of course, were irregular 

 in form and i)roportion, but seemed to have been intentionally formed 



Fig. 114. — Section of Mound No. 12, Tyronza .station. Poinsett county, Arkansas. 



before burning. Upon this floor, commingled with the burned plaster, 

 which had formed the walls of the dwelling and which still showed the 

 casts of cane, brush, and grass, were found balls or rounded masses of 

 burned clay, containing the remarkably clear and distinct casts of small 

 ears of maize (Fig. 116). This is judged from the casts to be the variety 

 known in the South as the "gourd seed corn," which has the outer end 

 of the grain very thin. Of these A is the original clay with the grain 

 impressions in it; B is a cast of another ])iece showing the reverse of 

 the impressions. 



Mound No. 8 is circular, 80 feet in tliaiiu'ter at the base, ~> feet high, 

 and quite flat on top. It contained two beds of burned clay, indicating 

 two successive dwellings. 



