THOMAS. I MISSISSIPPI. 255 



KXCAVATIONS. 



The places from which a part at least of the diit was taken that was 

 used to form the mouuds are shown by the uneveuuess of the surface 

 of the ground immediately around them. But there are several excava- 

 tions which must have furnished a large portion of the material for this 

 purpose. They are still so deep as to form swamps, bogs, or open 

 ponds, some of the last being well stocked with fish. 



During all the excavations made and digging done by the present 

 proi^rietors, who have made all the improvements there are on the 

 plantation, but few skeletons have been unearthed and no whole vessels 

 of pottery found. Still, it is possible that more extensive explorations 

 of the small mounds may reveal these, but the owner will not allow them 

 to be disturbed. 



The solid material of which the mounds are composed, together with 

 their numerous lire beds or i^atches of burnt clay, are so well calculated 

 to withstand the erosion of the elements in a region but little subject 

 to frosts, that the lapse of time has had but little effect upon their appear- 

 ance. Still, the rounding off of the parts not protected by fire-beds, 

 the boggy character of the excavations, and the considerable accumula- 

 tion of soil upon the works suggest that the town of the mound-builders 

 located here was upon the bank of the Mississippi when this river Hewed 

 in its ancient channel, but was abandoned when it changed its bed. 



The more recent works at Old Town, built apparently by people hav- 

 ing the same customs, seem to favor this supposition. 



THE DICKERSON MOUNDS. 



On the Dickerson farm, 4 miles east of Friars point, is another interest- 

 ing group of mounds. These are situated on the dry, gravelly bank of 

 the Sunflower river. There is no inclosure, but several fields of the farm 

 are literally strewn with stone chips and fragments of ancient pottery, 

 and upon long oval hillocks are found numerous fragments of human 

 bones. 



The Sunflower is here scarcely a creek during low water and its 

 gravelly banks are high above the floods; yet the mounds are mostly 

 oblong or oval and flat on top, like those found on the bottoms subject 

 to overflows. They are built as usual of the material from adjacent 

 ground, which, being gravel instead of clay or mud, rendered the out 

 lines of the beds of burned clay distributed through them more distinct 

 than usual. Most of them seem to have been the sites of dwellings, the 

 same as those upon the bottoms ; yet on the intermediate areas are 

 saucer-shaped depressions, indicating that the earth lodge so common 

 farther north had been in use here. 



Of the numerous mounds explored only one was found to be a true 

 cemetery of the ancient inhabitants. This was, as usual, one of the 

 least conspicuous of the group. The first tier of skeletons was barely 



