THOMAS.] MISSISSIPPI. 250 



li^ht colored fiagnieuts of pottery. Almost tlie first spadeful of earth 

 revealed decaying fragments of liuman bones. Tracing these horizon- 

 tally under the roots of the oak and niider the clay bed, a sknll was 

 reached, resting on a broken platter-shaped vessel, and by the side of 

 it a i)ot with a scalloped edge, a broken water bottle with female head 

 on the top of the neck, a ]iottery tube, and a dipper in the form of a 

 shell s. iwn in Fig. 100. The portion of the platter which had been 

 broken out to allow room for the neck of the bottle was wanting. 



Another excavation was made in the top of the terrace near the 

 middle of the mound. After ciittiug through a layer of brick-red chunks 

 of burnt clay some -4 or 5 inches thick, a layer of dark colored earth 

 something over a foot in dejith was reached. Immediately beneath this 



Kiu. 160. — Vessel in form ul' a ahell, Sunflower county, Misaidsippi. 



was a niedinm-sized human skeleton lying horizontally on its right side. 

 Near the skull were a broken water vessel and fragments of other ves- 

 sels. 



WASHINGTON COUNTY. 



THK AVONDALK MOUNDS 



This grou]), which is shown in Fig. 161, is located on the plantation of 

 Mrs. P. J. Sterling, 1^ miles east of Stoneville and 9 miles from Gran- 

 ville. The land on which they are built is a rich, level bottom, subject 

 to overflows. 



The mounds, as shown in the tigure, are arranged somewhat in a 

 semicircle. The largest, which is used as a graveyard by the whites, is 

 30 feet high, dat on top, and oval in form, nearly 200 feet long and about 

 175 broad. To the west of it is a depression of about 3 acres, from 

 which it is probable the material was taken to build this mound. The 

 second is 15 feet high and is covered with graves of colored jieople. 



Numerous fragments of pottery and lumps of burnt clay, containing 

 impressions of cane and grass, were found near the surface of the small 

 mounds. 



