HOLMES] USES OF POTTERY IN FLORIDA 119 



in the full range of domestic activities — cooking, carrving. contain- 

 ing, eating, and drinking — and others for ceremonial offices, and for 

 burial with the dead. There were also miniature \'essels, as well as 

 figurines representing animals, probaljly intended to be used as toys. 

 There were tobacco pipes, beads, and pendants, and other objects not 

 assignable to an}- jDarticular use. 



The employment of earthenware in burial is of special intei-est. 

 The dead were bui-ied in ordinary graves and in sand and earth 

 mounds, and, exceptionally, in shell mounds, and here as elsewhere it 

 was customary to deposit \arioi;s utensils with the bodies; but there 

 are some curious and interesting f(\xtures connected with the practice. 

 Over much of the territory covered by this paper the vessels were 

 deposited in the graves entire and are so recovered by our explorers, 

 but in the Florida peninsula, and to some extent in Georgia and Ala- 

 bama, a practice had arisen of breaking tlie vessel or jjerforating the 

 bottom before consigning it to the ground. The most satisfactory 

 explanation of this proceeding is that since the vessel was usually 

 regarded as being alive and endowed with the spirit of some creature 

 of mythologic significance, it was appropriate that it should be 

 "killed" before burial, that the spirit might be free to accompany 

 that of the dead. 



The facts brouglit out by recent explorations of Mr Moore add new 

 features of interest." In cases it is api^arent that the vessels were not 

 only broken for burial, but that fragmentary vessels were used; and 

 again that, as in the case of the Tick Island and otlier mounds, sherds 

 were buried, serving probably as substitutes for the entire vessels. 

 Au exceptional feature of these phenomena is the presence in some 

 of the burial mounds of sherds broken out to rudely resemble notched 

 spear and arrow points. It would seem that the sherd was made to 

 represent the vessel which was formerly buried entire, and that, 

 possibly, extending its office to another field, it was modified in shape 

 that it might take the place of such implements of stone and other 

 materials as were formerly devoted to the service of the dead. 



Still more remarkable is the practice, which seems to have become 

 pretty general in Florida, of manufacturing vessels especiallj' for 

 burial purposes. Some of these pieces are in such close imitation of 

 the real vessels that the distinction between them can not be drawn 

 with certaint}', while others are made with open bases, so that thej' 

 did not need to be broken or ■"killed''" when inhumed, having never 

 been made alive. Others are of such rude workmanship and eccentric 

 form that no ordinary use could be made of them. In seeking to 

 explain these exceptional products two suggestions ma\- be made: 

 First, it is noted that the perforating of the vessels used in burial 

 and the placing of sherds and toy-like vessels and figurines with 



« Moore, Clarence B., Certiiia sand mounds of the St Jolins river, Florida, Journal Academy of 

 Xaturnl Sciences, ser. 2. vol. x. Philiirlel)ilua, 1S94. 



