" 
quomas.) ANCIENT WORKS, ALLAMAKEE COUNTY, IOWA. 2g 
consist of a top layer of loose sand 1 foot thick, the remainder of hard 
yellowish clay. In the latter were found several flat sandstone frag- 
ments, and beneath them, on the original surface of the ground, a much 
decayed skeleton, with which were a few stone chips, Unio shells, and 
fragments of pottery. 
The second in size, 18 feet in diameter and 3 feet high, although 
covered with a layer of sand, was mainly a loose cairn of sandstones, 
covering traces of human bones, charcoal, and ashes. The third was 
found to be similar to the second, but in this case the pile of stones 
was heaped over a mass of charred human bones, mingled with which 
were charcoal, ashes, and fragments of pottery. 
Fragments of pottery were found in abundance in the circle, in the 
mounds, in the washouts, and in fact at almost every point in the area 
covered by the group. Judging by the fragments, for not a single 
entire vessel was obtained, the prevailing forms were the ordinary 
earthen pot with ears, and a flask or gourd-shaped vase with a rather 
broad and short neck, often furnished with alid. The paste with which 
this pottery was made had evidently been mixed with pounded shells. 
The only ornamentation observed consisted in the varied forms given 
the handles or ears and indentations and scratched lines. 
Nearly all the implements found were of stone, exceedingly rude, 
being little else than stone flakes with one sharp edge; many of them 
having been resharpened and used as knives, scrapers, and skinners. 
Some had been worked into moderately fair perforators or drills for 
making holes in horn, bone, and shell—specimens of allthese, with such 
holes, having been found here. 
The immense quantity of charred and fractured bones, not only of fish, 
birds, and the smalier quadrupeds, such as the rabbit and the fox, but 
also of the bear, wolf, elk, deer, and buffalo, shows that the occupants of 
this place lived chiefly by the chase, and hence must have used the bow 
and arrow and spear; yet, strange to say, although careful search was 
made for them, less than a dozen arrow an d spear heads were found, 
and these so rude as scarcely to deserve the name. A single true 
chipped celt, three sandstones with mortar-shaped cavities, and a few 
mullers or stones used for grinding were obtained ; also, some fragments 
of deer-horn, evidently cut round by some rude implement and then 
broken off, and several horn and bone punches and awls, one barbed and 
another with a hole through the larger end. 
The object in view in presenting these details is to give the reader an 
opportunity of judging for himself in reference to some inferences drawn 
from them. 
The form of the circular enclosure reminds us at the first glance of 
the palisade enclosures figured by De Bry,! which, according to Lafitau,’ 
was the form usually adopted by the Indian tribes who were accustomed 


‘Brevis Narratio, Plate XXX. Admiranda Narratio, Plate XIX 
°Menrs des Sauvages, II, p. 4. 
