Indian Mounds at Broken Kettle Creek. 91 



found. The best that can be shown is the major portion 

 of a small pot found eight feet under the surface. Care- 

 ful search for the remainder was futile. 



Some of these pots were made exclusively for carry- 

 ing purposes, as they had round bottoms. These were 

 made with a slight bulge just above the neck between 

 it and the rim. There were three ears on these rims, 

 through which a cord was passed entirely around the 

 pot to be used as a bail. They were ahvays carried or 

 hung, and were used for cooking over the fire. The 

 remains indicate that this class of dish was a very com- 

 mon article. 



The pottery in this mound does not show the indi- 

 vidualism of the makers, as do the flint and stone instru- 

 ments. It may be that the art of pot-making was con- 

 fined to a few, or that the same method was used by all 

 who took part in its manufacture. There are, of course, 

 many kinds, and hardly two alike in texture or tJiick- 

 ness; yet there is a great similarity in all of them. 



Among the pottery ruins were discovered several 

 flat coin-shaped pieces of clay of the same make, as far 

 as appearances go, as the pots. They are from an inch 

 to two and three-quarters inches in diameter, perfectly 

 round and smooth on both sides. One of them is slightly 

 concave. One of the smaller is colored a light red on 

 one side. 



Some of the southern tribes, as stated by some of 

 the authorities, used disks of this kind as wampum and 

 a medium of exchange, but this is doubtful, owing to the 

 brittleness of the clay and the ease with which they could 

 be manufactured. The more probable use was for dec- 

 orative purposes, ceremonial or playthings. 



The decorations on these pots were the forerunner 

 and beginning of an art culminating in the Venus de 

 Medici. Our present civilization passed through the 

 crude stages and conditions as are revealed in the 

 mound. The rough and uneven decoration is the great 

 grandmother of all that is beautiful in painting or sculp- 

 ture. The one reason over and above all others why we 

 should study these things, is that we see in these people 

 our own beginning, the start and infancy of our own 



