796 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1118 



hematite. As there is no historical reference to 

 the people responsible for this culture, the term 

 "Eed Paint People" is offered. Nineteen of 

 these deposits or cemeteries have been found — - 

 three by Harvard University, six by citizens of 

 Maine, and ten by the Phillips Academy survey. 

 The contents of these Eed Paint cemeteries or 

 deposits represent limited and fixed types, most of 

 which do not occur on the surface of village sites, 

 and are absent from the shellheaps on the coast 

 of Maine. The ochre or hematite occurs in large 

 quantities in central Maine at the Katahdin Iron 

 Works, where there is an iron outcrop. 



In the Eed Paint deposits occur no pottery, ; 

 pipes, crude axes, or hammers. Adz blades, 

 gouges, long, heavy perforated stones, "plum- 

 mets, ' ' slender slate spears, and kindred types pre- 

 dominate. The persistence of these seven or 

 eight types is remarkable, and differentiates these 

 graves from all others in Maine. Twenty per 

 cent, of the stone implements show disintegration, 

 which may be due to chemical action of the ochre 

 in contact with the tools. 



While it has been thought that this culture ex- 

 tends toward the east, the exploration conducted 

 in the summer of 1915 indicates that there is a 

 gradual change in the types on Georges river, 

 which is the westernmost point the survey has 

 reached. The author, therefore, gives it as his 

 opinion that the types will be found to merge with 

 the Algonquian in western Maine. 



Brief comparative reference is made to the shei!- 

 heaps along the Maine coast. In conclusion, the 

 author refers to the Beothuk traditions and de- 

 scriptions cited by early voyagers in Newfound- 

 land. Whether the sites of the Eed Paint people 

 will be found east of the mouth of St. John 

 Eiver in New Brunswick will be determined after 

 that region has been explored. The author shares 

 with the late Professor P. W. Putnam and Mr. 

 C. C. Willoughby the belief that the Eed Paint 

 culture is one of the oldest in the United States. 



Explorations of the Mounds and Caverns of Ten- 

 nessee: W. E. MVer. 



An extensive Indian town at Castalian Springs, 

 Tennessee, was explored. This settlement covered 

 about fifty acres and consisted of five mounds, a 

 line of embankment, and a large stone-grave ceme- 

 tery. One of the smaller mounds contained more 

 than one hundred stone-grave burials and yields 

 many examples of aboriginal workmanship. Many 

 of the ornaments, while of local make, seem to 

 show the influence of Mexican culture. The graves 



yielded many traces of curious and unique customs, 

 such as the burial of two or more bodies in one 

 coffin; the raking to one side of the bones of a 

 former burial and placing a new body in the coffin; 

 the burial of fleshless bones in bundles; the burial 

 of crania unaccompanied by other bones, in small 

 stone boxes; the burial of children with adults in 

 such positions as to arouse suspicion that the child 

 may have been placed in the grave alive. One 

 author explored many of the caverns and rock- 

 shelters of the Cumberland valley, which wiU be 

 described and illustrated. 



The Wesleyan University Collection of Antiquities 



from Tennessee: Gbokge Grant MacCukdt. 



The collection in question was gathered by the 

 late George D. Barnes in the vicinity of Chatta- 

 nooga, prior to and during 1895. It is said to 

 have come almost wholly from Williams island, in 

 the Tennessee river, and largely from a single 

 mound. The collection, which numbers several 

 thousand specimens, was bought for Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity, Middletown, Connecticut, by Mr. A. E. 

 Crittenden of that city; and with the exception of 

 the small portion sold to the Natural History So- 

 ciety of Marion, Massachusetts, is now in the Judd 

 Museum. 



Among the notafcle specimens are the shell gor- 

 gets. A large majority of these belong to the class 

 in which representations of the rattlesnake play 

 an important rSle. There are several so-called 

 scalloped disks, one gorget depicting the human 

 form, and a few mask-like shell ornaments. 



Of special interest are the button-shaped orna- 

 ments of shell with two holes for fastening or sus- 

 pension in the center of a squarish field. Similar 

 objects were found by Mr. Clarence B. Moore in 

 a burial urn from the grave of an infant at Durand 

 Bend, Dallas county, Alabama. They were near 

 the neck of the child as if they might have formed 

 a necklace or been attached to a garment. 



Wesleyan University is to be congratulated on 

 having secured so many important antiquities from 

 a given locality in Tennessee. It is, however, un- 

 fortunate that a prehistory of Williams Island 

 could not have been written during the lifetime of 

 Barnes (and of Loper, late curator of the Judd 

 Museum). The case of this collection thus il- 

 lustrates anew not only the desirability of expert 

 scientific control in archeological excavations, but 

 also the duty imposed on the collector to see that 

 the results are published promptly. 



Some Mounds of Eastern Tennessee: George 



Grant MacCtjrdy. 



