140 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS, BLACK WARRIOR RIVER. 
as those that we dug into the mounds, since, when undisturbed soil was reached, con- 
tinuance was unnecessary. In our report we give records only of sites where tan- 
gible results were obtained. In some sites no burials were met; in others, burials 
were few and without artifacts. 
The form of burial at Moundville did not include urn-burial so far as we were 
able to determine, but did not vary otherwise from methods of burial found in 
various southern states. When the entire skeleton was present, as a general rule 
it lay at full length on the back. There was no orientation of skeletons, the skulls 
being directed toward all points of the compass. Had it been otherwise, our fortune 
at Moundville would have been better, as vessels of earthenware almost always lay 
near the skull, hence by following the skeleton from the feet up, we could have 
reached these vessels with the aid of a trowel rather than, as was too often the case, 
by unintentional blows from a spade. 
All human remains at Moundville were badly decayed and nearly all were 
represented by fragments only. No crania were saved. | 
Parts of erania found by us were carefully examined for evidence of ante- 
mortem compression, but none was met with, save in one case where it seemed to 
us to be evident. This fragment, the anterior part of a skull, was sent by us to 
the National Museum. The following report as to the fragment was received from 
Dr. Ales Hrdlicka: “Тһе skull shows in a moderate degree an artificial frontal 
flattening. This variety of deformation was produced when an infant, by the pro- 
longed application of a direct pressure (pad or board) over the forehead, a custom 
whieh existed in several of the Gulf States." Therefore, frontal flattening was 
not unknown at Moundville. It must be borne in mind, also, that as the crania 
examined were usually in small fragments, evidence of compression in many 
could well have escaped us. 
The earthenware of Moundville is shell-tempered as a rule, but not always. 
In large cooking vessels the particles of shell are coarse and show on the surface. 
In the better ware the pounded shell is less noticeable, because it is more finely 
ground and for the reason that the Moundville ware, except in the case of cooking- 
vessels, is almost invariably covered with a coating of black, more or less highly 
polished on the outer surface. This coating was not produced by the heat in firing 
the clay, but was a mixture intentionally put on by the potters. Scrapings from 
the surface of a number of vessels were furnished by us to Harry F. Keller, Ph.D., 
who, by analysis, arrived at the conclusion that the black coating on the earthen- 
ware is carbonaceous matter. Under the microscope it appears as a lustrous 
coating, which must have been in a liquid state when applied. Chemicals have 
little effect upon the coating; it is insoluble in alcohol and in ether, not attacked 
by acids, and but slightly affected by caustic alkali. From its appearance and 
chemical behavior, Dr. Keller concludes that it must have been applied in the form 
of a tarry or bituminous matter which, upon heating out of contact with air, was 
converted into a dense variety of carbon. Doctor Keller is of opinion that a mix- 
ture of soot and fat or oil might produce the effect, though the numerous lustrous 
particles resembling graphite rather suggest the carbonization of a tar-like substance. 
