CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS, BLACK WARRIOR RIVER. 141 
The earthenware of Moundville is characterized by monotony of form, the 
water-bottle, the bowl, and the pot being almost the sole representatives of the 
potter's art met with in its graves. It is to the striking incised decoration that we 
must look for the great interest attached to the earthenware of the place. 
Stamped decoration was absent. Not only was the complicated stamp of the 
south Appalachian region, which extends across to southern Alabama, not met with 
in a single instance, but our old, intimate, and hitherto ever-present friend, the 
small check-stamp, was absent also. 
The custom of perforating the base of vessels placed with the dead, in order 
to “kill” the vessels that their souls might be free to accompany the spirit of the 
departed, was not practised at Moundville, though it extended for a distance up 
the Tombigbee river, below its junction with the Black Warrior. 
The reader will note in the detailed description of the discoveries at Mound- 
ville, which follows, that not one object met with by us, either through its method 
of manufacture or the material of which it was made, gave indication of influence 
of Europeans. The greatest pains were taken by us during the entire investigation 
to note the presence of any object obtained from the whites. Presumably, later 
Indians did not use Moundville as a center for burials. 
All objects found at Moundville by us, with the exception of certain dupli- 
cates, which were sent to Phillips Academy Museum, Andover, Mass., are to be 
seen at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 
MOUNDVILLE. 
MOUND А. 
Mound A, the central one of the Moundville group, about 22 feet in height 
and irregularly oblong in horizontal section, has a summit plateau 155 by 271 feet. 
Thirty-three trial-holes were sunk in the plateau, showing yellow clay with a slight 
admixture of sand. Опе small arrowhead of jasper alone rewarded our search. 
Move» В. 
Mound В, 57 feet in height, seems stupendous when viewed from the level 
ground. Two steep causeways, one at the north, the other at the east, lessen some- 
what the angle of ascent, which, on the western side, is thirty-eight degrees. Тһе 
summit plateau, roughly oblong, is 118 feet in width by 149 feet in length. Twenty- 
two trial-holes sunk by us yielded neither human bones nor artifact. Тһе super- 
ficial part of the mound is of yellow clay with a small percentage of sand. 
Бікір Ховтн оғ MOUND В. 
This field, probably between one and two acres in extent, апа bordering the 
northern side of Mound B, is under cultivation and shows on its surface numerous 
traces of aboriginal occupancy. Eighteen trial-holes and 150 feet of narrow trench, 
