154 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS, BLACK WARRIOR RIVER. 
Having disposed of the deep excavation, we turned our attention to the 
northern part of the summit plateau of the mound through which we dug to a 
depth of fully 5 feet. The area excavated, as before said, is given in the plan 
showing the great excavation. 
All burials, so far as could be determined, were in pits that had been dug from 
the surface, though often, on account of aboriginal disturbance, the exact limits of 
these pits could not be traced. 9 
Four feet below the surface, with a few, soft fragments of human bone, was а 
ceremonial axe of copper, 8 inches long, 3 inches across the blade, and 1.75 to 2 
inches broad in other parts. Remains of a wooden handle, 2 inches in width, still 
adhere to the metal, showing that 1 inch of the implement projected behind the 
handle (Fig. 27). С. C. Jones! describes a somewhat similar axe from Georgia and 
rightly places it in the ceremonial class, calling attention to its light weight and 
delicate structure. 
A skeleton complete down to, and including, part of the thorax had, under the 
chin, small fragments of a sheet-copper ornament that had been encased in matting. 
Near a femur, lying alone, was a considerable number of tubular shell beads, 
each somewhat less than 1 inch in length. 
At a depth of 16 inches from the surface were certain scattered human bones 
near a small pocket of fragments of calcined bone, also human, with more unburnt 
bones beyond. 
A skull and a few bones in disorder lay together. With the skull was Vessel 
No. 7, in fragments, and a small cup with incised, ribbon-fold decoration, resembling 
in form and in design Vessel No. 21 from this mound and Vessel No. 15 from 
Mound О. 
In the same pit, but not immediately with the bones, was a ceremonial axe of 
copper, to which fragments of a wooden handle still adhered. This axe, like most 
copper objects found in the mounds, was encased in decayed material—wood, in this 
instance. The length of the axe is 6.4 inches; it is 1.5 inches across the blade, 
and 1 inch in breadth at the opposite end. The breadth of the space covered by 
the handle is 1.25 inches; 1.5 inches of the axe projected behind the handle (Fig. 
28 D). 
In this same pit lay a skeleton at full length on the back. At each side of the 
skull was an ear-plug of the ordinary form, made of wood, coated with sheet-copper 
on the upper surface. The companion parts of these ear-plugs, which were worn 
behind the lobes of the ears, were not found; presumably they had been made of 
some perishable material. Below the chin was an ornament of sheet-copper in small 
fragments which, put together, form in part a gorget with scalloped margin, having 
three roughly circular lines surrounding a swastika defined by excised portions 
(Fig. 29). Near the skull were Vessels Nos. 8 and 9, both crushed to fragments. 
Vessel No. 8, pieced together, bears an incised design several times found by us at 
' “Antiquities of the Southern Indians,” p. 226 et seq. 
