CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS, BLACK WARRIOR RIVER. 157 
small fragments. With Vessel No. 9g was Vessel No. 10, a!so in fragments, which, 
cemented together, proved to be a small, wide-mouthed water-bottle with a scroll 
decoration on a cross-hateh field. 
Somewhat more than 4.5 feet down was a dark line in the soil, perhaps the 
last trace of a decayed skeleton. With it, together, were two small masses of 
galena, minute fragments of sheet-copper, and a neatly made discoidal stone of 
quartz, 2 inches in diameter. 
Slightly more than a foot below the surface was a small deposit of fragments 
of caleined human bones, accompanied with a little charcoal and burnt clay in 
small masses. It appeared as if these foreign substances had been gathered up 
with the bones at the place of cremation. 
Near a dark line, probably left by decayed bones, was a ceremonial axe of 
copper, 13.75 inches long, 1.9 inches across the flaring blade, and .4 inch wide at 
the opposite end (Fig. 53). This implement, encased in wood, as usual, has no 
handle remaining upon it, but it plainly shows where a handle has been, with part 
of the body of the axe behind it. 
Scattered fragments of calcined human bones, with part of one unburnt bone 
among them, lay 2 feet from the surface. 
Remnants of a skull and part of a long-bone lay together; with them were 
fragments of corroded sheet-copper. 
Apparently apart from human remains was an undecorated but gracefully 
shaped water-bottle (Vessel No. 11), which, unfortunately, received a blow from a 
spade. 
Four feet from the surface, with a few fragments of human bone and many 
tubular shell-beads, each slightly less than an inch in length, was the remainder of 
what presumably had been a shell drinking-cup. Pieces separated through decay 
lay near it. The large fragment, which had upon it parts of two engraved fighting 
figures, received a blow from a spade, which, however, did no material harm, inas- 
much as the parts separated by the blow had lost through decay all trace of 
engraving. That which remains of the engraved design shows what is left of two 
fighting figures. Below, a figure with parts of the trunk missing, as well as the 
legs and the lower part of the left arm, has the right arm upraised to strike with a 
weapon of some kind—perhaps a war-club. In the ear of this figure is represented 
a large ear-plug, and ornaments, probably copper, are on the head. The second 
figure is represented by a leg and part of a foot. An unidentifiable object, but per- 
haps the handle of an axe, is between the figures (Fig. 34). 
Engraved figures on shell, of the same class! as those from Moundville, have 
been found in Missouri, in Tennessee, and in Georgia, and on copper in Georgia. 
. H. Holmes, *Art in Shell," Second Rep. Bur. Eth., 1880-81; also same author in Smith. 
Misc. Cal, Vol. XLV, Quarterly issue, Vol. I, Pt. I. 
Thruston, “Antiquities of Tennessee,” 2nd ed., chap. ix and supplement to chap. ix. 
ылым ie Far th Rep. Bur. Eth ‚ 1883-4, p. 100 et ве 
q. 
See also Starr, in Proc. Davenport "Acad. Nat. Sci., Vol. VI, p d et seq. 
Saville, in Bul. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., N. Y., Vol ‚ХШ, p. 99 et 
