MOUNDVILLE REVISITED. 345 
rule lay near the head of skeletons, though there were exceptions to this, some of 
them caused by disturbance of the graves in aboriginal times in making other 
interments. 
Much of the ware (which is shell-tempered) is covered with a glossy, black 
coating, sometimes of great beauty. In our former report we said that this coating 
was not produced by the heat in firing the clay, and it is true that the direct action 
of heat upon clay would produce no such result. Presumably, however, the coat- 
ing was obtained in the manner described by Holmes! as practised by the Catawba 
Indians, where the vessel, surrounded by bark, is covered by an inverted receptacle 
during the firing process. Bark burning in the confined space in which the vessel 
was would certainly yield considerable quantities of tar which first would condense 
on the sides of the vessel, and, being in a liquid state, would penetrate the porous 
material to some extent, subsequently being carbonized by further heating. 
On our second visit to Moundville many vessels or large parts of vessels were 
found, some in many fragments. Such fragmentary vessels have been cemented 
together, and, where a part is missing, have been restored with a material some- 
what differing in shade from the vessel, that our work and that of the maker of 
the ware may not be confused. 
The number of vessels (many of which were badly crushed) found by us at 
our second visit, is as follows: 
Near Mound A. қ ў қ i А : ' қ 2 
Ground northeast of Mound С. ; А ў А 5 
Ground south of Mound D. . 5 \ И Lo AM 
Field near Mound M. . К , 4 : : 4 9 
Field west of Mound N. j к ( Х à А : 2 
Field west of Mound R. 28 
In describing the Moundville pottery, we shall confine ourselves to the more 
noteworthy pieces, the commoner types having received sufficient attention in our 
former report. 
In figuring pottery—and in fact all objects in this report— reduction in size is 
linear. Diagrams of the engraved decoration on the vessels are not absolutely 
exact as to size, owing to the difficulty of representing a curved design on a flat 
surface ; otherwise they are essentially correct. 
Dissociated in the soil were various effigies of heads, broken from earthenware 
vessels. These heads are mainly of birds, but they include also the head of a fish 
and one of an alligator. 
There were also found in the digging many discs made from parts of earthen- 
ware vessels, three with central perforations. 
One mushroom-shaped object of earthenware was unearthed, lying near the 
head of a flexed skeleton,—perhaps a modeling tool, as described by Thruston and 
Holmes. 
1W. Н. Holmes, * Aboriginal Pottery of Eastern United States,” 20th An. Rep. Bur. Am. 
Ethn., p. 55. 
44 JOURN. А. N. S. PHILA., VOL. XIII. 
