84 Transactions of the Academy of Science of Si. Louis 
Ceremonial Mound 
The large mound NMolO on the bluff edge overlooking the 
lakebed proved to be the most unusual of all the sites excavated. 
1941-42 
the 
purpo 
Ooss trenches through the long and short diameters re- 
vealed the existence of an inner truncate quadrilateral mound 
15 by 35 feet (Plate VII). At the top of this inner mound 
there was a central fireplace which was probably ceremonial in 
purpose (see Plate VIII). On the east and west sides of the 
base of this inner mound a trench or ditch had been dug and 
■t 
this trench had contained posts which could have formed either 
a palisade or the supports for some kind of structure over the 
mound. Swallow^ reported finding a similar structure inside 
the great mound of the Lilboum group farther south along the 
same ridge in 1856. 
m 
Gummy gray-blue clay was found on the west side and top 
of the inner mound, indicating that another building period 
this 
structure. On 
iicatin^ the re- 
mains of a later structure. The final period in the mound's con 
struction 
an 
north and south by 70 feet to the east and west. Since 1878 the 
mound has been cut down more than 5^ feet and the displaced 
earth has been spread down the slopes. A crevice 40 feet long 
was discovered extending along the west side in the gray clay. 
.1 n^6 
Madrid 
perhap 
this 
points, spear points 
sharpeners, polishers, and One bone awl. Spear points 
were the most numerous class of objects. One of them 
the 
A 
large narrow chipped celt with one flat surface might have been 
an adz for gouging out log canoes. Both shell tempered and 
clay-grit tempered pottery were encountered in the fill with some 
20 ceramic specimens. Most unusual of these were 7 small bi- 
conical objects of unknown use (see Plate XIX). Two pot- 
tery vessels were found intact on the northwest secti 
had 
disturbed by the plow. One small cuo or dipper in the shape 
was 
