CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS, CENTRAL FLORIDA W.-COAST. 365 



from previous digging. In addition to a number of smaller holes, a trench about 

 4 feet deep and 11 feet wide had been dug from the western margin about 20 feet 

 in toward the center. Over the surface of the mound were fragments of human 

 bone and bits of earthenware. This mound, which was completely dug down by 

 us, had a clearly defined base-line, marking the original surface upon which the 

 mound had been piled. No grave-pits were present, and of the forty-seven burials 

 found by us, none lay upon the base and none was over 3.5 feet from the surface. 



Burials were encountered near the margin and were not confined to any part 

 or parts of the mound. They increased in number as the digging progressed, the 

 majority of the burials being in the body of the mound. In form, the burials were 

 of the bunched variety and consisted of certain bones without the cranium ; bones 

 with one, two or three skulls ; and, in one case, a bunch with four skulls. The 

 bones were all Ijadly decayed. No crania were in a condition to keep, though a few 

 calvaria, which held together temporarily, showed no cranial flattening. 



Objects deposited with the dead were singularly few. Near a burial, lay frag- 

 ments of a marine shell {Fulguv)} With another burial was part of an earthenware 

 vessel having a bird-head handle but, as sherds were scattered throughout the 

 mound, the proximity of this one may have been accidental. Hammer stones, 

 pebbles and the like were conspicuous!}' absent. Tavo '" celts," not associated with 

 burials, fell with caving sand.- 



In the extreme edge of the mound, on the west, was an undecorated pot of 

 very inferior ware, badly broken. With it was a vessel with globular body and 

 upright neck around which was a complicated stamp decoration. Both these 

 vessels had the usual mortuary mutilation made by knocking out a part of the 

 bottom, as had all vessels met with by us in this mound. 



It is interesting to note the occurrence here of the complicated stamp, the 

 specialty of Georgia. It is frequently met with to the northward in Florida, as the 

 readers of our two reports on the northwest coast may recall, and its occurrence 

 much farther south along the coast will be described in this report. On the St. 

 John's river, however, it was found by us no farther south than about ten miles 

 above Palatka, about on a line with this Fowler's Landing mound. 



Also in a marginal part of the mound, to the southeast, were many large frag- 

 ments of vessels, undecorated, all of inferior ware, water-soaked and crushed. In 

 addition, four vessels were recovered, nearly whole, with the exception of the basal 

 perforation. Of these. Vessel No. 4, undecorated save for several encircling incised 

 lines, somewhat resembles a dumb-bell in shape, though the base has been per- 

 fectly flat. A vessel much like this one is shown in Fig. 151 in the second part of 

 our report on the northwest Florida coast. 



1 All determinations of shells have been made by Dr. 11. A. Pilsbry and Mr. E. G. Vanatta, of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



- Thanks are due for determination of rock material, from which objects mentioned in this re- 

 port are made, to Dr. E. Goldsmith and Mr. S. H. Hamilton, of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia. As it has not been deemed advisable to mutilate specimens, identifications are approxi- 

 mate only. It has not been thought necessary to give the rocks from which the "celts" found by us 

 were manufactured. None seemed to present new features, and many were given to owners of mounds. 



