CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS OF THE GEORGIA COAST. 123 



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a portion of a neatly carved handle of another bone imple- 

 ment ; a small bone implement that crumbled to pieces, and 

 half a rude chert arrowhead or knife. 



Twenty-five feet N. by E., and 2 feet from the surface, 

 which at this part had no layer of oyster shells and seemed 

 encumbered to a considerable extent with sand plowed from 

 higher portions of the mound, was an axe of steel. This 

 axe, which was not greatly rusted and is now doing duty 

 on our steamer, had a certain amount of wood remaining in the eye. 

 It is of the form at present known as the " turpentine axe " and is 

 employed for "boxing" pine trees. It bears no resemblance to those 

 axes in use among later Indians, one of which is figured by us in Part 

 I of our Report on the "Mounds of the St. Johns River, Florida," 

 page 67, and, in our opinion, was a recent addition to the mound, and 

 has no connection with the period of its construction. It was not 

 immediately associated with human remains. 



Burial No. 51, 7 feet S. W., 6 feet 8 inches from the surface, or 4 

 inches above the base of the great central pit, beneath the shell, was a 

 skeleton of a male, flexed on left side, head N. E. 



Burial No. 52, just E. of the head of Burial No. 51, about 10 inches 

 above the bottom of the pit, was a layer of calcined human bones (of 

 course, in small fragments) having a thickness of 4 inches at the begin- 

 ning and a breadth of 1 foot 7 inches. One foot from the beginning its 

 thickness was 5 inches, its breadth 2 feet. It extended inward a 

 distance of 26 inches. At the eastern outer corner was an undecorated 

 bowl, imperforate, of about one pint capacity, filled with fragmentary 

 calcined bones which possibly had entered from the layer contiguous to 

 it. With these was a molar of a bear. Partially covering the opening 

 of this bowl was a somewhat larger one from which a portion was 

 missing. On either side of the bowls was hematite and a thin layer of 

 it lay upon the upper surface of the layer of bones. With the 

 remains was a small cord-marked bowl in pieces, containing a few 

 shell beads. In addition, unaffected by fire, were three piercing 

 implements of bone, two of ordinar}- type, the other, 8.3 inches long, 

 having as a head the articular portion of the bone — a common enough 

 form save that a certain portion had been removed from either side as 

 shown in Fig. 71. Near these was a mass of fresh-water mussels {Unto 

 shepardianns, Lea ; Unto dolabriformis, Lea ; Unio roanokensis, 

 Lea), 1 perhaps fifty, nearly all hopelessly decayed and crushed. So far 

 as could be determined each one bore a double perforation for suspension. 

 Those preserved show no variation from living forms. 



Burial No. 53, 25 feet E. of N., a grave having its base 4 feet 9 

 1 Identified by Professor Pilsbry. 

 Fig. 71. — Piercing implement of bone. Mound D. (Full size.) 



