CERTAIN ABORIGINAL MOUNDS OF THE ALTAMAHA RIVER. 170 



An undecorated bowl, somewhat resembling B in shape, was found upright with 

 its base 40 inches from the surface. It contained cremated remains of probably one 

 individual, associated with small shell beads. Approximate measurements : height, 

 6 inches; diameter of aperture, 12.5 inches; maximum diameter, 13.25 inches. 

 This bowl was covered by a pot (D) of the same type as A as to shape, but with a 

 check-stamped decoration. It was somewhat crushed. Vessels C and D also were 

 sent to the Peabody Museum, where the broken parts have been carefully reunited. 



Inverted, and covering a large deposit of calcined bits of human bone, among 

 which lay a small polished chisel of volcanic rock, two tobacco pipes (Figs. 13, 14), 

 and twenty-six perforated pearls, some of them large, was a great pot (E) (Fig. 15), 

 having a diameter of mouth of 19 inches, a height of 17 inches. It was decorated 

 with an interesting complicated stamp shown in Fig. 16. 



The pipes found with the remains were undecorated. One had a peculiar 

 metallic lustre, perhaps conferred by the use of plumbago. Unfortunately, there is 

 not sufficient material for chemical determination. Both pipes had small mutilations. 

 We have before called attention to the fact that tobacco pipes are practically never 

 found entire in the mounds of the Georgia coast and probably the custom to mutilate 

 pipes to a certain extent, previous to their interment, extended up the Altamaha. 

 None of the vessels, however, had any perforation of base as is so often the case in 

 Florida and sometimes along the Georgia coast, where the aborigines probably desired 

 to " kill " the pot that its soul might accompany that of the departed. It is a 

 curious and significant fact that this same custom prevailed in Yucatan where Mr. 

 Thompson describes the basal perforation of mortuary pottery. 1 Vessel E and its 

 contents may be seen, with the rest of the collection, at the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, of Philadelphia. 



Six low mounds in the neighborhood of the preceding, some of which had been 

 rifled, were dug through by us with little result. In one the unburnt bones of an 

 infant lay under an inverted, undecorated bowl, in fragments, which was sent to the 

 Peabody Museum. One mound, previously undisturbed, had a pit at the center at 

 the bottom of which, 4 feet 9 inches from the surface, with hematite, was a mass of 

 unburnt bones in no particular order, including parts of skulls of eight individuals. 



Mounds near Old Rivek, Liberty County (3). 



Old river, probably a former channel, joins the river proper about 60 miles 

 above Darien. About one mile up Old river, on the east side, are the terminals of 

 Hughes' lumber tramway and McDuffie's old tram. About 400 yards out from the 

 lumber landing, a short distance to the left of McDuffie's tramway, going out, in the 

 " scrub," were two mounds 15 feet apart. The mounds, the ordinary truncated 

 cones, were unusually symmetrical. The smaller mound, 2.5 feet high, had a base 

 diameter of 28 feet; the larger had a height of 3.5 feet, a base diameter of 32 feet. 

 Both were thoroughly investigated, proving to be of sand. In the smaller mound 

 1 "The Chultimes of Labna," Edward H. Thompson, page 11, Cambridge, 1897. 



