.320 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS OF THE ALABAMA RIVER, 



either side. This trench was continued through the mound until it was apparent 

 no farther burials lay beyond. In this way a mere shell was left standing, in which, 

 presumably, there are few, if any, interments. 



Four or five feet in from the margin of the mound, whose outer portion was of 

 sand, there began a nucleus of clay around and over which the mound was built. 

 The clay rose sharply and speedily attained the height of about 3 feet, which it 

 maintained with slight variation throughout. This flat table of clay was, as we 

 have said, surrounded and surmounted by sand. 



Human remains were found in the sand, in the clay, and, in a few cases, in 

 pits extending below the level of the mound. An earnest attempt was made to 

 keep score of the burials, but skeletons in anatomical order (flexed and partly 

 flexed) were comparatively few, while bunched burials, interments of parts of 

 skeletons and bones scattered in all directions, were so numerous and so inter- 

 mingled that the task was given up as hopeless. 



There were no cases of cremation, though in several instances thin layers of 

 what seemed to be charcoal lay above the bones. 



This mound was, to us, in one respect of peculiar interest, for, from top to 

 bottom, were objects of iron, of glass, and of other material, derived from the 

 whites, which proved the mound to be of post-Columbian origin and emphasized 

 what has always been our contention, that in a mound built after contact with 

 Europeans, artifacts obtained from them will be amply in evidence. 



Pins. — Shell pins were present in great numbers. Indeed it seemed as though 

 every third burial was provided with them. In one case four lay with a single 

 skull. Excluding numbers of decayed pins and others broken in excavation, no 

 less than ninety pins, from 1.5 inches to 7 inches in length, were recovered from 

 the mound. Among these were four of the interesting variety described by us as 

 coming from the mound near Little river. 



Gorgets. — Twenty-seven shell gorgets, irregularly circular, from 1.8 inches to 

 4.9 inches in diameter, lay with burials, usually those of children — one child having 

 two. Unfortunately, none bore engraved decoration, though nine had a circle of 

 semi-perforations on one side near the margin and four were marginally decorated 

 with notches (Figs. 34, 35). 



Certain gorgets had a single perforation for suspension, while some were doubly 

 and even trebly perforated. In several cases where holes had worn through, others 

 had been drilled. 



Beads. — Shell beads were with the burials in bewildering profusion and variety, 

 some no larger than a good-sized pin's head, others, great sections of axes of marine 

 univalves, 1.6 inches in length. 



A few flat beads with incised decoration and doubly perforated, somewhat 

 resembling those from Durand's Bend, were present (Fig. 36). 



