CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS OF THE ALABAMA RIVER, 337 



Pins. — Quantities of shell pins, some 6.5 inches in length, were with the 

 skeletons, always near the skull. No less than six were found with a single burial. 



Gorgets. — Near the bones of an adult and of an infant, buried together, was a 

 circular gorget of shell, 2 inches in diameter, slightly broken at one part of the rim. 

 The decoration is carved and engraved on one side, as shown in Fig. 53, where the 

 figure is reversed, and shows a grotesque head probably represented as wearing a 

 mask, with a great nose and a huge, protruding tongue. The design on this gorget 

 has been carefully drawn to scale, much enlarged by the aid of a magnifying glass, 

 and reduced to natural size in reproduction. The excised portions are shown in 

 black. Prof. Frank Hamilton Gushing believes the figure to be kneeling, one hand 

 grasping a baton, the other resting on the exceedingly flexed knee. The teeth are 

 closed. The figure is probably represented as blowing or hissing. According to 

 Professor Cushing the figure has the double beaded forelock, common to certain 

 warrior figures on shell gorgets and copper plates. 



In General Thruston's "Antiquities of Tennessee," Second Edition, Chapter 

 IX, and supplement to Chapter IX, is a comprehensive account, fully illustrated, of 

 these rare and interesting human figures sometimes found on gorgets of shell and 

 plates of copper, and they are also described in Professor Holmes' "Art in Shell." 1 



With skeleton No. 66, a child's, was an oblong gorget of shell with rounded 

 corners, having double perforation for suspension at one corner, 1.8 inches by 1.6 

 inches. In the center is an incised circle with semi-perforations and a quarter 

 circle with a semi-perforation in each corner, as shown in Fig. 54. 



Skeleton No. 90, of an infant, had two hairpins of shell and two circular 

 gorgets of shell. Curiously enough, no beads were met with. 



One gorget, 2 inches in diameter, has on one side an interesting incised decora- 

 tion representing two birds, standing, facing each other, their bills almost in contact 



(Fig. 55). 



1 Second Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, 1880-1881. 



43 JOUKN. A. N. S. PHILA., VOL. XI. 



