CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS OF THE ALABAMA RIVER. 347 



the skeleton, presumably, had been dug away. Not far distant, near the surface, 

 laj- a skeleton on its back with machine-made nails in association — doubtless a 

 recent burial. 



General Remarks. 



As we have seen, the mounds of the Alabama are small in size, increasing 

 somewhat in the northern portion where the country is more elevated, and present 

 no striking features structurally. 



Of sites of former cemeteries reported to us in considerable number, revealed 

 by the action of Hoods, but one still yielded interments to a careful search, so, as to 

 these, we are unable to draw definite conclusions. 



The artifacts of the early inhabitants of the banks of the Alabama resemble in a 

 general way aboriginal objects used elsewhere. Quartz largely superseded, as a mate- 

 rial for projectile points, the chert in use in Florida and on the Georgia coast. Earthen- 

 ware was often of fairly good quality and, as a rule, had admixture of pounded 

 shell with the clay. The type and decoration of vessels found entire by us were 

 not striking, though heads of birds and other fragments occasionally found indicate 

 the use of such articles as handles on interesting forms of ware, and with the 

 admixture of pounded shell and with loop-shaped handles suggest Tennessean influ- 

 ence, while occasional polished black ware recalls the vessels of Mississippi. The 

 gritty ware of lower Georgia and its complicated stamp decoration were almost 

 absent from the Alabama river, though occasional sherds with decoration of the 

 kind prevailing in Georgia, Carolina, and sometimes found in upper Florida were 

 met with. No pottery was found of the highest standard of that beautiful ware in 

 use along the Gulf in aboriginal times. 



Perforation below the rim on opposite sides of the vessel, which served for 

 purposes of suspension, was practically absent from vessels found by us along the 

 Alabama river. 



The most striking feature of the Alabama, and one new to our work, was 

 plural burials of uncremated bones in single urns. On the Georgia coast, while 

 vessels often filled to the top with calcined remains are met with, we have never 

 found, or heard of the finding of, over one unburnt skeleton in a single vessel. 



Another feature of interest was the almost total absence of cremation. While 

 in Florida this rite was often practised, and while the mounds of many of the 

 rivers of Georgia and of its coast teem with calcined human remains contained 

 in urns or unenclosed, but one case of cremation was met with by us along the 

 entire Alabama river. 



