242 CERTAIN SAND MOUNDS OF 



" Freak " Earthenware. 



We have given this title to a class of objects of earthenware found in the 

 mounds of the St. John's, and as yet unreported from any other section of the 

 United States, objects to which no practical use can be assigned, and valueless save 

 for mortuary purposes — freaks of fancy in earthenware ! 



In addition to fantastic forms, an absence of care in manufacture and inferi- 

 ority of material characterize this type, which, it ma}' be noted, is absent in the 

 mounds where sherds given the outlines of arrow points are found with human 

 remains. 



These objects, as we have seen, were somewhat widely distributed on the river. 

 They were represented in the Grant Mound not far from the river's mouth ; their 

 occurrence was noted at Mt. Royal, near Lake George ; at Davenport, on the Ockla- 

 waha; at Duval's, Lake County; and in the sand mound in the pine woods two 

 miles farther west; while even Thursby Mound, near Lake Beresford, superficially 

 contained earthenware of this type. Farther south we have found no unbroken 

 earthenware of any sort in the sand mounds. 



This type, almost invariably perforated as to the base prior to baking, has at 

 times the bottom omitted, as the reader may see by reference to Part I, Plate VI, 

 Fig. 1 ; Part I, Plate IX, Fig. 2, and Part II, Plate XXII, showing plainly that 

 since this earthenware was made for the dead alone, forms devoted to the use of 

 the living were not of necessity imitated. 



Curiously enough, bottomless vessels are reported from prehistoric graves of 

 Germany, for which the discoverer suggests a use as drums. 1 In regard to this 

 attribution the French reviewer writes: 2 "Assuredly vessels without bottoms could 

 contain neither liquids nor solids, but neither could the solid marble vases of the 

 Athenian tombs have served a practical purpose, and involuntarily in this connec- 

 tion the bottomless vessels of the Dana'ides, placed by the ancient tradition in the 

 lower regions, are suggested. It is always a temptation to attribute a symbolical 

 meaning to mortuary paraphernalia, whose use we cannot fathom." (Translation.) 



After all, it is not impossible that these bottomless vases served as mortuary 

 deposits, as did those of Florida. Prehistoric customs of the old world and of the 

 new sometimes show such striking resemblances. It is, however, interesting to 

 learn that drums of earthenware have been discovered in Chiriqui. 3 



Since the first part of this Report went to press many new and curious speci- 

 mens belonging to this "freak" type have been met with by us, and as before, always 

 in mounds where the occurrence of sand artificially colored with red oxide of iron 

 was noted, and always with implements of polished stone of graceful shape, though 



1 Die Megalithischen Griiber (Steinkammergriiber) Deutschlands. Von Edward Krause und Dr. Otto 

 Schoetensack. I, Altmark. Berlin, 1893, page 28. 



2 L 'Anthropologic, Juillet— Aofit, 1893, page 490. 

 :1 Sixth An. Rept., Bur. Eth., page 157 et seq. 



