ArchcBology and Anthropology. 
ARCHEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY.* 
Mound and other explorations by Mr. Warren K, Moore- 
head. — On the high wooded hills bordering the Little Miami Rivcr 
in central Greene County are a number of mounds. One is the large 
mound on the farm of Mr. J. B. Lucas, three miles west of Xenia. 
Up to June, 1885, this mound had never been thoroughly explored. 
It was about twenty feet in height with a slightly flattened summit, 
perhaps seven feet across, and sixty feet in diameter at the base. 
Four good sized trees grew out of the sides, one of which was an 
oak perhaps ninety years old. 
This mound was opened in June, 1885. A shaft was sunk, from 
the summit downwards, twelve feet, but nothing of interest found. 
We began a trench on the outer edge of the east side, and carried it 
to the center ; then extended the trench from the summit down until 
these two met. Completing this work, we caved in the sides, and 
threw back the earth taken out, thus restoring the mound nearly to 
its former shape. 
The trench from the outer edge of the mound to the center was 
about twenty-five feet in length. For the first ten feet of this dis- 
tance the earth was fine clay, not mixed with ashes. At twelve feet 
from the outer circumference was a bed of ashes and charcoal, 
perhaps two feet in thickness, and sticks of the half-charred wood 
three feet long and quite well preserved were taken out. These had 
been laid with regularity and were probably covered with earth 
before the fire had consumed them. At sixteen feet a thin irregular 
stratum of ordinary river sand was found, three or four inches in 
thickness. 
Immediately following this sand layer, and extending upwards 
possibly three feet, was a mass of hard, burned clay. When this 
was reached we stopped work in the trench and went to the 
shaft above. We had not thrown out a foot of earth until we came 
to a mass of charcoal and ashes. This occurred without intermis- 
sion for two feet or more when we came upon a layer of pure clay, 
nearly two feet in thickness. Immediately below this was the thin 
stratum of sand, and under this sand, resting on the "altar "of 
burnt clay, were five skeletons much decomposed. Of these, the 
teeth and small fragments of the skull and short sections of the 
femur and tibia were all that could be preserved. The skeletons 
were buried side by side ; the heads to the south. At the feet were 
fragments of a clay urn, peculiarly shaped. It had been broken into 
seven or eight pieces, but could be easily restored. It was of the 
basket-moulded " pattern, having plain marks of the basket reeds 
* This department is edited by Thomas Wilson. Esq., Smithsonian Institution, 
