1900] 
Mills — Baum Prehistoric Village Site 
/ 
were carefully covered over with slabs of slate. With those children 
whose graves were carefully covered no implements or ornaments 
of any sort were placed. Of the sixty-three skeletons found, 
not a single perfect piece of pottery was found buried with them, 
differing greatly from the Madisonville Prehistoric Cemetery 
near Cincinnati, for at the latter cemetery quantities of pottery in 
their perfect state was found, buried with the skeletons. The 
pottery, implements and ornaments at Madisonville can be readily 
duplicated from the village at Paint Creek. 
In the ash pits can be found specimens showing the master- 
pieces of art wrought in stone, bone and shell, representing the 
civilization which at one time inhabited this village. Of the bone 
implements, the needle, made from the bones of the deer and elk is 
most beautiful in design, at the same time showing the skill dis- 
played in the manufacture of the implements. Some of them are 
upward of nine inches in length Of the bone specimens perhaps 
the bead is the commonest. In some pits more than two hundred 
have been taken out. In these ash pits were also found well wrought 
specimens of aboriginal fish hooks, also specimens showing the var- 
ious stages of manufacture of this implement, which differs some- 
what from the manufacture of those found at Madisonville, a full 
account of which appears in the 20th Annual Report of the Trustees 
of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, by Prof. F. W. Put- 
nam, in which he fully describes the manufacture of the fish hooks 
found in the prehistoric village site. In no instance was an unfinished 
specimen found in the Baum Village which would, in any way, show 
that a hole was first bored through the bone and the fish hook then 
wrought from this hole as was shown by Prof. Putnam; on the con- 
trary a piece of bone was selected and cut into shape representing a 
small tablet of bone two and one-half inches long by from one-half 
to three-quarters of an inch broad, with rounded edges at the ends. 
The center was then cut out by rubbing with a stone on each side. 
So that two fish hooks were made instead of one from the single 
piece of bone. A great many perfect scrapers made from the meta- 
carpal bone of the deer and elk were also found, while almost every 
pit would contain from one to four broken halves of these scrapers. 
Specimens were also procured showing the various stages in the 
manufacture of this implement which resemble very much in every 
particular those found at Madisonville, and also those found at the 
village site at Fort Ancient. 
The pottery fragments found in these ash pits resemble those 
found at Madisonville, in the ornamentation by incised lines, imple- 
ment indentations arranged in figures, and handles ornamented with 
effigies of birds and animals. Of the shell implements, perhaps the 
most common is the shell hoe, which is made from the mussel shell 
Unio p/icatus. 
