MANY INDIAN MOUNDS

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXV, Issue 1929, 20 March 1905, Page 8

MANY INDIAN MOUNDS

VALUABLE ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA POUND IN FLORIDA.

Beautiful Pottery, Human Effigies and Crania Lately Exhumed and Placed in Academy of natural Science.

"Clarence B. Moore has concluded his thorough ari-haen!fgical survey of the roast line of nortV.vrtsr i' ■ ri-..a," :-ays Nature. "Aitht»Hgli :i'.is district had not previously been inv* t=t|y»».re<J. many mounds had be*-?. < per.eo by treasure seekers and curio* iij huf •.:••? str.ti thus valuable data ha\e ;-■>■ r '.' Hi* students, .of American arch»-tf.t.fty. This Irresponsible- explcfstior. of mounds for spoil has caused £r«it loss to science in Amen 9. but the ios in the old world has !• m. i' ■"■ i i( '. tr-it-er and too often this ignorant figging ha* been carried on urd« r the auspices of 'learned' institu-ioMS. ' Hy far the greater portion 0/ Mr. Moore's find* «ons4sts of pottery whirl, has bier PddeO to the noble co!lwt!or. that this enthusiastic arehaeo'.ocist ha* given to the museum of thv Academy <-f Natural Science at •re in the various imtstun '<-f the United States enormous ecllectio'-s of preColumbian and n;f'•" r».c-tnt pottery, comparatively 1 i 11;«. of which his been studied or publisher.'. It is to be hoped that ere long one of our V:; mean colleagues will give us a roorotrnph on A American cersmi-s 8 f,f a >v;.oie; a work on this subject is much ueefied at the present flay ard it conic not fail to be of very great itue-vst.

"Th*re in so variety in the vessel* rx> numerously and bs.autiful.ly figured by Mr. M<*.rn that it is difficult to give an idea of the pot?cry of the district. inTeetig-vt':d. .Many vessels are composed of several cups or receptacles, most are of irregular !i;rm ; ml are often provided with animals' heads, a few are perforated, and some are in the form of human effigies: a unique vessel has tile form of an ir.\< r.'rd truncated pyramid, on one side of which a human figure peering over l' j edge is modeled in relief. The majority of the vessel* are decorated in various ways, usually either by incised ! it.es or by devloe* or patterns in low r iiwf, many of which look as if they had been produced with a stamp; one simi ■',(-. cylindrical vessel it ornamented with an incised design representing two human hands, but most of the desigr* and pattern* have no obvious si>f" r - • t.ce.

"A good mc . human crania have been found, and thise exhibit great antero-posterlor listening, while hi some a concave <b. nrwslou Kive* evidence of early construction by a band. Oapt. Bernard Romans, who was familiar with this part of Florida, writing in the latter part of the eighteenth century, tells us that in his time the Choctaw* bound haKS of sand to the heads of n.H'.e children; but skirils of females exhibit the same artificial deformation. The region tave*ti«ited by Mr. Moore shows In an Interesting manner the influence of other district*. fbe pottery of northwest Florida is, on the whole, much superior to that of the peninsula, and the author Is inclined to believe that the beet, ware found its way into the latter region through barter, and the comparative rarity of the imported ware may account for the infrequent occurrenceof earthen wart- vessel sin the burial mounds of the ro**t. nf the peninsula. "Tn the first part of his report Mr. Moore noted a mor! Mary custom prevailing in peninsular Florida, which consisted of knocking a hole in the base of a Teasel, presumably to'kill'the pot, that its soul might accompany that of the dead man. The flimsy and 'freak* pottery sometimes found in the peninsula, and numerously in the northwest, was made expressly for interment with the dead, and In the base of each vessel a hode had been made previous to the bakinp of the clay. A new feature in 'freak' ware was encountered about St. Andrew's hay; these vessels were Hfe-forme, usually, but differed from other life-forms of the same district in that they were inferior to them a* to ware and workmanship, and that they had various perforations, made previous to bakinp. in ti,e body of the vessel a* well as the customary one in the bass. "Mr. Moore also obtained evidence which suggests that the flesh was removed from the bones of the corpses and burnt; the mass of carbonaceous matter was always found on the tasternslde "of the mounds. Urn burial was "largely in vogue in Alabama and Oeorgta; it extended' Into Florida, but practically is not met with further east than St. Andrew's. Inhumation was almost universally practiced in Florida; true cremation has not been met with in this peninsula, but it was oesasionally practiced on the mainland. or northwestern portion. These observations confirm the start-men t. of Cabeca tie Vaca, who sper.t some year? among the aborigines of the northwest <fr*k>rlda coast; he says that persons there in. general were buried, but that doctors were cremated."

V. .Jf* A Chinese Auction. T<3 a stranger a Chinese auction is s fflost curious spectacle. The auctioneer leans over a slightly elevated counter and exhibits his wares. He says 1 <■' Ini.r. neither does the bidder, who merely »;• n forward to the auctioneer and runs hi fingers up his sleeve, making prf .s-ur- - on the salesman's arm, thus indiciH- ••. how much he will pay for the arin-l. Then another and another rspcat th action, until the one signifying th* high est price receives the article wither word being exchanged on eithrr .-I: Only the auctioneer and the suc-.-ess* bidder know the price offered an Accepted.