Additional mounds of Duval and of Clay counties, Florida; Mound investigation on the east coast of Florida; Certain Florida coast mounds north of the St. Johns riverMoore, Clarence B. (Clarence Bloomfield)
History
Additional mounds of Duval and of Clay counties, Florida; Mound investigation on the east coast of Florida; Certain Florida coast mounds north of the St. Johns river
Moore, Clarence B. (Clarence Bloomfield)
Florida -- Antiquities; Mounds -- Florida
Interments, probably a dozen in all, were, curiously enough, marginal
and beneath the slope, no remains being met with in or near the
central portion of the mound. Both forms of burial, the bunched and
that in anatomical order, were present. In one case the remains were
in part calcined, while other portions of the skeleton were charred
in places only. No charcoal or fire-whitened sand lay with these
bones which consequently must have been exposed to flames elsewhere.
A number of the burials lay beneath deposits of oyster shells.
The remains were in much better state of preservation than is usually
the case in the mounds. One skull, almost intact, was preserved.[7]
With two crania, at different points, were numbers of longitudinally
perforated shells (_Olivella_).
With human remains was found a portion of the shaft of a large pin of
shell, showing recent fracture. The remaining part doubtless escaped
us.
But two sherds were brought to our attention.
MOUND SOUTH OF SUAREZ BLUFF, AMELIA ISLAND
In a large shell field about three-quarters of one mile in a
southeasterly direction from Suarez Bluff, on property belonging
to Mr. Scott of that place, was a mound 6.5 feet high and 44 feet
across the base. It had probably lost about 2 feet in height through
previous investigation.
The mound was built on a shell heap of irregular surface. A thickness
of 6 feet of solid sand was at certain portions of the mound and
scarcely 2 feet at others.
About two-thirds of the mound was dug down.
Nineteen burials, from 1 to 6 feet from the surface, all in
anatomical order, were discovered.
Occasional pockets of sand colored with _Hematite_ were near the
base. A few bits of pottery lay loose in the sand and at one point
were fifteen marine univalves (_Fulgur carica_, _Fulgur perversum_,
_Fasciolaria_). A few shell beads, lying with a skeleton, were the
only artifacts discovered.
MOUND NORTHEAST OF SUAREZ BLUFF, AMELIA ISLAND
About 1.5 miles from Suarez Bluff was a mound 5 feet 2 inches in
height with a diameter at base of 68 feet. About one-half of this
mound, which was kindly placed at our disposal by Mr. Jonathan
Buzzell of Suarez Bluff, or Amelia City, as it is now called, was
demolished by us. It was composed of yellowish sand with little, if
any, intermingling of charcoal. A layer of oyster shells and midden
refuse, such as fragments of bones of the turtle and of the deer,
but apparently with no sherds, occupied a central position in the
mound. This deposit began about 18 feet from the margin and was then
a little over 2 feet from the surface, and apparently so throughout.
Its thickness was about 2 feet (see diagram), increasing toward the
center. There were no oyster shells in the marginal portion of the
mound.
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