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
In a cultivated field about one-half mile in a northerly direction
from the landing was a mound much reduced in height by the plow.
Its diameter of base, at the time of its total demolition by us,
was 55 feet; its height, 2 feet 4 inches. The mound at the central
portion had a thickness of 5 feet between the surface and where the
sand ceased to show an admixture of charcoal, that is to say about
2.5 feet above the level of the surrounding territory and an equal
distance below it. Yellow sand with no traces of charcoal or sherds,
marked the bottom of the mound and into this again certain small pits
had been dug, as was shown by the darker color of the sand employed
to fill them.
Somewhat below the level of the surrounding territory was a stratum
over one foot in thickness of sand blackened by fire, containing
abundant particles of charcoal. Above this layer were brown sand
and white sand intermingled at places, surmounted by a stratum of
cherry-colored sand owing its tint to the use of _Hematite_, of
irregular thickness—averaging, perhaps, 1 foot. This bright colored
stratum lay beneath a superficial layer of brownish sand about 1 foot
in thickness.
Interments were in considerable numbers—between thirty and forty—and
in the last stage of decay, some in fact so far gone that the method
of burial was not determined, but in all cases where sufficient
evidence remained the burial in anatomical order was indicated.
Quantities of sherds were in every portion of the mound; some plain,
others with punctate decoration, and others again bearing the square
or the diamond-shaped stamp common to Florida ware. Intricate
stamped decoration, prevalent in Georgia and present in many mounds
of Duval County, was not met with.
About 3 feet from the surface was a bowl of approximately one gallon
capacity, of ordinary type, bearing the square stamped decoration.
The bottom had been intentionally knocked out. No human remains were
discovered in the immediate neighborhood.
In a pocket of brownish sand, extending into the untouched sand below
the mound, seemingly a small grave, over 5 feet from the surface,
in the central portion of the base, with human remains, was an
undecorated earthenware pipe (Fig. 1) of the usual type of the mounds
of Duval County.
A curious earthenware knob, evidently broken from some vessel, lay in
the sand.
Two polished hatchets were met with, one with human remains, 6 inches
from the surface, the other in caved sand.
On a fireplace 5 feet from the surface were certain bones of the deer.
Several chips of chert, a rude implement of chert, a hone of
sandstone and two chert arrowheads, were found separately in the
sand.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.—Tobacco pipe of earthenware. Low Mound at
Point La Vista. (Length over curve, 5⅞ in.)]
Loose in the sand were several conchs, a number of oyster-shells and
the columella of a large marine univalve worked to a point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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