270 ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. 



best of our farming lands. There are various kinds of these remains, 

 such as mounds, cemeteries, and fortified camps. There is a singular 

 chain of works extending from the Tennessee River at Florence, Ala., 

 diagonally across the State of Tennessee and resting on the Upper Cum- 

 berland Eiver near Monticello, Ky. Whether or not this chain denoted 

 a line of travel for the aborigines, or was accidentally the most thickly 

 populated section of country, I know not. This region, at any rate, is 

 far-famed for its fertile soil, and is, at this time, the most thickly popu- 

 lated section of Tennessee. In the county of Williamson alone, where 

 my investigations principally were made, are four fortified camps, and 

 the builders of these defenses evinced a shrewdness in the selection of 

 location and the manner of improving the natural advantages that we 

 seldom find among the ignorant savages of the present day. 



In May, 1875, with a force of hands, I commenced digging in a large 

 mound situated two miles from Franklin, in this county. This mound 

 is located upon a high hill on the farm of Dr. William Eeid. The hill is 

 isolated, and commands a view of the country for many miles in every 

 direction. It is 400 feet in circumference, and is surrounded by a level 

 terrace, smooth, and free froni stones. The height above the terrace, 

 after ages of settling and attrition, is 20 feet. It is covered by a growth 

 of trees similar to those of the surrounding forest, which has never been 

 cleared. The hill is very rocky, and the wonder to me was where so 

 much soil had been procured. But my wonder ceased after a few hours' 

 digging, for, when I had penetrated the deposit of made-soil on the sur- 

 face about 18 inches, I came to the material of its construction, 

 which consisted almost wholly of limestone bowlders, gathered from the 

 face of the hill. These stones varied from small, broken pieces to masses 

 which would tax the strength of a large man to carry. About 4 feet from 

 the top, we came to a layer of graves extending across the entire mound. 

 The graves were constructed in the same manner as those found in the 

 cemeteries, hereafter to be described; that is, of two wide parallel slabs, 

 about 2.J feet long for sides, and with the bottom, head, and foot stone of 

 the same material, making, when put together, a box or sarcophagus. 

 Each of these cofiQns had bones in it, some of women and children together, 

 and others of men. Numerous bones of rodents, and a few of deer, were 

 mixed with the human bones, and were in a much better state of pre- 

 servation than the latter. In fact, the human bones were very much de- 

 cayed, and I was able to obtain only a few fragments. The skeletons were 

 laid in the graves with the heads to the east, and the arm and leg bones 

 were alongside of the body. It is probable that the later tribe of In- 

 dians used this place as a sepulcher, from the fact that these graves 

 were so near the top of the mound, having, in the other mounds, found 

 the skeletons at or near the center, and at the bottom. The only relics 

 I discovered among these graves were a string of beads, which were ly- 

 ing with the cervical vertebra of the skeleton of a woman. These beads 

 are made of chalk,* and have a polish when not eroded by lying in con- 



* Probably of shell, which, when decomposed, has the appearance of chalk. 



