ANTIQUITIES OF TENNESSEE. 273 



maxillary bone. A man had been buried in this mound, but all that 

 was left of him was some bone-earth, showing where they laid him, and 

 this small fragment of the jaw-bone, preserved by its contact with the 

 copper, it being colored and permeated by the oxide of copper. It is 

 the central piece of the lower jaw, and shows on each side the mental 

 foramina and the absorbed remains of the alveolar processes. Only 

 fragments of the incisors remain, ^ow, the fact that the skeleton was ^ 

 entirely decayed, excepting this small fragment, plainly indicates its 

 great antiquity ; for in all the mounds examined, not only by myself, but 

 by others, where the remains of bones are discovered at all, they are in 

 a good state of preservation, the depth of the sepulcher preserving them 

 from decay. And yet, in the bottom of this mound, never before brought to 

 light, or subjected to the influences of the atmosphere, only this remains; 

 and even that would have long since moldered into dust had it not been 

 in contact with, and almost surrounded by, this piece of copper. Kor 

 was this the only strange thing preserved by this copper, for on the stem 

 of the bobbin was about 18 inches of flax-thread and through its 

 center was a piece of cord. This thread and cord are green from 

 the effect of the copper and still retain some degree of strength. I 

 say it is flax, but of that I am not certain, as I examined it 

 with a pocket microscope only. It certainly is not of animal fiber, but 

 is vegetable. It had evidently been hanging around the neck of the 

 skeleton over which this mound was erected, and, the lower jaw drop- 

 ping, the mental portion of the bone became naturally wedged in the 

 copper bobbin, and thus it remained until my discovery. The skeleton 

 was that of a very old man. In all my exhumations I have not before 

 found a decayed skeleton, rarely even a missing tooth. The order of loss 

 is well known ; first, the molars, then the bicuspids, and finally the incisors. 

 Here all were gone. From these facts I suppose this man to have attained 

 a very great age. From the known veneration of the later races of 

 Indians for the aged, I infer that he was one of their rulers ; and the 

 Indians being patriarchal in their form of government, he must have 

 been a priest and a noted person, or no mound would have marked the 

 place of his burial. This, then, is my reason for believing these copper 

 bobbins to have been the symbols of office or authority, and not simply 

 spools upon which to wind their thread. The fragment of thread is 

 coated with some kind of gum, probably asphaltum, and that, no doubt, 

 contributed to its preservation. These few relics were all that was 

 obtained from these mounds, except the piece of galena, before alluded 

 to, which may have served to give weight to the club of some stalwart 

 warrior. Unfortunately the land has been cleared and cultivated so 

 long that most of the graves have been destroyed. Several ledges of 

 rock pass through it, and in every crevice of these ledges bones are de- 

 posited. They are also to be found scattered over the ground, where they 

 have not been destroyed by the plow and the elements. Old settlers say 

 that at one time the ground was thickly strewed with them. Near tho 

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