ANCIENT MOUNDS IN UNION COUNTY, KENTUCKY. 395 



to the radii of the circle. No urns were found with any of these 

 irregular bodies. Some of them lay in clay were too tender for re- 

 moval. 



A poplar tree Y^as felled ten years ago at the margin of this mound, 

 of which the rings, counted at the time, indicated an age of two hun- 

 dred and forty -nine years. A root of this tree, over one foot in diam- 

 eter, ran nearly across the mound. At one point where this root 

 was cut away were found four tiers of bodies under and two above it. 

 Two or three excavations had been made long since into this mound, 

 through one of which the large root passed, showing a greater antiquity 

 than that of the tree. The colored earth showed, in one of these excava- 

 tions in section, an inverted cone with irregular outline four and ahalf feet 

 at the surface and one foot wide at the depth of five and a half feet. 

 This hole or evidence of an excavation extended down to the earth of uni- 

 form color. At the bottom were found the skull of a female elk, two 

 odd jaws of bears, and a small bundle of deer-bone awls. Three other 

 of these ancient pits contained bodies. The direction of the heads 

 was irregular," not conforming to the common method of burials. 

 With one body tlint weapons were found; this was at a depth of 

 five and a half feet. The parcel of flints in box 2, the deer-horn tips, 

 and the fragment of elk-horn were found with this body. The principal 

 ■works of art obtained were the specimens of pottery. 



On the northeast side of the mound the original soil was reached. On 

 the west side it was not met vv^ith at a depth of 6^ feet. The entire mound 

 was dug away except at the margin, and where large trees interfered 

 with the work on the northwest side. The first burials either were 

 made by those who had no works of art, or no superstition or usage 

 requiring such articles to be buried with their dead. Ko bark or vege- 

 able substance was used to cover and protect the bodies, or else they 

 have entirely disappeared. 



The character of the earth forming the whole mound, except at the 

 northeast side, is such that it may be traced to a considerable excavation, 

 distant one hundred and fifty yards toward the southwest. The mound 

 was evidently formed by burials made on a cleanly- scraped surface, on 

 which the body was laid, and then covered with the yellow sandy loam 

 from the pit just alluded to. 



The burials to the depth of three feet from the surface appear to have 

 been made in the same form and manner as those below, and the addi- 

 tion of the burial vases distinctly marks either a change of art or super- 

 stition. The irregular burials are those made by excavation in the 

 mound, and filling the hole over the bodies. A critical examination of 

 these holes satisfied me that no sharp tool was used in making them. 

 Sticks and the hands appear to have been the implements employed. 



In the Lindsay mound are three kinds of burial : those without works 

 of art ; those with works of art bodies laid on the surface ; and those 

 of the deep excavations, which contain badly preserved bones, and 



