12 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



have buried their dead in every position. The present Indians generally bury their dead doubled 

 up, the thigh against the breast.'" 



Owing to the nature of my professional duties, and my official relations as Health 

 Officer of Nashville, Tennessee, I was unable to examine the graves at Sparta in 

 person, although desiring greatly to do so; in order, however, to settle this question, 

 1 addressed letters to the most prominent physicians and citizens of Sparta and 

 White County, requesting them to open the graves and to forward the remains to 

 me in Nashville. 



I select the following from the replies received in response to this request. The 

 first is from Drs. E. L. Gardenhire, of Sparta, and J. Barnes, of Livingston, Ten- 

 nessee : — 



" We have to say that we know of no graves or skeletal remains of an extinet race in White 

 County, Tennessee. About eight miles north of Sparta, in a beautiful fertile valley of Cherry 

 Creek, there is a very large mound, but whether there are Indian graves or bones near it we do 

 not know. We have not heard of anything of the kind. 



' Twenty-one miles north of Livingston, in Overton County, near Maj. John F. Jewett's residence, 

 we learned that there is a cave in which there is a large deposit of human bones. Whether they 

 are of the ordinary size or not we have not learned, but the fact that they are there is well 

 authenticated. 



"The writer of this, E. L. Gardenhire, of Sparta, Tennessee, twenty-five years ago, dug into a 

 large mound near said cave, and found human teeth in a good state of preservation. He found, 

 also, parts of the bones of a human cranium. The latter, however, was soon reduced to powder 

 by exposure to the air. 



"At Floyd's Lick, in Jackson County, Tennessee, thirty miles southwest of this place, are the 

 remains of an ancient fortification plainly to be seen. It seems to have consisted of earthworks, 

 with small mounds at the corners, and a much larger mound in the centre. Near the fortification 

 are numerous graves. They are uniformly about four feet in length and two and a half feet wide. 

 The graves are about four feet deep, and consist of broad, sinootli, slate stones, pretty nicely cut out 

 and fitted together in the excavations so as to form a stone box. The writer opened one of them 

 twenty years ago, found some bones much decayed, a small earthen vessel or pot, and some flint arrow- 

 heads. The bones were so much decayed that nothing of their size or shape could be ascertained. 



" The writer was in company with Dr. Z. II. Chowning, near his residence, many years ago, and 

 found a considerable quantity of human bones in a tolerable state of preservation. It is remembered 

 that we found thigh and leg bones and crania. Upon measurement the thigh and leg bones were 

 uniformly larger than the bones of the present race of men. The locality of the bones was not like 

 the usual burial places. We supposed, therefore, that anciently a battle may have been fought there, 

 and the bones of the slain may have been thus deposited. We remarked nothing very peculiar in 

 the size of the crania found. 



"Dr. Zachariah K. Chowning lives thirteen miles northwest of Livingston. This is all the infor- 

 mation we can now give you." * * * 



The next is from Dr. Jas. H. Snodgrass, of Sparta, Tennessee. 



" There are many of these graves in our country, in the vicinity of rich borders of land. The two 

 large pieces of carved shell seem, from the position in which they were found, to have been worn 

 upon the breast, and the little balls as ear-ornaments. The head of the femur is forwarded to show 

 you the condition of the bones. The small stone was picked up in the vicinity. There is a small 

 earthen pot, holding about half a gallon, in every grave, but when exposed to the air a few minutes 

 it crumbles upon the slightest touch. These vessels are marked with a great deal of taste." * * * 



' Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. i. pp. 358, 359. 



