STONE FORT AND OTHER ABORIGINAL REMAINS. 



109 



Fig. 62. 



As Ave have seen, a similar ornament was taken from the breast-bone of a skeleton 

 in the burial mound on tlie banks of the Cumberland River, opposite Nashville ; 

 and we have obtained a number of them from other aboriginal stone graves in 

 Tennessee. We have observed the same kinds of hollow images and shell orna- 

 ments from localities widely separated. These facts are important as indicating 

 that, although the mode of burial was somewhat different, these relics, as well as 

 the accompanying skull, belonged to the aboriginal stone-grave race of Tennessee. 



In Fig. 62, {h) represents a fragment of the jaw-bone and the massive tusk of 

 some large carnivorous animal, most probably the American bear. Length 3.7 

 inches, length of the tooth exposed 1.5 inches, total length 3 inches. 



A skull, the bones of which were very hard as if they 

 had been undergoing petrifaction, was exhumed from 

 the same mound together with the preceding relics. 

 A portion of this human skull, on the right side, includ- 

 ing fragments of the temporal and occipital bones, had 

 been destroyed apparently before its deposit in the rock 

 mound. It is depressed and retreating in the frontal 

 region, resembling, in a measure, the crania which have 

 been artificially flattened in infancy by placing a weight 

 on the forehead. The general outlines of this skull 

 may be gathered from the following measurements : 

 facial angle 7-4° ; longitudinal diameter 6.5 inches ; 



parietal diameter 5.8 inches; frontal diameter 4.3 inches; intermastoid arch 15 

 inches; horizontal periphery 19.2 inches. 



The existence of two types in the heads of the images and in the crania is con- 

 sidered of great interest, apparently indicating that the stone grave race came in 

 contact with some other race, and mingled with it. 



The diff'erent forms of crania from the stone graves and mounds of Tennessee, 

 may be gathered from the following measurements, which I made with carefully 

 constructed and standard instruments. 



a. Stone implement. c. Shell 

 ornament, h. Fragment of jaw and 

 tooth, from .a small rock mound, 

 near Pulaski, Giles Co., Tennessee. 



