142 



ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



It is evident, from the great care with which these discoidal stones were fashioned 

 and the perfection of their form, that they were greatly valued by the Indians. 

 They are of comparatively rare occurrence in the stone graves, because their manu- 

 facture required great labor and time, and it is probable that only two or three of 

 these stones were found in each village, town, or encampment, and that they were 

 deposited only in the grave of the owner at the time of his death. 



In Fig. 82 we have a group of stone implements, which were used by the abo- 

 rigines of Tennessee for various purposes, such as the excavation of boats, felling 

 trees, cleaning hides, and cultivating the soil. 



rig. 82. 



Fig. 83. 



Celts from middle Tenuessee, about one-eighth of the natural size. 



A stone celt Avhich I obtained from Mound Bottom, on the Big Harpeth River, 

 is massive, weighing four pounds two ounces. It is thirteen inches long, and four 

 inches broad at the cutting edge. This implement, formed from a hard dense 

 greenstone, highly polished, appears to be too heavy and unwieldy to have been 

 used as a hattle-axe, and was more probably used in excavating boats, in felling 

 trees, or in crushing bones and small twigs. 



One of the stone implements of hard greenstone, eighteen inches in length, 

 which we have previously described in connection with the remains at Old Town, 

 is among the most symmetrical and highly polished of the aboriginal relics. In 

 the museum of the Tennessee Historical Society, at Nashville, are two similar 

 implements, apparently modelled upon the same plan, but smaller. 



The large celt A, in Fig. 83, is formed of a dense, 

 olive-green, variegated stone, and highly polished. 

 It weighs two pounds ten ounces ; and measures 

 eleven and one-half inches in length, three and three- 

 tenths inches in breadth, and is one inch thick. 



It would require a strong arm to wield such a 

 weapon when mounted on the end of a long handle as 

 a battle-axe. Such weapons would be too heavy and 

 unwieldy for long marches, requiring great endurance 

 and protracted exertion, in the rapid pursuit, sudden 

 A. B. c attack, and precipitate retreat, which characterized 



Celts from the valley of the Cum- the military tactics of the North American Indians. If 



berland River, about one-eighth natu- 1^11- c 1 ^ 1 1 



rai size. used at all in wartare, such weapons must have been em- 



ployed solely in the local defence of the walled towns. 

 The implements represented by B and C are flaked from dark silex; the edges, 

 however, are polished, as if they had been employed for spades in digging the 

 ground. The implement B weighs two pounds ; is ten and one-half inclies in 

 length, and four and one-half inches in breadth; C is eight and one-half inches in 



