144 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



implements, that in common with many of the Southern nations, they cultivated 

 the soil and subsisted chiefly by agriculture. And, in this foct, we have the 

 explanation of the marks of a much larger population than in regions inhabited 

 by the nomadic tribes. 



Stone and Earthenware Vessels. 



The aborigines of Tennessee, as a general rule, made their drinking and cidinary 

 vessels of a mixture of clay of various colors, and cruslied shells ; but it is now well 

 established that they occasionally formed large vessels of stone. 



The large limestone vessel represented in the following figure was obtained 

 from a mound in Mississippi. 



Fig. 85. 



Stone vessel from a mound near the Tallahatchie Klver, in Payette County, Mississippi. 



Col. Peyton Skipwith, of Oxford, Mississippi, obtained this remarkable vessel 

 from a mound in the valley of the Tallahatchie River, in Northern Mississippi. 

 When it came into his possession, it had an artistically wrought cover, which 

 fitted accurately over the mouth of the vase. This cover was unfortunately lost 

 during a fire which consumed the office of Col. Skipwith. The following are the 

 dimensions : height, eleven and one-half inches ; long diameter, twenty-two inches; 

 short diameter, fifteen inches ; depth of bowl, eight and one-half inches ; thickness 

 of rim, one inch. On either side of the elliptical body are two projections or 

 handles. The oval is symmetrical, and the outlines of the surface regular, with no 

 marks of cutting instruments. The bottom of the vase is excavated, apparently 

 with the design of rendering it lighter, and shows the marks of cutting instruments. 

 The interior is smooth and regular. The vessel weighs over one hundred pounds, 

 and is lifted and carried with difficulty by a strong man. 



It is supposed to have been used as the receptacle for the ashes of the dead. 



The taste and skill of the aborigines of Tennessee are well shown in the great 

 variety and beauty of the vases, drinking cups, and culinary vessels, whicli I 

 exhumed from the stone graves and mounds, and which have been described at 

 length in the preceding chapters, and more especially in Chapters III, IV, V, 

 and VI. 



