84 



From his researches in Tennessee Mr. Putnam was led 

 to the following conclusions : 



First. The people who buiied their dead in the singu- 

 lar stone graves of Tennessee, were intimately connected 

 with, or were of the same nation as, those whose dead 

 were buried in the mounds and cemeteries in Illinois, 

 Missouri, and Arkansas, and who made the pottery^of 

 which such a large amount has been taken from the burial 

 places in those states. This is shown by the similarity 

 of the crania, by the identity in material, patterns, and 

 finish of the pottery, and by the shell carvings, etc. 



Second. This nation, known as the Stone Grave people 

 in Tennessee, and the Mound Builders in Missouri, were 

 advanced in the primitive arts, and probably cultivated 

 the land to some extent. Of all the people of America, 

 east of the region of the Pueblo nations of New Mexico, 

 they were the farthest advanced in the ceramic art, and 

 were good workers in and carvers of stone and shell. 

 Judging by their earth-works, they were not so powerful 

 a people as the Mound Builders of the Ohio valley. 

 Judged by their works in pottery, their carvings in shell 

 and their chinped implements of stone, they were as far 

 advanced as their neighbors on the Ohio, while their carv- 

 ings in stone were hardly equal to the sculptures found in 

 the Ohio mounds. They did not burn their dead, as was 

 undoubtedly the custom to a great extent among the Ohio 

 Mound Builders. They were workers in copper which 

 they must have obtained by trade or by long excursions. 

 They also had shells from the Gulf or southeastern coast, 

 and used them very extensively in the manufacture of 

 beads and ornaments. They also understood the method 

 of perforating pearls, of which six were found in the 

 grave of a child. To their children they were evidently 

 attached, as exemplified by the care with which they were 



