116 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTII AMERICAN INDIANS. 
he found the remains of 5 skeletons and in another 13. With these skeletons there 
were a few flint implements and minute fragments of vessels of clay. 
A large mound near the chambered mounds was also opened, but in this no cham- 
bers were found. Neither had the bodies been burnt. This mound proved remarka- 
bly rich in large flint implements, and also contained well-made pottery and a pecu- 
liar ‘‘gorget” of red stone. The connection of the people who placed the ashes of 
their dead in the stone chambers with those who buried their dead in the earth 
mounds is, of course, yet to be determined. 
It is quite possible, indeed probable, that these chambers were used 
for secondary burials, the bodies having first been cremated. 
In the volume of the proceedings already quoted, the same investigator 
gives an account of other chambered mounds which are, like the prece- 
ding, very interesting, the more so as adults only were inhumed therein, 
children having been buried beneath the dwelling-floors: 
Mr. F. W. Putnam occupied the rest of the evening with an account of his explora- 
tions of the ancient mounds and burial places in the Cumberland Valley, Tennessee. 
The excavations had been carried on by himself, assisted by Mr. Edwin Curtiss, for 
over two years, for the benefit of the Peabody Museumat Cambridge. During this time 
many mounds of various kinds had been thoroughly explored, and several thousand of 
the singular stone graves of the mound builders of Tennessee had been carefully opened. 
* * * Mr. Putnam’s remarks were illustrated by drawings of several hundred objects 
obtained from the graves and mounds, particularly to show the great variety of articles 
of pottery and several large and many unique forms of implements of chipped flint. He 
also exhibited and explained in detail a map of a walled town of thisold nation. This 
town was situated on the Lindsley estate, in a bend of Spring Creek. The earth em- 
bankment, with its accompanying ditch, encircled an area of about 12 acres. With- 
in this inclosure there was one large mound with a flat top, 15 feet high, 130 feet long, 
and 90 feet wide, which was found not to be a burial mound. Another mound near 
the large one, about 50 feet in diameter, and only afew feet high, contained 60 human 
skeletons, each in a carefully-made stone grave, the graves being arranged in two 
rows, forming the four sides of a square, and in three layers. * * * The most im- 
portant discovery he made within the inclosure was that of finding the remains of the 
houses of the people who lived in this old town. Of them about 70 were traced out 
and located on the map by Professor Buchanan, of Lebanon, who made the survey 
for Mr. Putnam. Under the floorsof hard clay, which was in places much burnt, Mr. 
Putnam found the graves of children. As only the bodies of adults had been placed 
in the one mound devoted to burial, and as nearly every site of a house he explored 
had from one to four graves of children under the clay floor, he was convinced that it 
was a regular custom to bury the children in that way. He also found that the chil- 
dren had undoubtedly been treated with affection, as in their small graves were found 
many of the best pieces of pottery he obtained, and also quantities of shell-beads, 
several large pearls, and many other objects which were probably the playthings of 
the little ones while living.* 
This cist mode of burial is by no means uncommon in Tennessee, as 
it is frequently mentioned by writers on North American archeology. 
The examples which follow are specially characteristic, some of them 
serving to add strength to the theory that mounds were for the most 
part used for secondary burial, although intrusions were doubtless com- 
mon. 
*A detailed account of this exploration, with many illustrations, will be found in 
the Eleventh Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, 1878. 
