44 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



STONE-LINED GEAVES 



Stone graves — that is, small excavations which were lined or partly 

 lined with natural slabs of stone — have been encountered in great num- 

 bers in various parts of the Mississippi Valley. They are discovered 

 scattered and separate ; in other instances vast numbers are grouped to- 

 gether, thus forming extensive cemeteries. While the great majority 

 were formed by lining properly prepared excavations, others were 

 created by erecting one upon another, forming several tiers, and 

 covering all with earth, so forming a mound. In and about the city 

 of Nashville, on the banks of the Cumberland, in Davidson County, 

 Tennessee, such burials have been revealed in such great numbers 

 that it is within reason to suppose the region was once occupied by a 

 sedentary people who remained for several generations, and must 

 have had an extensive village near by. It will be recalled that the 

 Shawnee occupied the valley in the early years of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, and that a French trader was there in 1714. A mound standing 

 near Nashville was examined in the summer of 1821, and writing of 

 it Haywood said : " This is the mound upon which Monsieur Charle- 

 ville, a French trader, had his store in the year 1714, when the 

 Shawanese were driven from the Cumberland by the Cherokees and 

 Chickasaws. It stands on the west side of the river, and on the north 

 side of French lick creek, and about 70 yards from each. It is round 

 at the base. About 30 yards in diameter, and about 10 feet in 

 height, at this time." The mound was examined and much charcoal, 

 traces of fire beds, a few objects of stone, and bits of pottery were 

 found. And telling of the later history of the mound the writer 

 continued : " The mound also had been stockaded by the Cherokees 

 between the years 1758 and 1709. . . . Very large burying grounds 

 once lay between the mounds and the river, thence westwardly, 

 thence to the creek." (Haywood, (1), pp. 136-138.) 



Although from this statement it would appear that many graves 

 had already been destroyed before the close of the first quarter of the 

 last century, nevertheless vast numbers remained to be examined at 

 a later day. About 20 years after Haywood wrote, another account 

 of the cemeteries in the vicinity of Nashville was prepared, at which 

 time it was told that " We have one near the suburbs of our town, 

 which extends from near the Cumberland river almost to Mr. Mac- 

 gavoc's; it is about one mile in length, how much in breadth I cannot 

 say, the road and houses cover one side, and a cultivated field the 

 other; in this field is a tunmlus which is now worn down. From the 

 part that I have examined of this grave-yard, I found that the stone 

 coffins were close to one another, situated in such a manner that each 

 corpse was separated only by a single stone from the other; about 

 one and one-half or two miles from this, on the other side of the 



