48 BUREAU OF AMKRKIAN ETHNOLOGY I nuLL. 71 



said " The graves are fieciiiently lined and covered with them, instead 

 of slabs of stone." (Thruston, (1), p. 159.) And jifjain (p. 2*.)): 

 " Many of the graves in the vicinity of Nashville are lined with large, 

 thick fragments of broken pottery, as neatly joined together as if 

 molded for the purpose." The fragments were merely employed as a 

 substitute for the thin slabs of stone, and therefore eliminated the 

 labor of obtaining the latter. The use of similar fragments for a 

 like purpose, in cemeteries farther north, will be mentioned on a sub- 

 sec^uent page. 



Stone-lined graves have been discovered in many widely sepa- 

 rated places, both north and south of the Ohio, but in no other 

 locality Avere they so numerous as in the vicinity of Nashville, Ten- 

 nessee, and seldom were they found so carefully constructed as 

 there. But the variations in form and size may be attributed rather 

 to the material available for their lining than to the difference in 

 the skill of the native by whom they were made. To illustrate the 

 variations and the manner in which the graves differed, it will be 

 necessary to refer briefly to several scattered groups. 



During his explorations along the valley of the Tennessee Moore 

 examined mounds on Swallow Bluff Island, Decatur County, one 

 of which was some 18 feet in height with a diameter of about 130 

 feet. This was considered a domiciliary mound, and around the 

 margin of the summit plateau were discovered numerous stone-lined 

 graves, but none was found in the central part of the top. An ex- 

 ample of these burials is illustrated in plate 6, «, showing the grave 

 after the removal of the cover stones, revealing the partly flexed 

 skeleton; &, the same grave before the removal of the cover, but 

 after the excavation of the superimposed and surrounding mass of 

 earth. In describing this burial Moore wrote : " Burial No. 12. 

 a few inches from the surface, was a fine example of the stone 

 box-grave, the sides and ends upright, the covering slabs resting 

 squarely on them. This grave, oblong, 3 feet 8 inches by 2 feet 5 

 inches, had the sides and ends of single slabs, except at one point 

 where there w^ere two slabs. Surrounding the gi'ave small gaps 

 had been filled with slabs of inconsiderable size; other unimportant 

 spaces had been left uncovered. The top was composed of three 

 large slabs forming a single layer, the one at the lower end of the 

 grave, however, having another slab upon it, forming a double 

 layer at this place. The inside measurements of this grave were 3 

 feet 3 inches by 1 foot 8 inches. Its depth was 1 foot 1 inch." 

 (Moore, (4), pp. 213-214.) 



It is extremely doubtful if the builders of the mound were respon- 

 sible for the stone graves. The latter were probably of a much 

 more recent date, and should therefore be regarded as intrusive 



