532 PREHISTORIC VILLAGES IN TENNESSEE [ern. ANN. 41 
The placing of this fire bed in the banquette, only a few inches 
from the wall, is so unusual and so dangerous that it might cause 
some to doubt its being a fire bed. A portion of it was left undis- 
turbed, so that it might be studied by others, if necessary. Speci- 
mens of the various layers were also preserved. The near-by wall 
was doubtless heavily plastered with clay as a protection against the 
fire. 
It will be noted that the stone slabs of the adjoining child’s grave, 
though immediately against this fire bed, showed no signs of action 
of fire. Was the burial made and the house abandoned immediately 
thereafter? It is more probable the grave was kept well covered by 
the soil of the banquette in which it was situated. There was no 
other fire bed in the wigwam. 
A circular pit, 18 inches in depth and 12 inches in diameter, was 
found adjoining the southwestern corner of the fire bed. It was 
Fic. 147.—Large oval vessel, 30 by 24 inches 
filled with loose ashes and charcoal and appeared to be a receptacle 
for ashes from the adjoining fire bed; or it may have been used in 
pit cooking 
A small stone-slab double grave was found at 2, on the western 
edge of this house rim, but beyond the line of the wall. The un- 
opened grave is shown in Plate 109, 6. This grave was 24 inches in 
length and 10 inches in width, and it was 10 inches to the mosaic 
floor of domestic pottery fragments, inside measurement. It ran 
W. 30° N. This coffin had contained two bodies. One was a fetus 
(U. S. National Museum, Division of Physical Anthropology, 
No. 316090) and the other (U. S. National Museum, Division of 
Physical Anthropology, No. 316091), a child less than six months old. 
The grave had been so disturbed by marauding animals that it was 
impossible to tell the original arrangement of the bodies. The head 
of one was in the northwestern end and the other head in the opposite 
end. No ornaments or other artifacts were found in this grave. 
OssEcTS SCATTERED THROUGH THE SOIL 
Scattered through the black loam which filled the interior of circle 
No. 23 was found a large amount of fragments of domestic pottery. 
Some fragments were distinguished which belonged to the following 
vessels: 
