THOMAS.] 



STONE GRAVES, RANDOLPH COUNTY. 



135 



some little distance back of the point. All were of the usual box shape 

 and all but one more thau G feet long ; some of them were so near the 

 surface as to leave the tops exposed. The position of the head of the 

 skeleton could easily be determined in all but three of them before the 

 cover was removed, by the form of the grave, as the cists were wider at 

 one end thau the other, and somewhat coflSu-shaped. They usually 

 measured from H to 2^ feet in width at the head, but only a foot or even 

 less at the other end, the depth from a foot to IS inches. In fact, it 

 seems that in some cases the body nmst have been placed in position 

 and the side and end stoues fltted to it. In these cases slabs of lime- 

 stone were first placed iu the bottom of the excavation, as the pieces 

 forming the sides and ends rested edgewise on these, usually two pieces 



,>^^^^^^^/,■.v^• 



,1 



CreeJC 











Ro€Ld to Pwiri^ da Jlocfier 



Fig. 67. — Stouo graves on Mill tract, Kaiidolpli couuty, Illiuois. 



to a side and one at each end. Where the two pieces at the sides 

 joined, there was a smaller piece thrust at right angles between them, 

 the main projection being outward. The cover consisted of a single 

 layer of these slabs, in some instances without breaking the joints, in 

 others overlapping each other. In other cases the pieces forming tlie 

 walls and ends appear to have been put into position before the bot- 

 tom was lined. In some of them a single slab formed one side; if 

 more than one slab was used, they either overlapped or another was 

 added to strengthen the joint. The stones were obtained from the 

 hillside a few rods farther up the ridge. 



The bodies buried in these graves were covered to a depth of 2 or 3 

 inches with the yellow clay of the ridge; the covering over the graves 

 consisted of linu\stoue. The respective positions are shown in Fig. 07. 



