580 MOUiS'D EXPLORATIONS. 



other relics. About -' miles from the ferry hiudiiig, opposite feaawnee- 

 town, is a remarkable group of mouuds, eonsistiug of three subgroups, 

 each of which has its jirincipal mound superior iu size to others of its 

 group. 



The large truncated mound, though a leadiug feature of almost every 

 group of mouuds or system of earthworks, is not always of the regu- 

 larly square or even of the rectangular form, being sometimes pear- 

 shaped and sometimes oval. These are most numerous in the middle 

 and southwestern portions of Tennessee, though those at Mount Ster- 

 ling, Kentucky; one in Yanderburg county, Indiana; the great Cahokia 

 mound, iu Madison county, Illinois; the Linn mound, in Union county, 

 of the same state, and the celebrated Etowah mound, in Bartow county, 

 Georgia, all included in this district, show a distribution of this type 

 over a considerable area. The true pyramidal mound is found most 

 frequently in Davidson,Williamson, and some adjacent counties. 



There are a few cases where roadways have been found leading to 

 the top of some of these large mounds. A mound connected with the 

 l^eculiar embankment a few miles from Savannah, in Hardin county, 

 Tennessee, had three arms running out from it, apparently ijathways, 

 affording means of easy ascent to the top. A mound in Montgomery 

 county, Kentucky, has an inclined way leadiug to the top; the roadway 

 to ttie Etowali mound is iieculiar iu winding up the side instead of 

 approaching at riuht angles. 



Stone-grave mounds are found iu connection with most of the ancient 

 works in the valleys of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers and along 

 many of their tributaries, also in some of the southern counties of 

 Illinois and in northwestern Kentucky. One or two have been found 

 in northern Georgia and also in southern Indiana. 



There seems to be no particular rule observed in depositing the dead 

 in these mounds. Sometimes the graves are placed irregularly through 

 the mound, no systematic arrangement being observed; sometimes they 

 are found in tiers, one above another. A group of five mounds iu 

 Davidson county, Tennessee, about 4^ miles southwest from ISTashville, 

 presents this latter arrangement. The mounds contained the bodies 

 of from 600 to 800 people arranged iu regular layers or tiers. Frag- 

 ments of pottery, stone implements, and other articles were found on 

 the covering stones and beside the graves. On the original soil be- 

 neath the graves were several beds of ashes. One mound of this group, 

 conical in form, had apparently been built up by the accumulation of 

 stone graves, placed in live tiers, the one above having fewer iu number 

 than the one beneath it. No regularity was observed in placing the 

 bodies. One bjdy was buried here without the stone cist. 



A stone grave mound about 10 miles from Nashville near Brentwood 

 presents a good example of this arrangement, being one of the most 

 l)erfect in its construction. The stone graves, especially toward the 

 ce. iter of the mound, were placed one upon another, forming in the 



