.584 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



and of fine texture. In some cases the bodies were enveloped in sev- 

 eral thicknesses of coarse cloth with an outer wrapping of deer skiu. 

 Some of the bodies were wrapped in a kind of cloth made of bark tiber, 

 into which feathers were woven in such a manner as to form a smooth 

 surface. In two cases the bodies, placed in a sitting or squatting pos- 

 ture, were incased in baskets. In one of the caves in Smith county the 

 body of a female is said to have been found, having about the waist a 

 silver girdle, with marks resembling letters. 



A cave was discovered iu Giles county wliich had several rooms and 

 was entered by a concealed passage. A Hat stone partly closed the 

 entrance and other stones were rolled in to till up the mouth. In 

 Bartow county, Georgia, a human skeleton was found in a cave in a 

 limestone blutt' walled in, in a similar manner. 



In some localities, as in Fentress, Grayson, and Marion counties, 

 caves have beeu discovered which, in the great quantities of ashes, the 

 numerous fragments of pottery, animal bones, implements, and orna- 

 ments of various kinds, bear evidence of having beeu used as dwell- 

 ing places. 



These cave burials are iound along the rivers and streams in the 

 vicinity of fertile valleys and cool springs. 



STONE GRAVKS. 



The stone grave cemeteries are found on the hill slopes and in the 

 valleys, along the rivers, and scattered over the richest and most fertile 

 lands of Tennessee and Kentucky. They occur in connection with 

 nearly every system of earthworks, but are not confined to them, as 

 large cemeteries exist where there are no mounds or emb.ankments in 

 the vicinity. When connected with fortifications they are usually 

 within the embankments, though sometimes a few are scattered out- 

 side. The rectangular, box shajied stone cist is the prevailing type, 

 both in the cemeteries and in the stone grave mounds. These often 

 vary in size from the small square grave 2 feet in length and the same 

 in width to 7 feet in length and 3 in width. There are, however, a few 

 variations from this type which inerit description. The roof-shaped 

 grave has already been alluded to. These are made by setting large 

 pieces or slabs of rock on edge and slanting them toward each other 

 until they meet above the body, forming a covering like the roof of a 

 house. Graves of this type are found in widely separated localities 

 both in Kentucky and Tennessee and are met with iu mounds as well 

 as in cemeteries. They are not always of a uniform size, but vary iu 

 length from 2i to 8 feet. 



On a bluff near Newport in Campbell county, Keutucky, were two 

 graves which were formed by placing a curbing of regular fragments 

 of stone of considerable size so as to form a circle of 10 ieet in diame- 

 ter, from which flat stones were inclined outward shingled one over the 

 other so as to form a band 6 feet wide. Bones were found beneath the 

 stones of this band. It has beeu suggested that these graves were 



