106 BURIAL MOUNDS OF THE NORTHERN SECTIONS. 
ilar grave, at the same place, he also obtained the plate represented in 
Fig. 49. Fragments of a similar plate were obtained by Mr. Earle from 
astone grave in a mound in Alexander County, Illinois. All these spee- 

Fic, 49.—Copper plate from Indian grave, Illinois. 
imens were received by the Bureau of Ethnology and deposited in the 
National Museum. 
The box-form stone cists and the figures on the copper plates and 
engraved shells differ so widely from the stone vaults and vestiges of 
art found in the North Carolina and East Tennessee mounds as to for- 
bid the belief that the works of the two regions were constructed by 
one and the same people. The stone cists and to some extent the con- 
struction of the mound appear to connect the authors with the mound- 
builders and authors of the stone graves of the Cumberland Valley and 
Southern Illinois, and several other facts, which we cannot now stop to 
present, seem to strengthen this suggestion. 
The presence of these stone cists in this mound of northern Georgia, 
when coupled with the fact that similar stone graves are found in Hab- 
ersham County, indicate a Shawnee or closely allied element where we 
should expect to find only Creeks or some branch of: the Chahta-Mus- 
cogee family. This is a puzzle by no means easy of solution, but one 
which the scope of our paper does not require us to discuss. Still, we 
inay add, that if our conclusions in regard to this group be correct, 
we must believe that the large mound was built before De Soto reached 
that region while the one explored was built afterwards. Some facts 
brought to light by the recent discovery of a cemetery within the area 
inclosed by the ditch, which I have fur some years believed would be 
found, and for which I caused search to be made, appear to sustain 
these conclusions, and to indicate that two different peoples have occu- 
pied this site and have had a hand in constructing or adding to these 
works. 
Whatever may be our conclusion in reference to these questions, I 
think it will be conceded that the builders of these Etowah mounds be- 
