324 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 382 



but sufficiently distinct to indicate their form and use. Oue 

 of these was in the form of a thin celt; another, about five 

 inches long, is apparently part of the blade of a long slender 

 cutting or thrusting implement of some kind, as a sword, 

 dagger, or knife (shown in Fig. 3) ; another is part of a 

 round awl-sbaped implement, a small part of the bone han- 

 dle in which it was fixed yet remaining attached to it. A 

 careful analysis of the iron of these implements has been 

 made by Professor Clark of the United States Geological 

 Survey, who decides that it is not meteoric. Under the left 

 hand of the same skeleton was another engraved shell, the 

 concave side upward, and filled with shell beads of various 

 sizes. 



Around and over the skeleton of this chief personage, with 

 their heads near his, were nine other skeletons. Under the 

 heads of two of these were two engraved shells. Scattered 

 over and between the skeletons of this group wei-e numej'ous 

 polished celts, discoidal stones, copper arrow-points, plates 

 of mica, lamps of paint, etc. 



That these iron articles cannot be attributed to an intru- 

 sive burial is evident from the preceding description. They 

 were found at the bottom of the pit, which had been dug be- 

 fore depositing the bodies. With them were engraved 

 shells, polished celts, and other relics of this character, and 

 all were deposited with the principal personage who had 

 been buried in the mound. There were, in fact, no indica- 

 tions whatever of intrusive burials here. 



As it is conceded that neither the Indians nor the more 

 civilized tribes of Mexico and Central America were ac- 

 quainted with the art of manufacturing iron, the presence of 

 these iron articles in the mound indicates contact with the 

 civilization of the Old World. Moreover, a careful exami- 

 nation of the copper cylinders will probably satisfy any one 

 that the plate of which they were made had been rolled or 

 regularly hammered by other than stone impTements, and 

 that the strips had been cut into proper shape with some hard 

 metallic instrument. It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude 

 that this burial-pit was dug, and the bodies deposited, subse- 

 quent to the discovery of America by Columbus, and in all 

 probability after the date of De Soto's expedition. As the 

 Cherokees alone inhabited this particular section from the 

 time of De Soto's expedition until it was settled by the 

 whites, it is more than probable that the burials were made 

 by them. 



This is an important step in the attempt to trace backward 

 the history of this tribe, as it is seemingly the link which 

 crosses the border-line between the historic and prehistoric 

 eras. It should therefore be well sustained by other data 

 before being used as a basis for further advance; but this is 

 not wanting. 



On the same farm as the preceding was another burial- 

 place, also explored by the agents of the Bureau of Ethnol- 

 ogy, of which an account is given in the "Fifth Annual 

 Eeport." [n this case we have a true mound, although of 

 comparatively little height. This was almost a true circle in 

 outline, thirty eight feet in diameter, but not more than a 

 foot and a half in height above the natural surface of the 

 ground. Thorough excavation, however, revealed the fact 

 that the builders of the mound had first dug a circular pit of 

 the same diameter, with perpendicular margin, to the depth 

 of three feet, on the bottom of which they deposited their 



dead, some in little stone vaults and some without any stone 

 enclosure, and covered them over with earth, raising the 

 mound above the pit. 



A plan of the pit, showing the stone vaults and skeletons 

 after the removal of the dirt, is given in Fig. 3. The bee- 

 hive-shaped vaults were built of water-worn bowlders, with 

 merely sufficient clay to hold them in place. 



No. 1 indicates a stone vault standing exactly in the cen- 

 tre of the pit. In this case a small circular hole a little over 

 three feet in diameter, and extending down three feet below 

 the bottom of the pit, had been dug, the body or skeleton 

 placed perpendicularly upon its feet, and a wall built up 

 around it, converging, after a height of four feet was reached, 

 so as to be covered at the top by a single soapstone slab of 

 moderate size. On the top of the head of the skeleton, and 

 immediately under the capstone, were several plates of silver 

 mica, which had evidently been cut with some rude imple- 

 ment. Although the bones were much decayed, yet they 

 were retained in an upright position by the dirt which filled 











the vault, — an indication that the flesh had been removed 

 before burial, and earth packed around the skeleton as the 

 vault was built up. 



Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are small vaults, each cov- 

 ering a skeleton placed in a sitting or squatting posture on 

 the bottom of the pit. Nos. 11, 12, and 13 are uncovered 

 skeletons in a squatting posture. Nos. 14 and 15 are uncov- 

 ered skeletons lying horizontally on the bottom of the pit. 

 No. 16 is an unenclosed squatting skeleton of unusually large 

 size: A, a quantity of black paint in lumps; and B, a cubi- 

 cal mass of water-worn bowlders built up solidly and regu- 

 larly, twenty-four inches long, eighteen inches wide, and 

 eighteen inches high, but" with no bones, specimens 

 of art, coals, ashes, or indications of fire on or about it. 

 Many of the stones of the little vaults and the earth imme- 

 diately around them, on the contrary, bore unmistakable 

 evidences of fire; in fact, the heat in some cases had been so 

 intense as to leave its mark on the bones of the enclosed 

 skeletons, — another indication that the flesh had been re- 

 moved before burial. 



The only relic found deserving notice here was a soap- 

 stone pipe near the mouth of No. 16. 



