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ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 173 
we have been the first to show, in northern Alabama, had such extensive use in 
Tennessee that in the minds of most it is associated chiefly with that State. 
“Tt is in Tennessee that this special form of grave seems to have been made with 
thè greatest care and maintained with slight variation in construction. It is 
here, also, that the largest cemeteries consisting of burials in stone graves are 
found and that the graves are often made over one another in tiers forming stone 
grave mounds." 
Now let us examine the form and contents of the stone graves, as heretofore 
described. 
Putnam? writes: 
“One grave which I opened at Zollicoffer Hill [central Tennessee], though 
only a few inches under the surface, had escaped former disturbance. This 
grave was formed of six slabs of stone on one side and five on the other, with one 
slab at the head, and one at the foot; forming a grave five feet eight inches in 
length, inside measure, and six feet outside; the average width being eighteen 
and the depth sixteen inches. The side stones were unevenly broken to dimen- 
sions of eight to fifteen inches in width, by about twenty inches in depth and 
two or three inches in thickness. The two stones forming the head and foot of 
the grave were larger than those on the sides. All these stones extended a 
few inches below the floor of the grave, which was made by placing thinner and 
smaller pieces of stone in such a manner as to form a level bottom to this cist.’ 
Five slabs of stone, larger than those used on the sides, rested on the nearly even 
edges of the upright stones, and, slightly overlapping, formed the cover or top 
of the grave. 
*Further examination in other localities showed that all the stone graves 
were made after this plan, the only variation being in the size [and number] of 
the stone slabs and in the dimensions of the graves. Any rock was used that 
could be easily detached in slabs of convenient size. That most common to the 
localities I visited was limestone and sandstone." 
Doctor Jones* says: 
“The manner of burial seems to have been as follows: An excavation of a 
size agreeing with that of the body of the dead was made in the ground, and the 
bottom carefully paved with flat stones. Flat stones or slabs of limestone and 
slaty sandstone were placed along the sides and at the head and foot of the grave. 
The body was then placed within this rude coffin, and with it were deposited 
vases, small ornaments, pearls, beads, bands of wampum, large sea-shells, idols, 
warlike implements, stone hatchets and chisels, spear-heads, arrow-heads, stone 
! Note contributed by Professor Putnam, who adds that, so far as he is aware, the building of 
stone graves in tiers so as to form mounds is confined to central Tennessee, where some of this kind 
were explored by him, and by Mr. Curtis under Professor Putnam's direction. 
2 Op. cit., p. 306. 
3 In some instances Putnam found that the bottoms of the graves were covered with potsherds, 
and still others had evidently had the floors covered with bark. Peabody Mus. Reports, Vol. 3, p. 163 
* Op. cit., p. 8. 
