ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 187 
MOUND NEAR ELLIS CREEK, LIVINGSTONE County, KENTUCKY. 
In woods belonging to Mr. W. F. Buford, who lives nearby, was a mound of 
loamy clay, about one mile in a northerly direction from the union of Ellis Creek 
with Tennessee river. This mound, which had undergone considerable disturb- 
ance previous to our coming, was two feet in height. Its length and breadth 
were respeetively 64 and 38 feet. On the surface lay a number of slabs of 
silieious rock, the largest being about 2 feet by one foot, with a maximum 
thickness of 3 inches, and was about as large as any subsequently found by us in 
the mound. 
Five badly disturbed stone graves and two complete ones, all of the box variety, 
were eneountered by us in an investigation which included a large portion of 
the mound. 
Burial No. 2 had its upper slabs about one foot below the surface of the mound. 
These slabs, which were in two layers, were not found evenly placed, and pre- 
sumably had undergone disturbance either through the settling of the soil or on 
account of roots of a tree, which had entered the grave. The supporting slabs 
at the sides, of a single thickness, were not vertical but sloped inward, and while 
the margins of some of the upper slabs projected above the general level, others 
had fallen into the grave. The grave, which was without slabs on the bottom, 
was somewhat contracted toward the upper part. Its inside measurements 
were: width, at the top, 10 inches; at the bottom, 21 inches; depth, 14 inches; 
length, 6 feet 5 inches. The grave lay ESE. and WNW. 
The skeleton, traceable by friable fragments (the greatest, four or five inches 
in length) and a few teeth, evidently had been extended, heading eastward. 
Near where the skull had been was a pendant of indurated clay, originally copper 
coated, having on one side a deep groove. Also near the head, together, were 
what seems to be a claw represented in wood and a perforated object of bone 
partly decayed, hollowed out on one side perhaps to serve as a socket for the 
claw, which shows no perforation or groove for independent attachment. Both 
these objects had been overlaid with sheet-copper whose salts had preserved a 
small piece of matting found with them. In the grave also, but perhaps of ac- ` 
cidental introduction, were several chips of flint. 
Burial No. 3 was without trace of bone. The grave, whose upper slabs lay 
one foot below the surface of the mound, was in outside measurement: length, 
3 feet 8 inches; width, 1 foot 6 inches; height, 14 inches. It extended NNW. and 
SSE. This grave, which had not suffered disturbance as had the other, showed 
an effort had been made to keep an even upper margin for the slabs at the sides 
in order to have those on top as level as possible. T he slabs, however, as in 
Grave No. 2, had no uniformity of size and but little in shape, some being almost 
triangular, though a tendency could be noted, perhaps, to have the stones roughly 
oblong. Although some care had been taken to protect the burial, and in some 
instances slabs five or six inches square had been used, presumably to cover 
