ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 325 
as supports, were two slabs that perhaps had slipped from the masses which 
otherwise would have held them diagonally over parts of the skeleton. As it 
was, most of one slab which would have covered the skull and much of the upper 
part of the trunk, lay forward from them, covering only the facial part of the 
skull, and the hands. The lower slab, which had slipped less (if displacement 
occurred), lay over the pelvis, the lower ribs, and most of the lower extremities. 
There remained uncovered, then, much of the skull, the upper part of the trunk, 
and the knees. 
This burial with its covering occupied a space 3 feet 7 inches long and was 
2 feet 3 inches in maximum width. 
Beginning at about the center of the base and extending outward was a 
pit, oblong with rounded corners, 5.5 feet in length and 3 feet 7 inches in width, 
having a depth in the undisturbed clay below the base of 1 foot 2 inches. Pre- 
sumably this pit had been made prior to the building of the mound and had 
not been dug down through it, as undisturbed, local strata were noted almost 
above it. Most careful search in this pit, which was cleared with the aid of 
trowels, failed to discover any trace of bones, which beyond doubt had decayed 
away. 
А Movunps В AND C. 
Within a short distance of Mound A were Mounds В and С, respectively 
2 feet 7 inches high and 32 feet in diameter, and 3 feet in height with a diameter 
of 50 feet. Considerable digging in the larger mound was unrewarded. 
Movy» D. 
Mound D, about one-half mile NNE. from Williams Landing, was on sloping 
ground just above the flat bottom-land, in full view from the river. This mound 
had a circular base about 50 feet in diameter and was 6 feet 8 inches in height, 
according to a measurement taken from the outside. A second measurement 
made from the summit to the base of the mound showed that the height as 
ascertained from the outside was about correct. 
Previous to our coming a hole had been dug in this mound nearly at the 
center of the top, about 3 feet by 5 feet in size and presumably of considerable 
depth. From it had been thrown out a number of masses of limestone. There 
was evidence also that a small trench had been dug in from the outside, which, 
however, had been filled. 
The central bulk of the mound was surrounded and dug out by us to below 
the base, the size of the excavation being 37 feet by 40 feet, which practically 
included all the interesting part of it, judging from the fact that with the ex- 
ception of one superficial burial none was reached until considerable digging 
toward the inner part had been done. | | 
The mound proved to be of rich, dark, loamy clay, evidently the deposit 
of a dwelling-site which had overlain the field to a depth of 6 inches, as was 
apparent from the unmixed layer of midden material found at the base of the 
