362 ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 
clay. In these grave-pits burials, through lack of space, had been placed more 
or less vertically, as will be described in due course. 
Nearly every burial in this cemetery, but not all, had been interred in con- 
nection with the use of ceremonial fire, the graves and pits having been first 
filled and then above there had been placed an extensive layer of clay, greater 
in extent than the area of the grave. This clay, red from the effect of fire, 
probably had been placed above the graves while hot. In several instances 
imprints of matting, etc., were found on these masses of clay, which imprints 
probably denote that a wigwam had been burnt ceremonially. 
That this red clay did not come from fireplaces made directly over the graves 
is clearly proved by the fact that the material of this site was of loamy sand, as 
stated, and could not have burnt into lumps 
such as were found, through the effect of any 
i Loamy sand : ae degree of heat. Evidently the burnt clay 
o a я had been brought and deposited. Further- 
ге чы more, no ashes or charcoal were with the 
И eL DM layers of clay, nor was the sand below them 
zn Filling of grave” affected by heat to any marked extent. Clay 
DO PRAE for wattle-and-daub buildings, which presum- 
Such PE ON. 
ably had been burnt ceremonially at the time 
of these burials, could, however, easily have 
been obtained from the underlying clay or 
from rolling ground not more than one hun- 
dred yards distant. 
These layers of reddened clay, however, 
iu sica (pA Weta Hampton: ОРО not on the present surface of the ground, 
Place, Tenn. but at some depth beneath it. Presumably, 
after the-burials had been made and the cere- 
monial rites performed at this place, the occupancy of the site continued with 
a consequent increase in its height. 
A typical example of the grave-pits, but by no means applying exactly 
to all of them, as they varied considerably in detail, is as follows (see section, 
Fig. 81): 
Loamy sand on top, 14 inches. 
Reddened clay, 6 inches. 
Material filling that part of the grave-pit in the made-ground, 30 inches. 
The same material continuing into underlying clay, 12 inches. 
Depth from surface, 5 feet 2 inches. 
Here follow details of the burials: 
Burial No. 1, partly flexed on the right, 46 inches to the upper surface of the 
bones. A flint knife or arrowhead lay in the soil nearby. 
Scale i t 
gale in jeg 
o i 4 5 
1 Bee our account of the Bennett Place, pages 338-352 of this report. 
