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ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 421 
Considerable digging resulted in the discovery of the skeleton of a child at a 
depth of one foot, and showed that most of the midden material formerly on the 
site had been washed away. 
DWELLING-SITE ON PRATER ISLAND, Knox COUNTY. 
Prater Island, belonging to Mrs. Frank Maxey, of Maryville, Tenn., has a 
well-defined dwelling-site near its lower extremity, on which were fragments of 
shells, some scattered pebbles, and bits of human bone. From the surface were 
collected a handsome barrel-shaped bead of shell, nearly one inch in length; 
part of a slate gorget; three flint arrowheads; a small discoidal stone. 
Numerous trial-holes came upon a skeleton closely flexed, face down, 10 inches 
from the surface, another partly flexed on the left. А grooved axe’ of fine- 
grained gneiss, about 8 inches long, was unearthed one foot below the surface, 
apart from any burial. 
Also in this site was a refuse pit, 4 feet 2 inches by 3 feet 10 inches at the 
top, which was 7 inches below the present surface of the field. The pit tapered 
inward somewhat in the upper part, and then continued down with the sides 
more nearly perpendicular. The depth of the pit from the surface was 5 feet, 
its original depth probably having been 7 inches less. 
This pit, which had no burial in connection with it, was filled with refuse 
material, including some river shells from which the following were sufficiently 
preserved to identify: Unio crassidens, Dromus dromus, Quadrula pyramidata, 
Q. ebena. There was also much soil, almost black with admixture of organic 
matter, in the lower part, with a few shells, most of the shells with some of the 
dark earth being in the upper part. 
MOUND AND SITE ON THE JACKSON PLACE, BLount COUNTY. 
On the lower part of the property of Mr. A. N. Jackson, who resides on it, 
is a small, aboriginal site not far from the river, in which we were unable to find 
bones or artifacts. From the surface were gathered one flint arrowhead and a 
graceful celt of ferruginous shale, having, however, no cutting edge. 
Near the landing on the same place, which is about one mile farther up the 
river, is a mound in a cultivated field, which would be visible from the landing 
were it of greater height. Careful digging into this small elevation, which was 
but one foot above the surface, with a diameter of 35 feet, yielded only scattered 
fragments of human bones. 
DWELLING-SITE NEAR LITTLE River SHOALS, Knox COUNTY. 
At the upper end of Little River Shoals is the property of Mr. R. A. Sharp, 
who resides upon it. In sight from the landing at this place, in a pasture, is an 
1 Strange as it may seem, considering the amount of digging we have done, this grooved axe, the 
one from Cox Island, just below, and one from the site near Milton Bluff, Lawrence Co. Ala., are 
the first we have found beneath or on the surface in the course of our archeological investigations. 
