(3) Farther south, in western Tennessee, another class of mounds is
common. These contain graves made of slabs of stone set on edge. The
simplest of these stone graves consist of six stones: two sides, two ends,
one top, and one bottom. There may be a single one of these graves in a
mound, or there may be many. In one mound, about twelve miles from
Nashville, which was forty-five feet across and twelve feet high, were
found about one hundred skeletons, mostly in stone graves, which were in
ranges, one above another. The upper graves contained the bones of bodies,
which had been buried stretched at full length; the bones were found in
their natural positions. The lower graves were short and square, and the
bones in them had been cleaned and piled up in little heaps. This mound
was very carefully made. The lids of the upper graves were so arranged as
to make a perfectly smooth, rounded surface. Sometimes these stone graves
of Tennessee are not placed in mounds, but in true graveyards in the level
fields. In these stone graves are found beautiful objects of stone, shell,
and pottery. The stone-grave men were true artists in working these
materials.
In the same district are found many dirt rings called “house-circles.”
These occur in groups and appear to mark the sites of ancient villages,
each being the ruin of a house. These rings are nearly circular and from
ten to fifty feet across, and from a few inches to two or three feet high.
Excavation within them shows old floors made of hard clay, with the
fireplace or hearth. The stone-grave people lived in these houses. They
often buried little children who died, under the floor. Their stone
coffins measured only from one to four feet long. They contain the little
skeletons and all the childish treasures—pretty cups and bowls of pottery,
shell beads, pearls, and even the leg bones of birds, on which the babies
used to cut their teeth as our babies do on rubber rings.
These are but three of the areas where mounds are found; there are several
others. If the “mound-builders” were a single people, with one set of
customs, one language, and one government, it is strange that there should
be such great differences in the mounds they built. If we had space to
speak about the relics from the mounds, they would tell a story.
[Illustration.]