acres. Within this inclosure there was one large mound with a flat
top, 15 feet high, 130 feet long, and 90 feet wide, which was found
not to be a burial mound. Another mound near the large one, about 50
feet in diameter, and only a few feet high, contained 60 human
skeletons, each in a carefully-made stone grave, the graves being
arranged in two rows, forming the four sides of a square, and in three
layers.... The most important discovery lie made within the inclosure
was that of finding the remains of the houses of the people who lived
in this old town. Of them about 70 were traced out and located on the
map by Professor Buchanan, of Lebanon, who made the survey for Mr.
Putnam. Under the floors of hard clay, which was in places much burnt,
Mr. Putnam found the graves of children. As only the bodies of adults
had been placed in the one mound devoted to burial, and as nearly
every site of a house he explored had from one to four graves of
children under the clay floor, he was convinced that it was a regular
custom to bury the children in that way. He also found that the
children had been undoubtedly treated with affection, as in their
small graves were found many of the best pieces of pottery he
obtained, and also quantities of shell-beads, several large pearls,
and many other objects which were probably the playthings of the
little ones while living." [Footnote: A detailed account of this
exploration, with many illustrations, will be found in the Eleventh
Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, 1878.]

This cist mode of burial is by no means uncommon in Tennessee, as they
are frequently mentioned by writers on North American archaeology.

The examples which follow are specially characteristic, some of them
serving to add strength to the theory that mounds were for the most
part used for secondary burial, although intrusions were doubtless