Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1873-05-06

wiue ana SIX feet high, with Sloping
sides. About sixty feet of it was left
by the flood, and this we excavated
thoroughly. The hollow chambers
were twenty-one in number and evil
IDENTIFY tombs. We found in them the
fragments of six skeletons, the bones
or which. after being dipped in a
weak solution of glue mixed with
varnish, were packed in barrels and
Will be forwarded to the Smithsonian.
In one of the barrows was q skull very
wei preserved, but which threatened
to crumble on exposure to the air. DIR.
Marsh accordingly took an accurate
east OF it in plaster. He said it was
distinctly marked with all the charac-
teristics of the brachycephaIic races.
Besides the bones there were Orna-
ments, pottery. and weapons of vari-
Gus kinds. There were arrow-heads
and spear-heads of white and black
flint, and two of the latter, very large
and beautiful, of obsidiau. There
was also hatchet and a hominy NOR
tar of sandstone. The pottery in
these tombs was plain and without
any ornaments, but two copper
| ornaments, fiat. .crescent-shaped plates,
each pierced with two holes, had fine
| thread of gold very ingeniously en-
ameiled into their margins in graceful,
| wavy curves like braiding.
Having thoroughly examined the
| upper tier of the mound, Professor
Handyside next sunk a shaft down
through the second tier of the tumu-
lus to the floor of ashes, which previ-
| Gus experience had taught him was
usually the bottom of these monu-
ments. Singularly enough, the first
thing thrown out by the shovels al
most was an ornament, probably a
necklace, of sharks teeth strung up
on thin sirvers of deer's bones Our
excavators now proceeded with more
care, and they came soon to the skulls
| of four large elkS, facing towards the
four points of the compass, and with
their horns interlaced. These were in
a great tub-like vessel of burnt clay,
which unfortunately was broken by
the picks into five pieces. This vessel
was not ornamented, though symme-
trical in shape. 1t rested upon what
seemed pavement of burnt clay
but closer inspection revealed to US
the surprising fact that this was in
reality huge brick, eight feet long,
three feet wide, and about a foot thick,
that had been made of tempered clay.
carefully squared, and burnt before il
was laid where we found it. Lifting
this singular slab with much pains,
we found beneath it a tomb of baked
clay, containing ornaments of copper
and bone just as before. These orna-
ments, however, were much more
neatly made than those previously
discovered; and the copper, which
was in various forms, though princi-
pally in disks and plates, was carved
with lcaf-wOrk very elal Orately. We
eXcavated the entire mound, a work of
great labor, and found that it contain
ed nine of these tOmbs. each covered
with its slab of burnt clay and sur
mounted by the tub-like vessels, con-
tanning four skulls, either of deer, bear.
wolf, bison, or elk. The ornaments.
weapons, &c, found in them did not
vary materially; but in one Of them
w3s q hatChet of bronze, of different
shape and make, as well as material,
from anything before seen in these
mounds. 1t had evidently been used
with wooden handle, and was not a
weapon of war, but tool to chop and
cut with.
Professor Handyside next attacked
the circular mound, b, in two places
at once. This mound was sixty feet
in diameter, and from six TO nine feet
high. A tunnel was dug into the side
of it, six feet deep, until we came to
the layer of ashes, and six feet wide.
At the same time shaft was sunk
perpendicularly down through the
centre of the tumulus, as If to dig a
well. This shaft went straight down
twelve feet without anything noticea-
BILE being found. Then suddenly the
excavatOrs came upon the head of
cylinder of burnt clay, three feet in
diameter and perfectly Symmetrical.
1t seemed perfectly solid. and was fiat |
on top. All hands were set t0 dig |
around this column (for so it seemed), |
and they had to eXcavate twelve feet |
down before they came to the base of |
it, for it was a gigantic cylinder, |
twelve feet high and three feet in di- |
ameter, with not flaw nor a suture |
in it that we could discover. The |
Professor row required the mound to |
be removed more carefully, and the |
surface soil and upper section were |
taken off layer at a time, In this |
way some twenty tombs were uncov-
cred, but nothing was found of inte- |
rest beyond the usual bones, arrow
heads. copper ornaments, pottery &c,
&c. The second layer, however, gave |
us some curious features. We found |
twelve graves, each radiating from the |
baked cylinder as q common centre,
the head of each distant precisely four
feet from it, and each covered 10y one
of the massive slabs of baked clay
which have described. In each Oi
these tombs were weapons and i'm
plements of bronze; in each copper
ornaments very elabOrately chased. |
and in one a hOoped armlet set with
garnets in particularly tasteful man
ner. There were in all these graves
little pots of peculiar shape, contain
ing red and blue pigments mixed for |
use, the colOrs of which were as vivid |
as if they had just been stirred around |
instead of having been dust for unac-
countable centuries. These pots were |
jar-shaped, with wide mouths, very |
like the jars in which East India pre- |
serves come over, and had each an S |
shaped handle on one side. They !
were ornamented in lines and out |
lines of animals, and these lines seem |
ed as if they had been gilded at one |
time. Certain toothed implements of !
bone and sections of sharks teeth |
which accompanied these paint-pots |
led US to infer that the people whose |
tombs we were examining practised |
tattoOing. Professor Handyside callt d |
out attention to the absence of burial |
urns, which he expected to find, as he |
had found them so often west of the |
mountains and in the mounds ofTen-
nessee, Georgia, and Kentucky. These |
people evidently did not practice in
cremation but buried their dead, and |
buried them not sitting up but iii a re-
eumbent position and in vaults. These
vaults were evidently dug out with
sonre sharp-cutting tools, lined with a
pudding OF clay and then burnt to
hardness. After the corpse and what
ever the tomb was 10 contain had been
laid in, the brick slab was placed over
it and carefully adjusted TO the vault,
and perhaps made tight y ith luting
of clay. This seemed probable at least
from the fact that no dust seemed TO
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