Stone box grave - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Stone box graves were a method of burial employed by Native Americans

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

of the Mississippian culture

Mississippian culture

The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....

in the American Midwest and Southeast. Their construction was especially common in the Cumberland River

Cumberland River

The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...

Basin around Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

Construction

A stone box grave is a coffin of stone slabs arranged in the rectangular shape into which a deceased individual was then placed. Common materials used for construction of the graves were limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

and shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

, both varieties of stone which naturally break into slab like shapes. The materials for the bottom of the graves often varies, with grave floors made of stone, pottery, shell, dirt, perishables, or some combination of those materials, while the tops are more slabs of stone. Grave goods were often interred with the deceased and included mortuary pottery

Mississippian culture pottery

Mississippian culture pottery is the ceramic tradition of the Mississippian culture found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. It is often characterized by the adoption and use of riverine shell-tempering agents in the clay paste. Shell tempering is one of...

, ceramic objects, stone implements such celts

Celt (tool)

Celt is an archaeological term used to describe long thin prehistoric stone or bronze adzes, other axe-like tools, and hoes.-Etymology:The term "celt" came about from what was very probably a copyist's error in many medieval manuscript copies of Job 19:24 in the Latin Vulgate Bible, which became...

, axes and arrowheads, figurines, bone beads, dice, and awls, and personal ornaments including marine shell gorget

Shell gorget

A shell gorget is a Native American art form of polished, carved shell pendants worn around the neck. The gorgets are frequently engraved, and are sometimes highlighted with pigments, or fenestrated ....

s and freshwater pearls. Regional variations existed, with some being larger and roomier than others, some being built with right angles and some angled inward at the feet. The people of the Middle Tennessee region tended to place bodies in an extended position, while in Eastern Tennessee a flexed position was more often favored. In some instances small stone boxes would be used as a secondary burial, with the excarnated

Excarnation

In archaeology and anthropology, the term, excarnation , refers to the burial practice of removing the flesh and organs of the dead, leaving only the bones....

bones placed in as a bundle. Some graves have been found to have been reused. The grave would be reopened and the bones of the previous occupant would be disarticulated and shoved to one end or side so the new occupant could be placed in the proper position. Instances of double burials have also been found, with two occupants interred simultaneously. This is thought to be a conjugal pairing as the occupants are usually of the opposite sex from one another. This type of burial seems to have been reserved for adult members of these societies, with few known examples of child or subadult burials in this fashion. Burials for these individuals seems to take place under house floors or adjacent to houses.

Distribution

Stone box graves have been found at many different Mississippian sites from the American Bottom

American Bottom

The American Bottom is the flood plain of the Mississippi River in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois, extending from Alton, Illinois, to the Kaskaskia River. It is also sometimes called "American Bottoms". The area is about , mostly protected from flooding by a levee and drainage canal...

to the deep South. The practice was especially prominent in the Cumberland River

Cumberland River

Valley of Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

and Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, with thousands having been found in the Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

area. Sites such as Beasley

Beasley Mounds Site

The Beasley Mounds Site is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located at the confluence of Dixon Creek and the Cumberland River near the unincorporated community of Dixon Springs in Smith County, Tennessee. The site was first excavated by amateur archaeologists in the 1890s...

, Mound Bottom

Mound Bottom

Mound Bottom is a prehistoric Native American complex in Cheatham County, Tennessee, located in the Southeastern United States. The complex, which consists of platform and burial mounds, a central plaza, and habitation areas, was built between 950 and 1300 AD, during the Mississippian period.The...

, Brick Church Pike

Brick Church Mound and Village Site

The Brick Church Mound and Village Site is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located in Nashville in Davidson County, Tennessee. It was excavated in the late nineteenth century by Frederic Ward Putnam...

, Old Town

Old Town (Franklin, Tennessee)

Old Town is a historic Native American village and mound complex site in Williamson County, Tennessee near Franklin. The site includes the remnants of a Native American village and mound complex of the Mississippian culture, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Old Town...

, Castalian Springs

Castalian Springs Mound Site

The Castalian Springs Mound Site is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located near the small unincorporated community of Castalian Springs in Sumner County, Tennessee. The site was first excavated in the 1890s and again as recently as the 2005 to 2011 archaeological field school led by...

and Sellars Mound

Sellars Indian Mound

Sellars Indian Mound is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located in Wilson County, Tennessee near Lebanon. The mound was the site of a settlement from about 1000 to 1300 CE. Today, the site is a satellite unit of Long Hunter State Park...

all have examples of excavated stone box graves. They have also been found as far afield as the Falls of the Ohio vicinity around Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

, the Pennyroyal Region

Pennyroyal Plateau

The Pennyroyal Plateau, or, as it is more commonly called in Kentucky, the Pennyrile, is a large area of the state that features rolling hills, caves, and karst topography in general. It is also called the "Mississippi Plateau"....

of Kentucky,, the Lower Illinois River

Illinois River

The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long, in the State of Illinois. The river drains a large section of central Illinois, with a drainage basin of . This river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route...

Valley, the Little Egypt

Little Egypt (region)

-Early history:The earliest inhabitants of Illinois were thought to have arrived about 12,000 B.C. They were hunter-gatherers, but developed a primitive system of agriculture. After 1000 AD, their agricultural surpluses enabled them to develop complex, hierarchical societies...

region of Illinois, in Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

near St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

and the Guntersville Basin

Guntersville Lake

Guntersville Lake is located in north Alabama between Bridgeport and Guntersville. Created by Guntersville Dam along the Tennessee River, it stretches 75 miles from Guntersville Dam to Nickajack Dam...

area of Northern Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

In archaeology

Since the beginning of archaeological investigations in the region in the late nineteenth century the graves have been used as a means for understanding the prehistoric inhabitants of the area, with many even calling the people of the Middle Tennessee area the "Stone Grave People". Joseph Jones, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

, investigated the Middle Tennessee area and in his 1876 monograph he accurately describes the native remains (including the known Native American practice of artificial cranial deformation

Artificial cranial deformation

Artificial cranial deformation, head flattening, or head binding is a form of permanent body alteration in which the skull of a human being is intentionally deformed. It is done by distorting the normal growth of a child's skull by applying force...

) and discussed the possible origins of the local populations and their connection to other peoples and regions such as the Natchez of the Lower Mississippi Valley. In the 1870s Frederick Ward Putnam of the Peabody Museum

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, and is particularly strong in New World ethnography and...

also excavated several large platform mound

Platform mound

A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity.-Eastern North America:The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years starting in the Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period...

s with stone box graves in the vicinity of Nashville. In his 1877 report Putnam recorded burial placement and grave goods found during his excavations and speculated on the ancestry, culture, and age of the people who built the mounds. Putnam concluded that the people of the area were connected with groups from the central Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

Valley. Gates P. Thrustons 1890 manuscript, which started as a piece on a stone box grave cemetery found in Nashville, was the first comprehensive analysis of artifacts for the state of Tennessee. Thruston's conclusions on the builders of the local mounds and box graves added to the nineteenth century myth of the "Moundbuilders", as he concluded a "superior race" from the local Native Americans had built the structures. Clarence Bloomfield Moore

Clarence Bloomfield Moore

Clarence Bloomfield Moore was an American archaeologist and writer...

with his Gopher of Philadelphia riverboat expedition of 1914-1915 continued the tradition of extensive archaeological research in the area and like his predecessors he was also enthralled by the stone box graves. He made maps of sites showing the different varieties of stone graves in Middle Tennessee, Upper Tennessee Valley and nearby Northern Alabama regions

.

External links

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Construction

Distribution

In archaeology

See also

External links