Fabrics from Cave Burials in Kentucky and Tennessee

Fabric from a cave burial in Kentucky

At an early date in the history of the country reports began to find their way into print relating to the discovery of mortuary fabrics in caverns and shelters. Extracts from some of these publications may be given.

From the writing of John Haywood historian of Tennessee, we have the following:

In the spring of the year 1811, was found in a copperas cave in Warren County, in West Tennessee, about 15 miles southwest from Sparta, and 20 from McMinnville, the bodies of two human beings, which had been covered by the dirt or ore from which copperas was made. One of these persons was a male, the other a female. They were interred in baskets, made of cane, curiously wrought, and evidencing great mechanic skill. They were both dislocated at the hip joint, and were placed erect in the baskets, with a covering made of cane to fit the baskets in which they were placed. The flesh of these persons was entire and undecayed, of a brown dryish colour, produced by time, the flesh having adhered closely to the bones and sinews. Around the female, next her body, was placed a well dressed deer skin. Next to this was placed a rug, very curiously wrought, of the bark of a tree and feathers. The bark seemed to have been formed of small strands well twisted. Around each of these strands, feathers were rolled, and the whole woven into a cloth of firm texture, after the manner of our common coarse fabrics. This rug was about three feet wide, and between six and seven feet in length. The whole of the ligaments thus framed of bark were completely covered with feathers, forming a body of about one eighth of an inch in thickness, the feathers extending about one quarter of an inch in length from the strand to which they were confined. The appearance was highly diversified by green, blue, yellow and black, presenting different shades of color when reflected upon by the light in different positions. The next covering was an undressed deer skin, around which was rolled, in good order, a plain shroud manufactured after the same order as the one ornamented with feathers. This article resembled very much in its texture the bags generally used for the purpose of holding 
coffee exported from Havanna to the United States. The female had in her hand a fan formed of the tail feathers of a turkey. The points of these feathers were curiously bound by a buckskin string, well dressed, and were thus closely bound for about one inch from the points. About three inches from the point they were again bound, by another deer skin string, in such a manner that the fan might be closed and expanded at pleasure. * * *

The cave in which they were found, abounded in nitre, copperas, alum, and salts. The whole of this covering, with the baskets, was perfectly sound, without any marks of decay.[

There was also a scoop net made of bark thread; a moccasin made of the like materials; a mat of the same materials, enveloping human bones, were found in saltpeter dirt, six feet below the surface. The net and other things mouldered on being exposed to the sun.[

In the year 1815 a remarkably interesting set of mortuary fabrics was recovered from a saltpeter cave near Glasgow, Kentucky. A letter from Samuel L. Mitchell, published by the American Antiquarian Society, contains the following description of the condition of the human remains and of the nature of its coverings:

The outer envelope of the body is a deer skin, probably dried in the usual way, and perhaps softened before its application, by rubbing. The next covering is a deer skin, whose hair had been cut away by a sharp instrument, resembling a hatter's knife. The remnant of the hair, and the gashes in the skin, nearly resemble the sheared pelt of beaver. The next wrapper of cloth is made of twine doubled and twisted. But the thread does not appear to have been formed by the wheel, nor the web by the loom. The warp and filling seemed to have been crossed and knotted by an operation like that of the fabricks of the northwest coast, and of the Sandwich islands. * * * The innermost tegument is a mantle of cloth like the preceding; but furnished with large brown feathers, arranged and fastened with great art, so as to be capable of guarding the living wearer from wet and cold. The plumage is distinct and entire, and the whole bears a near similitude to the feathery cloaks now worn by the nations of the northwestern coast of America.[

The Bureau of Ethnology had the good fortune to secure recently a number of representative pieces of burial fabrics of the classes mentioned in the preceding extracts, and somewhat detailed descriptions of these will sufficiently illustrate the art as practiced by the early inhabitants of the middle portions of the country.

The relics which have come into the possession of the Bureau were obtained in 1885 by Mr. A. J. McGill from a rock shelter on "Clifty" or Cliff Creek, Morgan county, Tennessee. Mr. J. W. Emmert, through whom they were procured, reports that they were found in a grave 3½ feet below the surface and in earth strongly charged with niter and perhaps other preservative salts. The more pliable cloths, together with skeins of vegetal fiber, a dog's skull, some bone tools, and portions of human bones and hair, were rolled up in a large split-cane mat. The grave was situated about as shown in the accompanying section (figure 4). A shelf some 20 feet in width, with depressed floor, occurs1about midway between the creek bed and the slightly overhanging ledge above, the whole height being estimated at 300 feet.

 Was the Newark Octagon Mound the Place for Ritual Sacrifice?

There are many similarities with the religion of the historic Natchez and the anient mound builders in the Ohio Valley. The Natchez performed ritual human sacrifice upon the death of a Sun. When a male Sun died, his wives were expected to accompany him by performing ritual sacrifice. Pictured above are 8 people who are being sacrificed at the death of the Natchez Sun King. The number reoccurs within the earthworks in the Ohio Valley.  Were these places of sacrifice of the Sun King?

Were subjects sacrificed at the 8 gateways of the Newark Ceremonial Center at the death of the Sun King?

Prehistoric America, Stephen Peet, 1903

First, let us consider the traditions of the Indian tribes as to their migrations.
1. The Cherokee were a tribe situated, at the opening of history, among the mountains of East Tennessee and perhaps as far east as North Carolina. There is a common tradition that the Cherokee were at one time in the Ohio Valley.
2.) The Dakotas; this tribe or stock was, at the opening of history located west of the Mississippi River, in the State that bears their name.  The Dakotas have a traditon they they were once on the Ohio River, and that they migrated from their to the west.
3.) The Natchez were a tribe formerly situated near the city of Natchez.  They were sun-worshippers.  It is supposed by some that the Natchez built the sun temples in Ohio, but they changed their methods and adopted the pyramid as their typical work afterwards.
4.0 The Tetons, a branch of the Dakotas, were probably once in the region, though their home was afterward in the northern part of Georgia.

 

The 8 Deities of the Hopewell Dakota Sioux Indians 

Wi -  The most powerful Sun god

Shkan - The sky god

Maka - The Earth Mother

Inyan - Rock and immovable things

Hanwi - Goddess of the Moon - wife of Wi

Tate -  god of the winds

Wohpe - The falling star or meteor

Wakinyan - Thunderbird

 

11 Foot Nephilim Giant with Tablet Removed from a Cassopolis, Michigan Mound

Tablets with the Sumerian cuneiform script have been found throughout Michigan, providing evidence of the Nephilim Amorite presence in the area.

Daily Public Ledger (Maysville, Kentucky) September 27, 1894
A Prehistoric Giant
     Elkhart, Indiana, Sept. 27 - A dispatch from Cassopolis, Michigan, says that on opening a mound near Diamond lake Wednesday, a giant of the prehistoric race was unearthed.  The bones of the skeletons are well preserved.  The lower jaw is immense.  An ordinary jawbone fits inside with ease.  By measurement the distance from the top of the skull to the upper end of the thighbone is five feet five inches.  A doctor, who was present, stated that the man must have been 11 feet high.  The mound was partially covered by a pine stump three feet six inches in diameter, and the ground showeed no signs of ever having been disturbed. An earthen tablet, upon which were various unintelligible characters, and other relics were found.

 

Megalithic Stone Circle Described in Ross County, Ohio

Centennial History of the County of Ross County, Ohio - 1902

To the south of this, about two hundred yards is a stone circle one hundred feet in diameter and five or six feet high. In the center of this is a large stone mound some ten feet high.

This work was located in Huntington township, on the east side of Black Run, 200 yards south of the old Minney farm.

Henges eventually replaced the stone circle as solar and celestial observatories. Before transitioning to the henge they were combined.

 Yellow Haired Mummies Found In Kentucky Cave

Chronicles Of Border Warfare In West Virginia, 1895

   Many of the antiquities discovered in other parts of the country, show
that the arts once flourished to an extent beyond what they have ever
been known to do among the Indians. The body found in the saltpetre
cave of Kentucky, was wrapped in blankets made of linen and interwoven
with feathers of the wild turkey, tastefully arranged. It was much
smaller than persons of equal age at the present day, and had
yellowish hair. In Tennessee many walls of faced stone, and even
walled wells have been found in so many places, at such depths and
under such circumstances, as to preclude the idea of their having been
made by the whites since the discovery by Columbus.

 

Neanderthal Skull 50,000 Years Old Discovered on a Kansas Farm

Skull pictured on the bottom is that found in Kansas that was described as thick walled with a protruding brow ridge.

Marion Daily Star, April 7, 1902

When the skull was found, it was not thought to have any scientific value. Several days ago M. C. Long curator of the Kansas City public museum, and Edwin Butts, the civil engineer for the Metropolitan Street Railway company, both enthusiastic archaeologist, went to the place of the discovery and secured the fragments of the skeleton and brought them to Kansas City. Both Mr. Long and Mr. Butts are enthusiastic over the discovery. From the appearance of the skull and its position in the earth they are convinced it is that of a glacial man. If this fact is established, it will be the first proof of the kind found on the North American continent. Were there Neanderthals in North America?

The find was made on the farm of Thomas and M. Cohncannon. They were digging

a tunnel into a great hill on their farm with the purpose of using the excavation as a 

storage place for apples and other fruits. They dug directly into the side of the hill. The 

skull was found about sixty-five feet in. Other bones of the skeleton were beside it. 

One of the farmers drove a pickax through the skull in loosening it from its stony bed, 

and later bones fell on it, so that it was broken into half a dozen pieces, but Mr. Long has

cemented it together. The skull is that of a man with hardly any forehead. Directly back from

the eyes recedes the frontal bone. The fragments found show he had a big jaw. The skull is very thick and strong, and its back part is broad and well developed. The phrenologist averts that this development at the back shows an abnormal nature. But there is no noble dome,no high and rounding forehead, that shows the development of intelligence.

The skull practically intact, a portion of the lower jaw, a part of a thigh bone, and several other fragments were found. The bones indicate the man to have been large. The head is small. The orbits for the eyes are close together and appear exceptionally large. Over the orbits are well-developed ridges that probably denote perceptive faculties. The bones were found huddled together. They lay partially imbedded in hardpan. A close and exhaustive investigation showed that the various strata of rocks and soils and the “watermarks” had never been disturbed vertically and neither had there been a unilateral disturbance of the hill. The skeleton evidently had been deposited there before the great mass of rock and soil above and about it. Had mound builders or Indians ever dug deep into the hill

they could not have avoided leaving traces of their excavation.

“When we first heard of the find, we deemed it the usual story of a ‘mound burial,’

said Mr. Long the other day. “our investigation shows beyond all doubt that is a skeleton of a

 man of the glacial period.. After a most exhaustive investigation, Mr. Butts and I reached the conclusion the skeleton was deposited there during the glacial period or drift. How long ago the ice period was is not definitely known; 50, 00 years, perhaps much longer.