[Illustration: Relics of the Mound Builders.]
We know that they were an agricultural class because in some mounds were found remains of Indian corn and beans, also hickory nuts, butternuts, walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, and pawpaw seeds.
While in some instances the graves were more or less surrounded by limestone slabs, in other places the dead were laid on skins or on the bare ground, and covered with skins and soil heaped above. As this soil had to be carried in baskets or skins, these immense mounds stand as mute memorials of their love for one another.
There are many curious natural formations in Kentucky; yet the many artificial mounds also have added interest to the topography, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish where nature ends and art begins.
The noted scientist, C.S. Rafinesque, claimed to have discovered one hundred and forty-eight ancient sites and over five hundred monuments in this state.
The greater number of the mounds were small cone-like structures from five to ten or sometimes forty feet in height; in several counties those of pyramid shape were found, and other counties contained unusual structures.
In Bourbon were found several sites, forty-six monuments, a circus of fourteen hundred and fifty feet, and a town whose stretch of walls measured four thousand six hundred and seventy-five feet.
Hickman County had a teocalli, or temple, ten feet high, thirty feet wide, and four hundred and fifty feet long.
Livingston with several sites and monuments had also an octagon whose walls measured twenty-eight hundred and fifty-two feet in length.
In McCracken was found a teocalli fourteen feet high and twelve hundred feet long.
Rockcastle had a stone grave three feet high, five feet wide, and two hundred feet long.
Warren claimed a ditched town, octagonal in shape, measuring in perimeter one thousand three hundred and eighty-five feet.
In Trigg was found a walled town with a circumference of seven thousand five hundred feet.
A mound more than twenty feet high with a diameter of over one hundred feet was located in Montgomery.
In Estill was located one fifteen feet high, one hundred and ninety-two feet in diameter, and surrounded by a moat ten feet deep and thirty-five feet wide.