THE CRUMP BURIAL CAVE.
(BLOUNT COUNTY, ALABAMA.)
By Frank Burns, U. S. Geological Survey.
This cave was discovered in the summer of 1840, by Mr. James New-
man and some of his friends while hunting- . It is located on the
banks of the southern branch of the Warrior Biver, in Murpheys Val-
ley, Blount county, Alabama, and is in the steep limestone cliffs where
the river entered a gorge and left the valley. The entrance to the
cave was about 400 feet above the stream and 50 feet below the plateau
above. The opening into the cave was so small that a man could
scarcely crawl into it. Procuring lights, the hunters entered the cave.
They found it perfectly dry, the air pleasant and cool, and the rooms
sufficiently large to accommodate the rather large party of young men.
A short distance from the entrance was a room, which proved to be a
"burial cave" of the aborigines. They found eight or ten wooden
coffins of black and white walnut, hollowed or cut out of the solid,
after the fashion of the "dugout" canoe. The coffins were sent to the
Smithsonian Institution, where they have been restored as far as pos-
sible, and are now exhibited in the department of prehistoric anthro-
pology. Eight have been restored, and there are in addition many
parts of coffins. The coffins are about 7£ feet long, 14 to 18 inches
wide, 2i inches thick, and 6 or 7 inches deep. They have been hol-
lowed out by fire, aided by stone or copper chisels, or hatchets. Traces
of the use of both implements are to be seen on the inside. The ends
are open, as shown in Fig. 1 of the accompanying plate. (PI. ui.)
In proximity to the coffins were twelve or fifteen human skulls, and
also a large number of human bones. These were scattered around,
showing that there had been disturbance after burial, whether by
beasts of prey or otherwise could not be determined. If there were
bones of other animals, it was not observed or not reported.
There were five or six wooden trays—one was secured and sent to the
Smithsonian Institution. It is 18 inches long, 12 inches wide, li inches
thick at the bottom, reduced to thin edges at the top, and 3 inches deep.
Also six small wooden bowls, a fragment of one only being secured.
Scattered about, but near the skeletons and coffins, were found the
451
452 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892.
following- objects : About 200 pounds of galena, some of the larger
pieces being rudely grooved, similar to the aboriginal stone axes and
mauls, as though for warclubs
—
casse-tetes ; a number of arrow and
spear heads and other relics ; a small copper hatchet, a copper chisel
about 5 inches long, and about twenty copper ornaments, most of these
having small holes drilled as though for suspension ; six or seven large
shells [Fulgar carica) ; some shell disks and beads and pieces of wooden
matting about G inches square, made of bark or cane and much decayed.
One of the copper chisels and some of the galena were in one of the
coffins.
The opening of the cave was enlarged, and became a place of some
celebrity, being visited by the citizens, neighbors, guests, etc., who
carried away such things as suited their fancy. The skulls were car-
ried away by doctors, and the beads were appropriated by the children,
while others broke up the galena and carried it away for the purpose
of making bullets.
The cave remained in this condition for twenty or more years. Dur-
ing the war for the suppression of the rebellion, the cave was excava-
ted for saltpeter, and was also a hiding-place for refugees. The coffins
were badly damaged, as is shown by their present condition, but
fortunately were not destroyed. How they could have escaped use as
firewood is scarcely imaginable.
The late Rev. William Crump owned the land on which the cave was
situated, and from whom it takes its name, and his family still owns it.
They had in their possession a few years ago, a number of copper
objects, a few stone implements, and two of the large shells, one of
which was used at the blacksmith shop for pouring water on hot iron.
1 made effort to obtain these relics, but failed. They permitted me to
visit the cave and collect the coffins and pieces there, which I hauled
a distance of 30 miles to the railroad, and shipped them to the Na-
tional Museum. I spent some time on different occasions in visiting
this cave and talking to Mr. James Newman and others who discov-
ered the cave, and obtained from them the facts which I have here re-
corded and which I regard in every way as reliable. That the cave
was a very old burial place is undeniable.
There is a small mound at the foot of the bluff in the narrow river
bottom, and around it a number of relics have been plowed up, one
of which was a "stone wheel" with a groove around it, probably used
as part of a machine for drilling holes in stone and copper.
About five miles north of the Crump Cave, on the mountain of lime-
stone just beneath the overhanging cliff of Millstone Grit, I found and
forwarded to the Museum an Indian ladder which stood against the
precipice and had been used to mount or climb up to what the people
call a "rock house," i. e., a large, roomy, dry place under overhanging
cliffs of stone, probably used like the cave, for burial purposes. This
ladder is the trunk of a cedar tree about 8 inches in diameter, is about
Report of National Museum, 1892.— Burns. Plate CI.
Objects Illustrating Prehistoric Burials. (Bronze age.)
Fig. 1. Hollowed oak coffin, containing skeleton of a man. (Treenhoi, Denmark.)
Fig. 2. Woman's woolen dress found in oak coffin. (Borum-Eshoi, Denmark.)
Fig. 3. Detail of woman's woolen dress. (Denmark.) A similar specimen in the
U. S. National Museum. (Cat. No. 130615.)

THE CRUMP BURIAL CAVE. 453
14 feet long, has 7 or 8 steps, 18 or 19 inches apart, made by cutting
nto the tree a scarf about 6 inches high and 2 inches deep. Near the
foot of the ladder, but out in the open air, was a rock mound of good
size, from which some relics had been dug by parties hunting for
buried Indian money.
There are many such houses in the coal measures, and they were
used by the aborigines as dwelling or burial places. I have found
human bones, and in one instance some beautiful arrow-heads, in a
number of such places among the mountains. The aborigines would
lay their dead away in rock crevices in wild and retired spots, and
cover them with stones enough to protect them from wild animals and
leave them in the "Eternal Silence." I have in some instances sent
the bones to the Museum; in other cases 1 left them undisturbed. I
have walked many miles for the purpose of making similar investiga-
tions through the country formerly belonging to the Creeks or Musco-
gees, when it was impossible to ride and dangerous even to walk.
In the year 1881 I visited the site of a former Creek Indian village
in Brown's Valley, Marshall County, Ala. This was a village of
friendly Creeks. They had helped Gen. Jackson in the war against
their countrymen, and after peace was made, he removed and settled
them on lands of the Cherokees until they were sent west of the Mis-
sissippi. The early settlers told me that when one of the Creeks died,
they buried him in a corner of one of the huts or wigwams, which in
this village were small houses made of logs after the manner of the
white settlers, and that when a person was buried in each corner of a
hut, it was pulled down and removed to another spot. I had no means
of verifying this report. In the Cherokee country they buried their
dead in caves in some instances, but generally in the ground, like
Americans.
Remarks by Mr. Thomas Wilson.—While this method of coffin
burial was unusual, if not unknown in the United States, yet there
were similar burials among the prehistoric peoples of other countries.
In the center of one of the display rooms in the great Prehistoric Mu-
seum at Copenhagen stand two coffins, similar in appearance to those
just described, made of the cloven and hollowed trunk of an oak tree
(PI. ci, Fig. 2). One came from Treenhoi and the other from Borum-
Eshoi, Denmark. One contained the body of a man; the other that of
a woman. The skeleton of the man had crumbled away; that of the
woman was well preserved. From the remains of the clothing they
have been able to reconstruct the garment of that period (PI. ci,
Fig. 3). The material was wool, which had been closely spun, and
was of the color known in the United States as "butternut"; whether
that was the original color, or whether it had been changed by contact
with the oak coffin, was not determinable. The garments consisted o*
a high cap, a wide, roundly cut mantle, a sort of tunic pieces of
wool which had probably covered the legs, while at the feet were
454 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892.
remains of leather or skin, which had possibly been shoes. The cap
was without a visor, and it and the garment were covered with a pro-
jecting knotted thread, which hung down. The tunic was kept together
with a long woolen belt, which went twice around the waist, was knotted
in front, and the two long ends hanging down were decorated with
fringe. At his left side lay a bronze sword in a wooden sheath lined
with skin. At the foot was a round wooden box containing a smaller
box of the same kind, which, in its turn, contained an extra woolen
cap, a horn comb, and a bronze razor. The bodies in both burials were
wrapped in cow-hide. The woman's coffin contained a bronze fibula, or
safety pin, a bronze dagger with a horn handle, a spiral finger ring,
two bracelets, a torque, and three round and beautifully decorated
bronze belt plates of different sizes, with points projecting in the
middle.
There is in the National Museum a square of the same cloth from
a similar burial, obtained by myself at Frederichsund, a detail of
which, the fiber and mode of weaving, can be seen as shown in Fig. 3
of the plate. In these cases the .coffins were different from those at
Crump's Burial Cave, the corresponding upper half of the tree trunk
having been hollowed out and serving as a coffin lid.
The London Chronicle (1767) reports the opening of a mound (barrow)
near Wareham, Dorsetshire, wherein was found a human burial in the
hollowed trunk of an oak tree. The bones were wrapped in a covering
of deer skins sewn together. And here was found what was consid-
ered a piece of gold lace wrought into lozenge pattern. (Mrs. Bury
Pallister, History of Lace, p. 3.)
J