The Slot and Tab tombs are unique to Northeast Georgia. Wahoo Baptist church, founded in 1819, seems to be at the center of an area that includes Lumpkin, White and Hall counties, and contains perhaps the largest number of these graver markers anywhere. The author of the 'Slot-and-Tab Tombs of NE Georgia' website has recorded 166 cemeteries that contain graves with these markers. While the structure is all above ground, apparently the dead are still buried beneath them as the hollow tombs are empty.
Some of the lids, or ledger stones, are flat, but as you can see, others are peaked. The head and foot stones come in several shapes as well, some rounded, some pointed and some squared off. The sides may consist of a single slab or long stone blocks stacked up, making the interior hollow. The stone used is local soapstone. Technically soapstone is an impure form of stearite, but in its most common usage is any soft rock that can be readily cut.
Some of the graves seem to be marked by nothing more than stacked stone. Perhaps this is an early, simpler style or these piles are the remains of tombs that have deteriorated.
The website mentioned above states that these graves were predominately used by the English and Scot-Irish between 1848 and 1889
Locate the church here.
Slot and Tabs Tombs website here.