REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 73 



These remains cover approximately 500 acres in two bends of the 

 river. In one bend he found a bold projecting hill which had been 

 artificially shaped from bottom to top. Three wide terraces had been 

 formed along the side of this hill. The original rounded summit had 

 been leveled until a great plaza or public square, about 1,000 feet in 

 length and 500 feet in breadth, had been formed. Upon the sides 

 of this level plaza one very large mound and two smaller ones had 

 been erected. This section of the ancient town was protected on the 

 water side by the perpendicular cliffs of the Harpeth Kiver. On 

 the land side it was defended by an earthen embankment or breast- 

 works surmounted by a wooden wall, from which at intervals semi- 

 circular wooden towers projected. These earthen breastworks, which 

 had formerly supported this wooden wall, were still to be found in 

 the undisturbed woodlands, where they yet extend about 1*4 miles, 

 and there is evidence that they originally ran much farther. Wooden 

 palisades, consisting of small tree trunks, had been driven into the 

 ground side by side and wedged together and the soil thrown against 

 them until they were by this means firmly embedded in these earthen 

 embankments or breastworks. These palisades, bound closely 

 together and strongly braced, formed a wooden wall which had been 

 plastered on the outside in order to make scaling by an enemy 

 difficult. Earthen bastions projecting beyond this line of wall at 

 intervals of about 150 yards were still to be found. These had 

 formerly supported the semicircular wooden towers. The enemy 

 advancing to attack was therefore subjected to fire from the de- 

 fenders through portholes along the main wall and also to a flanking 

 fire from the warriors in the towers on these bastions. Faint traces 

 of some of the timbers of these palisades and wooden towers were 

 found in the soil of these embankments. 



While the great central mount and terraced hill formed the most 

 striking feature of this ancient town, there were In the inclosure four 

 other eminences whose summits had likewise been leveled into plazas. 

 All these plazas yielded traces of earth lodges and other evidences of 

 former buildings. The earth lodges of the common people were 

 situated on the edges of the terraces. The larger mounds had prob- 

 ably supported important public buildings and the lodges of leading 

 personages. This grouping of important buildings around five sep- 

 arate plazas and in different parts of the town very probably indi- 

 cates that the population was made up of what had once been 

 four or five separate autonomous groups of kindred peoples. Here in 

 their later home each group had gathered around their own public 

 square in their own section of the town and thus preserved at least 

 some of their old ceremonials and held together in some fashion their 

 old organization. 



