INDIAN VILLAGE SITES AND QUARRIES IN TENNESSEE 

 By WALTER HOUGH, 



Head Curator of Anthropology, U. S. National Museum 



On the report of some recently exhumed burials at Indian Mound, 

 Tennessee, brought to notice by Congressman Joseph W. Byrns, the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology sent the writer to investigate. Indian 

 Mound is a town named for a large mound in its midst. Owing to 

 wear and tear, the mound has been much reduced from its original 

 height. Recently several slab lined graves were carefully opened by 

 Thomas W. Seay, Jr., and protected as exhibits. One piece of pottery, 

 a polished flesher and beads, and a few other artifacts were found. 



The writer, under the guidance of Mr. Seay, visited several village 

 sites and quarries in the vicinity of Indian Mound. Especially inter- 

 esting was a site at Brinton Hill having a heavy deposit of broken 

 flints and shells of Campeloma and Pleurocera from the Cumberland 

 River, fresh water mollusks which do not exist in the stream now. 



The Mississippian limestone, which is the characteristic rock of this 

 region, is rich in flint. One great quarry on the Brigham place, near 

 Dover, yields large blocks of homogeneous, liver-colored flint from 

 which the aborigines struck the hoe blades 12 to 1 8 inches long typical 

 of the Mississippi agricultural complex. On a field of Mr. Brigham's, 

 chips and worked implements of this flint are found in enormous 

 numbers. Other quarries were visited, but the quarry yielding a par- 

 ticularly fine blue flint was not located. 



An important collection representing the types of usual worked 

 flint implements in this region was gathered for the Museum. Ex- 

 amples of these are shown on figure 141. 



A widespread interest in archeological relics is displayed by the 

 people of this region. In general the land owners are averse to indis- 

 criminate digging by curiosity hunters, and for this reason most of 

 the numerous box graves are intact. On the other hand many fine 

 specimens found on the surface have come into the possession of 

 professional dealers in antiquities. 



The Tennessee archeological field is very rich, and the State 

 Archeologist, Mr. P. E. Cox, and others are doing much to maintain 

 public interest in the antiquities of the State. 



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