﻿Il6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 



the surrouncling region in the valley of the Cuniherland in middle 

 Tennessee. 



Several of the potsherds found in this mound were decorated v^ith 

 fabric impressions which throw new light on the clothing of some of 

 the southern mound-builder women and reveal important differences 

 between some of the customs of the builders of the Denny mound 

 and those of ancient man in the adjoining states. 



The burial customs, pottery fragments, pipes, implements of bone 

 and antler, copper ornaments, and other artifacts brought to light in 

 this excavation were of great interest as they furnished intertwin- 

 ing clues which led to tracing out a cultural relationship between manv 

 widely scattered important ancient sites occupied by prehistoric man 

 in the upper valleys of the Tennessee River in eastern Tennessee, 

 northwestern North Carolina, the Shenandoah Valley, the upper val- 

 levs of the Potomac, the valleys of the New and the Kanawha, the 

 central and lower Scioto valley, a site in the suburbs of Cincinnati, 

 certain sites in the southern peninsula of ^lichigan, and in southern 

 \\'isconsin and elsewhere in our central northern states. 



Probably the most interesting contributions to knowledge brought 

 to light by the exploration of the Denny mound were the clues which 

 led to determining what modern Indians are the descendants of the 

 ancient mound-builders who erected this old Tennessee mound. A 

 studv of the material cultures aided by the scanty written records and 

 traditions regarding the localities where cultures have been found 

 somewhat similar to that of the Denny mound lirings out the fact that 

 the little outlying settlement of ancient people who lived at the Denny 

 mound belonged to a culture group whose remains are found at vari- 

 ous points in eastern Tennessee, northwestern North Carolina, south- 

 western Virginia. Shenandoah \^alley. the upper Potomac valleys, 

 the vallev of the Kanawha, southern and central Ohio, southern Wis- 

 consin, the southern peninsula of [Michigan, and possibly in other 

 sections. This culture group appears to have belonged to the Algon- 

 quian stock. The many interlocking evidences render it probable that 

 the Dennv mound and some of the other culturallv related sites here 

 mentioned were at some time occupied by the Shawmees or people 

 closely akin to them. 



REMAINS IX LINCOLN AND MOORE COl'NTIES, TENNESSEE 



iNIr. ]\Iyer also visited Lincoln and Aloore Ccninties. in the southern 

 part of Tennessee, where he studied several ancient sites and surveyed 

 and mapped a large and hitherto undescribed mound group on Elk 



