NO. lO SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I923 II5 



MOUND BOTTOM DIVISION OF GREAT MOUND GROUP 



Figure 109 shows a map of the Mound Bottom division of the Great 

 Mound Group. This portion of the remains covers nearly all of the 

 lower river bend which is called Mound Bottom by the local people. 

 The accounts of the early white visitors to the region indicate that a 

 line of walls with towers every 40 paces at one time extended around 

 the edge of this river bottom. If so, all trace has disappeared under 

 long cultivation. A curious line of earthen embankments was found 

 on the narrow neck of blufifs through which entrance was gained to 

 the ancient town. These embankments do not appear to have been 

 portions of fortifications. 



A photograph of a portion of Mound Bottom is shown in figure 1 13. 

 Numbers 2, 4. 5, and 6 are large mounds. Number i is a wide artificial 



Fig. 113. — Mound Bottom. Harpeth River, two miles below mouth of Dog 

 Creek, Cheatham Co., Tennessee. 



earthen platform adjoining mound number 2. Number 7 is a ceme- 

 tery containing stone-slab graves. 



It is not as yet possible to determine the age of these remains. 

 Beyond all question the town had been destroyed long before the com- 

 ing of the whites. In like manner the Indians living in this section 

 when the whites arrived stated their ancestors had also found these 

 vestiges of some unknown people lying silent and deserted along this 

 beautiful river when they came into this region. 



DENNY MOUND 



Later in the summer of 1923 Mr. Myer explored a small mound on 

 the Denny farm at Goodlettsville, Sumner County, Tennessee, which 

 proved to be of unusual importance, in that it yielded relics which 

 showed it to belong to a culture cjuite different from that of much of 



