TWO PREHISTORIC VILLAGES IN MIDDLE 
TENNESSEE 
By Witt1ram Epwarp MYER 
_ 
INTRODUCTION 
The author spent the months of September and October, 1920, 
making explorations for the Bureau of American Ethnology in the 
Cumberland River Valley around Nashville, Tenn. 
He made excavations on sites which he has named the Gordon 
town site and the Fewkes group. The excavations on these two sites 
brought to light the ruins of several buildings of the two ancient 
towns, with their altars and the remains of what appeared to be their 
sacred fires. Many relics throwing light on the customs of these 
people were unearthed. The several hundred fragments of pottery 
found in these excavations were all saved and studied. This enabled 
him to determine the size, shape, color, and material of what was 
probably nearly their complete line of domestic pottery. 
Every fragment of bone found was saved. A study of these frag- 
ments by Mr. G. S. Miller, curator, Division of Mammals, United 
States National Museum, enabled him to determine with some 
accuracy their animal food which contained bones. In all this 
mass of bones not asingle fragment of the bones of the bison was 
found. Does this mean that the town was deserted before the bison 
came into this region? They were later found in some numbers here. 
The skeletal material from the graves was examined by Dr. A. 
Hrdli¢ka, curator, Division of Physical Anthropology, United States 
National Museum, whose report appears at the end of this volume. 
He reports that the skeletons indicate rather a weak people, sub- 
average for Indians. 
At a few places in this narrative the author has inserted descrip- 
tions recorded by early whites of ancient Indian life and towns which 
appear to very closely resemble those at the Gordon and Fewkes sites. 
These are already well known to all archeologists. They are given 
here in order that the general reader who is not an archeologist may 
form a better conception of the former appearance of these towns 
and the manner of life of the dwellers therein. 
The author has endeavored to determine, if possible, who these 
people were. While here and there some clues appear, on the whole 
the evidence is so hazy and apparently contradictory that he thinks 
it unsafe to venture an opinion. 
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