552, PREHISTORIC VILLAGES IN TENNESSEE (ETH. ANN, 41 
The walls of this fortified Gordon town, like those of the other 
Indian fortified places in middle Tennessee, did not take in the 
springs or other sources of water supply. The Gordon fortifications 
could easily have extended to inclose the fine spring at the northern 
end of the town, only about 50 feet from the line of wall. This brings 
out the well-known fact that Indian warfare and fortifications did 
not contemplate long sieges. 
CHARACTER OF GORDON TOWN BUILDINGS 
In 1700 Father Gravier visited the wigwams of the Tunica on the 
lower Yazoo River. As these Tunica wigwams somewhat resembled 
those on the Gordon site, his description will give some idea of the 
probable appearance of the Gordon wigwams. 
Their cabins are round and vaulted. They are lathed with canes and plastered 
with mud from bottom to top, within and without, with a good covering of straw. 
There is no light except by the door; it is as hot as a vapor bath. At night a 
lighted torch of dried canes serves as a candle and keeps all the cabin warm. 
Their bed is of round canes, raised on four posts, 3 feet high, and a cane mat 
serves as a mattress. Nothing is neater than their cabins. * * * Their 
granaries are near their cabins, made like dovecotes, built on four large posts, 
15 or 16 feet high, well put together and well polished, so that the mice can not 
climb up, and in this way they protect their corn and squashes.” 
Tur Roor 
The roof of the wigwam was sometimes covered with a thick 
thatch of cornstalks, tied in place to the roof framework, and still 
further held in place and made more rain resistant by a layer of 
smooth, close-woven cane matting, which was also tied to the roof 
framework. This cane matting was woven from narrow strips of the 
outer portion of the cane stems. 
Early explorers stated that these roofs turned the rain very well, 
and in some instances lasted from 10 to 20 years. In other cases 
long marsh grasses took the place of cornstalks. The roofs were also 
often made of long, wide strips of bark, laid on the roof framework 
with the inner side of the bark turned upward. The joints between 
these strips of bark were covered with other strips, with the inner 
side of the bark turned downward. This gave a roof construction 
resembling the white man’s tile roof. 
The author found shingles, made of the bark of the cottonwood, 
covering a grave in a rock shelter on the Cumberland Plateau, about 
80 miles east of the Gordon site. They were shaped like our house 
shingles of the present day. They were about 11 inches long and 
from 5 to 8 inches wide. The bark strips for the bark roof of the 
old wigwams were probably several feet in length. 
The Gordon site people do not appear to have used conical-shaped 
tipis covered with the skins of the bison or other large animals. 
*7 Swanton’s “‘ Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley,’’ Bull. 43, Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 315. 
