562 
PREHISTORIC VILLAGES IN TENNESSEE (ETH. ANN. 41 
The town had been inhabited for only a short time before this 
mound was raised. This is proved by the following facts: 
In this mound was an ancient dwelling fire bed on the original 
surface of the soil. This fire bed was a shallow circular depression, 
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a Ach bed 12 
IST. LEVEL 
‘owl shaped 
Ash bed 27 
Fic, 156.—Vertical section of mound No. 2 
= B 
ZNO LEVEL 
2 feet in diameter, and was filled with ashes and 
broken animal bones, such as are found on domestic 
hearths. It resembled in shape that found in house 
circle No. 17 but was not so well made. It is shown 
in Figure 156 as ash bed 27. This fire bed belonged 
to a dwelling which had stood on this site before the 
mound was raised. In other words, the town had been 
inhabited before mound No. 2 was raised. This is - 
further indicated by the animal bones in the ashes 
of this early wigwam showing more signs of age than 
those in mound No. 2, which was later raised over them. 
This mound, as will be seen later, was raised in 
different stages. The soil in the lowest layer, belong- 
ing to its first stage, contained about one-third as 
many fragments of animal bones and pottery as the 
soil in the upper layers. This shows its erection was 
begun at a time when only one-third as many evidences 
of human occupancy had accumulated in the sur- 
rounding surface soil from which the mound was taken 
as were in the soil when the later stages were added. 
There has been nothing unearthed on this site to 
enable us to determine with any degree of certainty 
the approximate date of the flexed-burial people who 
first occupied it, who they were, or how long they 
remained. 
STaGEs IN [RECTION 
After the site had been occuried for some unknown 
length of time the dwelling or dwellings were cleared 
away and the mound was raised to a height of about 
3 feet. Its shape at that first stage is shown by the 
dotted line marked ‘First level,” in vertical section 
shown in Figure 156. 
Burpine B 
On the mound at this stage—the first level—one or 
more buildings were erected. This has been designated ‘Building B.” 
The mound was not sufficiently explored to determine the extent or 
precise character of building B and its possible neighbors. Figure 157 
shows a diagram of the mound at the first level. The portion exca- 
vated is shown by the dotted lines, The large round dots represent 
