570 PREHISTORIC VILLAGES IN TENNESSEE [ETH. ANN. 41 
side. While some of the ashes had been removed from this ash heap 
from time to time, an untidy remnant was left. The rim of the altar 
was only 8 inches beneath the present surface of the soil. The altar 
was not removed, but was carefully covered up. Mr. J. H. Womack, 
the owner of the site, promised to see that it was not disturbed. 
ROOMS 
This House of the Mysteries probably had two rooms. The por- 
tion which contains the altar appears likely to be the western room. 
This western room was probably 56 feet north and south by 22 feet 
east and west. 
FLOOR 
The eastern portion of the altar room appears to have had a beau- 
tiful, smooth, black glossy floor, like that in the temple of the Gordon 
site, and to have been composed in some places of clay and in others 
of the hard-packed soil of the mound, carefully smoothed and packed 
down, and hardened by a heavy fire built upon it. This fire was 
sufficient to more or less burn the floor to a depth of from 2 to 4 
— 
NO BLACK GLOSSY FLOOR HERE 
p+ 
3 Top Soil. SCALE SE LEE Ashes, charcoals earth. 
F3Black, gloasy Floor. EA Hard clay,here and there Hard baked clay. 
{0 Smooth, hard burned clay showing signs of action of fire E23 Powdery charcoal. 
Fic. 160.—Vertical section through altar 
inches. Then the ashes of the fire were thoroughly removed and a 
half-inch layer of clay, rendered black with some substance, was 
spread over it and given a fine polish by rubbing. The floor must 
have presented a most pleasing appearance. 
WALLS 
The walls of this building were composed of poles from 3 to 7 
inches in diameter and from 12 to 24 inches distant from each other, 
a large proportion being about 18 inches apart. These poles were 
doubtless bent over and tied together at the top, thus forming an 
arched roof, like those of many of the southern Indian buildings. 
One with this type of roof is shown in Figure 161. The walls had 
then been made by weaving canes in and out between the poles, thus 
forming a wattling, which was covered with a coating of clay plaster, 
both within and without. Traces of plastered walls of this type were 
found on the Gordon site and also in the building on circle No. 6 of 
Fewkes group. The method of construction is shown in Figure 162.* 
This clay-plastered wattled wall, when completed, was sometimes 
hung, both within and without, with a layer of woven cane matting 
covering on the inner wall. : 
33 Eenwines ‘am eriicley Habitations, Bur. Amer. Ethn., Bull. 30, pt. 1, p. 517. 
