176 ABORIGINAL SITES ON TENNESSEE RIVER. 
ceived. It was a bitter pill to have to take out of my collection some of my most 
cherished specimens. I did it and am glad I did. Science wants the truth. 
The professional relie dealer somehow gets in touch with much doubtful stuff 
of very rare form." 
An interesting feature of the archzeology of Tennessee is its pottery, of which 
but little has been written except of that of the region centering around Nashville, 
on Cumberland river, where most of the pottery discovered in the State has been 
found. The earthenware of this region is similar to most of that of the Middle 
Mississippi region, whose approximate southern boundary seems to be Arkansas 
river—in all events west of the Mississippi such is the case. 
The pottery of the Middle Mississippi region, while extremely interesting, is 
bizarre rather than artistic. The ware, shell-tempered, is coarse, thick and lack- 
ing in surface finish; forms are often asymmetrical; undecorated vessels abound. 
The interest in this ware lies mainly in its numerous curious effigy vessels, and 
in its polychrome decoration which, however, is less often met with in Tennessee 
than it is across the Mississippi. 
For delicate pottery of artistic form, with highly polished surface, often bear- 
ing gracefully curved, and sometimes intricate, incised or trailed line-decoration, 
and seldom without ornamentation of some kind, one must, as a rule, seek farther 
south—in the Lower Mississippi region. A concrete example of this may be seen 
in Plate VIII of Thruston’s work, where, in the upper left-hand corner, a vessel 
from the Lower Mississippi region is shown, while all the others are from the 
Middle Mississippi territory. 
The pottery of middle Tennessee, while inferior to that of some parts of the 
Middle Mississippi region (the northern part of Arkansas, for example, with its 
*tea-pot" vessels, its head-vessels, its exceptional cases of incised decoration) 
far surpasses such earthenware as has been found along Tennessee river in 
Tennessee, if we except the rare examples of presumably a local culture near 
Chattanooga, to be described in this report. 
We shall now turn from the archzeology of the State of Tennessee in general 
to consider Tennessee river in connection with our archeological work upon it. 
Tennessee river begins in eastern Tennessee, a short distance above the city 
of Knoxville, and is formed by the junction of French Broad and Holston rivers. 
Continuing westwardly and southerly, somewhat below the city of Chattanooga, 
Tenn., it enters the State of Alabama, where it follows first a southwesterly and 
then a northwesterly course, and, bordering the State of Mississippi for about ten 
miles on one side, it again enters the State of Tennessee. Turning northward, 
the river flows first through Tennessee and then through Kentucky to its union 
1 In former times Tennessee river was regarded as beginning at Kingston, by the junction of the 
Clinch and Holston rivers. In the report of Col. S. H. Long, made in 1830, Tennessee river is regarded 
as beginning at the union of the Holston and the Little Tennessee. At present Tennessee river is 
considered as stated in the text. All this information we have from Major H. Burgess, Corps of 
Engineers, U. 8. A., now stationed at Nashville, Tenn., who in so many ways has aided our expedition. 
