g4 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 118 



perhaps once a very considerable village. The whole plateau has 

 long been in cultivation, and in the spring of 1934 was a hay meadow. 

 Excavation was therefore not permitted in the whole area, but was 

 confined to the limit of the two mounds. Permission to excavate 

 was granted upon the condition that earth removed would be spread 

 between the two mounds, some 250 feet apart, leaving the crest of 

 the plateau as level as possible. This was done, so that while the 

 mounds were completely removed, no attempt was made to determine 

 the possible extent of the village site in the surrounding territory. 



To the north, about a mile airline, lies Cumberland Mountain, the 

 nearest crest rising to an elevation of some 2,950 feet above sea level. 

 The water level of Davis Creek, adjacent to this site, is approxi- 

 mately on the 1,000-foot contour. 



To the southward the terrain rises irregularly, forming a low- 

 lying ridge of foothills. The field in the immediate vicinity of the 

 mounds has been in cultivation for several generations. Definite 

 attempts by the owner to "plow down" these mounds at each culti- 

 vation of this area has assisted natural erosion in spreading the tops 

 of the mounds over areas much larger than they originally occupied. 

 This long-continued effort to reduce the height of these mounds, in 

 order to facilitate cultivation, made it very difficult to ascertain 

 exactly the original dimensions of the mounds. Each mound seemed 

 to have had its height reduced by at least as much as 3 feet at its 

 highest point. 



Mound No. 1 



This mound is the larger of the two on the site. It is oval in 

 shape, about 130 feet long, north and south, and 110 feet broad, 

 east and west. The lowest floor had been placed on original clay 

 hardpan, by the removal of original topsoil. The original humus 

 line extended only under that portion of the area which had been 

 built up by erosion. The area was staked in 10-foot squares — 140 

 feet north and south by 120 feet east and west with 0.0 reference 

 point at the northeast corner of the excavated area. The mound was 

 completely removed. Because of an ample supply of available labor, 

 excavation was conducted on two sides of the mound simultaneously. 

 Each 10-foot square was cut down to the undisturbed hardpan, so 

 that each 10-foot section revealed a clean floor, and a vertical face 

 which could be studied for profile. This method was continued until 

 lines of large post molds revealed the presence of structure in the 

 mound above the base level. This trenching was carried on for all 

 four faces, down to hardpan, until post molds were found in the 

 upper portion of the mound. Trenching was then abandoned and 



