webb] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NORRIS BASIN 201 



While these "large-log" town houses were "raised with logs" and 

 "covered with earth", as described by Timberlake, and were to that 

 extent quite similar to the "small-log" town house, yet in many 

 particulars they were quite dissimilar. Of these outstanding dis- 

 similar characteristics so far observed, the following may be listed: 



1. Large-log structures were never burned, but old structures were 

 removed or destroyed. 



2. No clay seats or clay "altars" have been found on the floor of 

 "large-log" structures. 



3. The posts of the "large-log" structures were not set in trenches 

 as were the posts of the "small-log" structures. 



4. "Large-log" post molds are two or more times as long as "small- 

 log" post molds and much farther apart. 



5. "Large-log" structures usually had a concave fire basin in the 

 center of the floor. These basins usually were full of ashes. In 

 form they differed little from fire basins found on village sites and 

 in dwellings. 



6. Pit burials below the floor and intrusive burials into the mounds 

 formed by the collapse of the "large-log" structures have been found 

 in two sites, whereas no adult burials have ever been found in 

 mounds above "small-log" town-house sites. 



7. Of the burials found in association with "large-log" structures, 

 some are clearly burials of bodies in sitting posture in pits. 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORRIS BASIN 



Some of the findings of the archaeological survey of the Norris 

 Basin, aside from the study of dendrochronology, suggest that the 

 occupancy of some of the sites described in this report may have 

 extended down nearly to, if not, indeed, quite to, the time of the 

 contact with the early white travelers. These travelers came from 

 the east over the Allegheny Mountains and visited the Cherokee, the 

 Creeks, and other southern tribes, making records of their observa- 

 tions. It is for this reason interesting as well as necessary to a 

 proper interpretation of these archaeological findings to study the 

 early written history of this region and to glean from it every fact 

 and suggestion which may throw light upon the late prehistoric 

 period. While for the purpose of this survey interest centers in the 

 relatively small area drained by the Clinch and Powell Rivers, yet 

 to fully understand its early history it is often necessary to go far 

 afield and to consider events which transpired far from the area in 

 question. 



Mooney's 5 map, published in 1900 under the designation of "The 

 Cherokee and their Neighbors, showing the territory held by them at 



B Mooney, 1900, pis. 11 and 111. 



