wbbb] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NORRIS BASIN 219 



escaped detection. From this mound 34 extended burials were re- 

 moved. In the excavation incident to their removal any other evi- 

 dence might have been overlooked or destroyed, as the burials were 

 regarded as the chief feature. Further, after the "burial layer" was 

 encountered and the skeletons removed, it does not appear from the 

 report that the excavations extended below this level. 



Since Thomas was seeking evidence to prove the identity of the 

 "mound builders" with the historic Indians, and regarded similar 

 skeletal material and artifacts as the best proof of his thesis, there 

 was little incentive to seek other types of information. Further, a 

 primary floor, if one existed here, might have been below the original 

 village surface, as has been noted in the JSTorris Basin (pi. 26, b). 



Farther down the river Thomas investigated mounds on the site 

 of Settacoo town. Of Mound No. 4 he says : 



Mound No. 4 is known locally as "Citico Mound" and is the largest not only 

 of this group but of the entire section. In shape it resembles half of an egg 

 divided lengthwise, being broadest and highest nearer one end, sloping thence 

 by regular, somewhat curved lines. The length is 220 feet ; greatest breadth, 184 

 feet ; greatest height, 14 feet. It may possibly have been flat on top originally, 

 but no satisfactory evidence of this can be had ; in fact, its present form seems 

 to be that which it has had from the beginning, so far as can be judged from 

 an examination of its structure. As is shown in the plat, it is located on the 

 first bottom of the Little Tennessee, and though often surrounded by water in 

 times of flood, was never known to be covered. For the space of 6 or 7 acres 

 around it the soil is strewn with fragments of pottery, flint chips, broken 

 stones, animal bones, charcoal, and other refuse. Great numbers of shell beads 

 have been picked up here, and human skeletons have occasionally been plowed 

 up or washed out by high water. * * * 



The large mound, No. 4, was thoroughly overhauled to the base. At the 

 highest point, 6 inches below the surface, was a bed of burned clay, circular in 

 form, about 6 feet in diameter and 1 foot thick, and burned so hard as to be 

 very difficult to break up. First three trenches were run in from the margin of 

 the mound from the north, south, and west sides, intersecting at this clay bed. 

 In cutting these, quite a number of skeletons were unearthed, some within 2 feet 

 of the surface, others at a depth of 9 feet, at which depth a bed of yellow sand, 

 slightly mixed with clay and firmly packed, was reached ; this lay on the orig- 

 inal surface of the ground and extended over the whole area covered by the 

 mound. No skeletons were found in this lower layer or under it. By cutting 

 the trenches in the way described the clay bed was left unbroken until its 

 extent and relation to what lay around it had been ascertained. It was then 

 found that instead of there being a single bed of clay, this was the top one of a 

 series of five. The one in question was level; the others were saucer-shaped 

 * * * each extending upward and outward to the slope of the mound, each 

 succeeding one larger than the one above it, the lowest measuring 12 feet in 

 diameter. Alternating with them were layers of ashes, each resting on its 

 corresponding layer of clay. About 3.5 feet below these was another layer of 

 red clay burned very hard, circular in outline, saucer shaped, and 3 inches 

 thick. 85 



» Ibid., pp. 373-374. 



