378 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 118 



may be at this time no remnants of a Cherokee town house remaining 

 anywhere. 



As a brief summary of these speculations on possible Cherokee 

 connections, the following tentative suggestions are offered — without 

 definite proof, since proof is not available at this time. 



(1) Cherokee material culture cannot be exactly defined because 

 many traits are too widespread. 



(2) Cherokee built circular town houses on mounds erected by an 

 earlier people, along Little Tennessee River, of which Toqua and 

 Settico are examples. 



(3) Circular town house remains are now probably all destroyed 

 because there was not enough earth over them to preserve them, but 

 the post molds may remain and should be carefully sought on sites 

 in this region to see if they are superposed over rectangular post- 

 mold patterns. 



(4) Mounds on Little Tennessee River built by an earlier people 

 were the result of the collapse of earth-covered rectangular structures, 

 so that Toqua, Settico, and the other Over Hill Cherokee mounds, if 

 undisturbed, should even yet show rectangular post-mold patterns at 

 lower levels. 



It would also appear that, in some cases, after a town house had 

 collapsed, additional earth was carried in and deposited upon the 

 remains. Lewis 12 reports that the lenticular loads were plainly evi- 

 dent in a mound recently excavated by him in Roane County, Tenn. 

 He found a depth of earth of from 3 to 5 feet between floors, part of 

 which was carried on the site after the collapse of a town house and 

 before the erection of another. 



(5) Dandridge mound and also Site No. 19 were built by this earlier 

 people. They had no apparent connection with Cherokee occupancy. 



(6) This earlier people probably did extend down Tennessee River 

 beyond Hiwassee Island, although there were no rectangular struc- 

 tures reported by Harrington. No circular structures were reported 

 by him because they were not preserved, although probably built by 

 Cherokee there. However, rectangular structures have recently been 

 found by Lewis 12 in Roane County, Tenn., not far from Bussell's 

 Island and farther down the Tennessee River. 



(7) Except for house forms and minor differences in burial cus- 

 toms, the material culture of this earlier people and the Cherokee was 

 quite similar, as was also that of the Creeks. 



(8) Nacoochee is Cherokee, influenced from the southeast, but it 

 shows little connection, if any, with this earlier people in Norris Basin. 



13 Lewis, T. M. N., University of Tennessee. Personal communication. 



