
60 THE MOUND BUILDERS OF TENNESSEE. 


















They are found upon the Cumberland, Little Tennessee, Big E j 
Tennessee, French Broad, Elk River, Harpeth, Duck and 3 
Stone Rivers. As a general rule these mounds are erected a 
upon rich alluvial bottoms, and are either surrounded by ex- 1 
tensive earthworks, or are located in the neighborhood of — 
these fortifications, which mark the site of towns. The : 
mounds vary in number and size, in a measure, with the : 
extent and richness of the valleys and the size of the earth- , 
works. The smallest are not more than a few feet in height, | 
and about thirty feet in diameter, while the largest attain a 
height of seventy feet, and cover an aere or two of ground. 
Many of the smaller mounds were used for the burial of the 
dead, others for the purpose of religious sacrifice and for the 4 
were most probably the sites of the temples and council- 
houses of the aborigines. : 
The ancient inhabitants of Tennessee also left singular 
paintings upon the rocks, representing the sun and moon. 
These paintings occupy the face of perpendicular cliffs on : 
the Harpeth, Tennessee, French Broad, Duck and Cumber- 
land Rivers. The paintings are executed with red ochre, 
upon high, inaccessible walls of rock overhanging the water, 
and were, without doubt, devoted to sacred purposes, and 
. were emblematic of the sun, the god of the aborigines. The 
paintings of the sun on the rocks on Big Harpeth River 
about three miles below the road which crosses this stream 
from Nashville to Charlotte, can be seen for a distance of 
four miles, and it is probable that the worshippers of the sun 
assembled before this high place for the performance of thei 
sacred rights. At Buffalo Gap, on the same stream, whe 
the ancient trail of the buffalo is still distinct, a line of buf- 
faloes is painted upon the cliff rock which overhangs from 
above, and is capable of sheltering a thousand men. 
We have still another evidence of the existence of a nu- 
. merous population, in the fact that the first settlers found 
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