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<< Other Photo Pages >> Mound Bottom - Ancient Village or Settlement in United States in The South

Submitted by bat400 on Saturday, 21 November 2009  Page Views: 9189

Pre-ColumbianSite Name: Mound Bottom
Country: United States
NOTE: This site is 5.879 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: The South Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Nashville, TN  Nearest Village: Burns, TN
Latitude: 36.139600N  Longitude: 87.09964W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4
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Mound Bottom
Mound Bottom submitted by AKFisher : One of the large, truncated mounds at Mound Bottom, Tennessee. The photo was taken from a nearby mountain. Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016).  (Vote or comment on this photo)
Mound Bottom is a Mississippian era town at a horseshoe bend on the Harpeth River. It consists on a large flat topped, rectangular platform mound on a central plaza, surrounded by 14 other much smaller mounds, and house sites. The 100 acre site is separated from surrounding land by an earthwork enclosure that originally was topped by a stockade fence. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the area was occupied intensively from 700 AD to about 1300 AD.

Mound Bottom has been studied extensively, and private individuals, organizations, and the State of Tennessee periodically planned to develop the site for the public. This did not occur for some time, and possibly was for the best as earlier plans for major building projects on the site itself would now be considered intrusive and unacceptably damaging. The state did purchase the land in the 1970's and removed trees growing into the mounds and embankment. Mound Bottom is now designated as Mound Bottom State Archaeological Area and is under the management of the Harpeth River State Park. It can only be visited by signing up for a ranger led tour. However, a trail on the opposite side of the river leads to Mace Bluff, named for a petroglyph interpreted as a ceremonial mace. The overlook from the bluff allows for what is reputed to be a spectacular view of the river and Mound Bottom.
Mound Bottom is on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Mound Bottom
Mound Bottom submitted by AKFisher : Photo of one of the huge mounds at the Mound Bottom, Tennessee site taken from a nearby ridge. The site, dated to 700 CE (AD) was nearly surrounded and protected by the Harpeth River. Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016).  (Vote or comment on this photo)

Mound Bottom
Mound Bottom submitted by AKFisher : Stone engraved with a ceremonial mace (like a hatchet-club) on a ridge overlooking Mound Bottom Mound Complex near Nashville Tennessee. The mace is outlined in the upper right side of the stone. Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016).  (Vote or comment on this photo)

Mound Bottom
Mound Bottom submitted by AKFisher : Historical marker near site. Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016).  (Vote or comment on this photo)

Mound Bottom
Mound Bottom submitted by AKFisher : Historical marker on site. Photo credit: Historical Marker Database. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Mound Bottom
Mound Bottom submitted by AKFisher : Archaeological reconstruction of the Mound Bottom, Tennessee mound complex from the mound encyclopedia. The site is enclosed by a horseshoe bend in the Harpeth River with a small, narrow band of land yielding access. It is a 500 acre site that is today a state park with restricted access. It was "found" in 1804 and had 14 large platform mounds. It was constructed in AD 700 and inhabited until 13...

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"Mound Bottom" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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A stone engraved with a ceremonial mace on a ridge overlooking Mound Bottom by Andy B on Saturday, 11 February 2023
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A stone engraved with a ceremonial mace (like a hatchet-club) on a ridge overlooking Mound Bottom Mound Complex near Nashville Tennessee. The mace is outlined in the upper right side of the stone.

Pic here:
https://twitter.com/DrGregLittle2/status/1624212953779126274
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Re: Doctor buys, preserves access to prehistoric Tennessee site by Anonymous on Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Thank you for posting this.
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Doctor buys, preserves access to prehistoric Tennessee site by bat400 on Tuesday, 17 February 2009
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From Tennessean.com --

Jan 2009
It's the most amazing place you've never seen: Mound Bottom, the 1,000-year-old earthenworks left behind by a mighty civilization that once thrived along the Harpeth River.

For decades, the state has preserved the site for the people of Tennessee, even though there was virtually no way for anyone to get onto the property to marvel at the mounds. Surrounded by the river on three sides and by private property on the fourth, the site seemed destined to be preserved, without ever being fully studied or enjoyed.

Until a joint effort by the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, the state building commission and Dr. Arthur Cushman saved the day. The foundation, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to purchasing and preserving the natural and ancient wonders of Tennessee, stepped in quickly to buy the 65-acre property – even though the purchase left the group deep in *****.

Then Cushman, a Nashville neurologist with a lifelong passion for Indian culture and history, stepped in with a $200,000 gift to offset the cost of buying the land that leads onto Mound Bottom.

Finally, the state is stepping in with plans to buy the land as a public park and finally allow the public access to the mounds.

"I believe, as Chief Seattle said, 'We belong to the Earth. The Earth does not belong to us,' " said Cushman, visiting the site on a chilly December afternoon. By buying the gateway property, he not only guaranteed that the site would be accessible, he guaranteed that future visitors will enter the site surrounded by undisturbed woods and wildlife and the remains of dozens of smaller mounds and fortifications.

Walking through the woodlands with Mack Prichard, Tennessee's state naturalist emeritus, and other visitors, Cushman carefully climbed an overgrown mound that looked out over the Harpeth River and paused to sprinkle sacred herbs that had been given to him by Cherokee medicine women at the winter solstice ceremony last week.

"This area is still considered sacred," he said. "The earth is sacred, the trees are sacred."

Prichard, who participated in earlier excavations at Mound Bottom after the state of Tennessee bought the site in 1972, agreed. "These places are very rare and unfortunately, bulldozers have been at work on most of them," he said.

The wonder of the Mound Bottom site is that visitors can stand on the site and see a view that is not terribly different than the world the mound builders knew. The river still rolls around the horseshoe-shaped settlement. The fields beyond are still being farmed, just as they were a thousand years ago, and the gateway to the mounds is still woodlands.

The gateway property was being eyed by a developer when the Greenways Foundation made its move. Although its funds had been stretched to the limits by its recent negotiations for a 400-acre land preserve near Devil Step Hollow Cave in the Sequatchie Valley, the group stepped in and paid the land owner's $350,000 asking price.

Despite the budget woes, the state land acquisition fund is poised to use some of its scarce funding to buy the property back from the Greenways Foundation and preserve it for the public. Williams credited the governor and the department of environment and conservation for working with the group on the pending land purchase.

"We're trying to save the beautiful sites, these sacred sites that by right belong to the people of Tennessee," Williams said. "I think we're doing God's work here now."

Today, the site is still closed to most visitors, but the Greenways Foundation is offering tours of the site to groups who contact the foundation and make arrangements. The tours, Williams said, are both a way to introduce the public to a hidden historical wonder and to interest others in making land donations of their own.

For more, see Read the rest of this post...
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