- Old Town (Franklin, Tennessee)
-
- For the house also known as Old Town, see Thomas Brown House (Franklin, Tennessee)
Old Town Archaeological Site
(40 WM 2)
Diagram of placement of mounds and works at the Old Town Archaeological Site
Nearest city: Franklin, Tennessee Coordinates: 35°59′38.436″N 86°56′11.364″W / 35.99401°N 86.93649°WCoordinates: 35°59′38.436″N 86°56′11.364″W / 35.99401°N 86.93649°W Area: 41 acres (17 ha) MPS: Mississippian Cultural Resources of the Central Basin MPS (40WM2) NRHP Reference#: 89000159[1] Added to NRHP: 1989 Old Town is a historic Native American village and mound complex site in Williamson County, Tennessee near Franklin. The site includes the remnants of a Native American village and mound complex of the Mississippian culture, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Old Town Archaeological Site (40WM2).[1]
Contents
Site description
The Mississippian culture village and mound complex is located at the confluence of the Harpeth River and Dolorson Creek on the Harpeth River branch of the Natchez Trace. Archaeological investigations of the 12-acre (4.9 ha) site have uncovered artifacts dating from approximately 900 to 1450. The earliest archaeological investigations of the site were in 1868 by Dr. Joseph Jones, a local medical doctor.[2] He described it in his book Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee, published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1876.[3][2] The village area was surrounded by steep earthworks running in a 2,470 feet (750 m) semicircle,[4] portions of which were topped by a wooden palisade that is interpreted as having been intended as a protective fortification. Within the enclosure, the village area includes several large earthen mounds[3][4] a plaza and associated village areas. Jones described the mound grouping as including two platform mounds and two burial mounds.[3][4] Mississippian mound complexes such as the Old Town complex are thought to have been regional centers for civic and ceremonial activity, as well as serving as the permanent residences of ruling elites.[2] The mounds are located within the embankments. The largest of the rectangular platform mounds, Mound A, was 112 feet (34 m) on its longer side by 65 feet (20 m) on the shorter side and 11 feet (3.4 m) in height. The second, Mound B, was 70 feet (21 m) by 65 feet (20 m) at its base and 9 feet (2.7 m) in height. Located across a plaza area was a 30 feet (9.1 m) by 20 feet (6.1 m) in diameter 2.5 feet (0.76 m) high burial mound.[4] The remaining burial mound is the location of the Thomas Brown House.
In 1984 and 1991, the Tennessee Division of Archaeology conducted brief salvage excavations at the Old Town site in anticipation of construction and renovation projects. The artifacts collected allowed researchers to place Old Town's primary period of habitation at between 1250 and 1450. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal uncovered from a prehistoric trash pit returned a date of 1214.[5]
Stone box graves
A stone box grave with the body in the flexed position
Burials at the site were of a type known as stone box graves. Jones opened up at least 50 examples during his investigations.[3] In this type of burial, which was commonly used by Mississippian people in the central basin of Middle Tennessee, the dead were interred in shallow rectangular excavations lined with large thin slabs of limestone. A "nearly form-fitting" pit was dug to hold the person's remains, the bottom and sides were lined with appropriately sized rock slabs, the person's remains were laid inside, and the resulting box was covered with another stone slab.[2][6][7] Most of these individual graves were located along the banks of the river and creek.[3]
NHRP sites at location
A larger, 41-acre (17 ha), area was listed as the "Old Town Archaeological Site" on the National Register in 1989 as part of the Mississippian Cultural Resources of the Central Basin (900 to 1450) Multiple Property Submission.[1][3][2][1] "Old Town" also is a name given to the Thomas Brown House, built nearby to the mound complex site in the 1840s or 1850s,[8] "Old Town" is also reflected in the name of the nearby Old Town Bridge that carried the Harpeth River branch of the Natchez Trace over Brown's Creek.[3]
See also
- Fewkes Group Archaeological Site (40 WM 1)
- List of Mississippian sites
References
- ^ a b c d "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html.
- ^ a b c d e Tennessee Historical Commission, Mississippian Cultural Resources of the Central Basin (A.D. 900 to A.D. 1450) Multiple Property Submission, January 31, 1989
- ^ a b c d e f g Kelly McGuinness, Old Town, FranklinIs.com website, accessed April 13, 2011
- ^ a b c d Thruston, Gates Phillips (1890)). The antiquities of Tennessee and the adjacent states, and the state of aboriginal society in the scale of civilization represented by them: A series of historical and ethnological studies. The R. Clarke Company. pp. 39–40. http://books.google.com/books?id=cEEBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA39.
- ^ Kevin Smith, "Archaeology at Old Town (40WM2): A Mississippian Mound-Village Center in Williamson County, Tennessee," Tennessee Anthropologist, Vol. XVIII, no. 1 (Spring 1993), pp. 27-44.
- ^ Kelly McGuinness, Stone Box Indian Site, FranklinIs.com website, accessed April 2, 2010
- ^ Nashville's Native American History: Noel Creek Cemetery, Native Nashville website, accessed April 2, 2010
- ^ The Williamson County MRA gives a date of 1842; NRIS gives the date as 1846; McGuinness gives the date as "circa 1854."
Further reading
- Crutchfield, James A. Harpeth River: A Biography. Johnson City, TN. Overmountain Press. 1994. ISBN 1570720169, ISBN 9781570720161
- Crutchfield, James A. The Natchez Trace: a pictorial history. Nashville, TN. Rutledge Hill Press, 1985. (7th print edition in 2000 published by Thomas Nelson). ISBN 0934395039, ISBN 978-0934395038
- Goodpasture, Henry. Old Town. Nashville, TN. 1950.
- Jones, Joseph. Explorations of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee. Smithsonian Institution Contributions to Knowledge No. 259. 1876.
- Tennessee Division of Historic Preservation. National Register Properties: Williamson County, Tennessee. Franklin, TN. Providence House Press. 1995.
Pre-Columbian North AmericaArchaeological cultures North American pre-Columbian chronology – Adena – Alachua – Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) – Baytown – Belle Glade – Buttermilk Creek Complex – Caborn-Welborn – Calf Creek – Caloosahatchee – Clovis – Coles Creek – Deptford – Folsom – Fort Ancient – Fort Walton – Fremont – Glades – Glacial Kame – Hopewell (List of Hopewell sites) – Hohokam – Leon-Jefferson – Mississippian (List of Mississippian sites) – Mogollon – Monongahela – Old Cordilleran – Oneota – Paleo-Arctic – Paleo-Indians – Patayan – Plano – Plaquemine – Poverty Point – Prehistoric Southwest – Red Ocher – Santa Rosa-Swift Creek – St. Johns – Steed-Kisker – Tchefuncte – Tocobaga – Troyville
Archaeological sites Angel Mounds – Bandelier National Monument – The Bluff Point Stoneworks – Cahokia – Chaco Canyon – Casa Grande – Coso Rock Art District – Eaker – Effigy Mounds National Monument – Etowah Indian Mounds – Eva – Folsom Site – Fort Ancient – Fort Center – Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument – Holly Bluff Site – Hopewell Culture National Historical Park – Kincaid Mounds – Kolomoki – Manitou Cliff Dwellings – Marksville – Meadowcroft Rockshelter – Mesa Verde – Moorehead Circle – Moundville – Mummy Cave – Nodena Site – Ocmulgee National Monument – Old Stone Fort – Parkin Park – Pinson Mounds – Portsmouth Earthworks – Poverty Point – Pueblo Bonito – Rock Eagle – Rock Hawk – Salmon Ruins – Serpent Mound – Spiro Mounds – SunWatch – Taos Pueblo – Toltec Mounds – Town Creek Indian Mound – Winterville
Miscellaneous Ballgame – Black drink – Buhl woman – Calumet – Chunkey – Clovis point – Container Revolution – Eastern Agricultural Complex – Eden point – Effigy mound – Falcon dancer – Folsom point – Green Corn Ceremony – Horned Serpent – Kennewick man – Kiva – Metallurgy – Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing – Medicine wheel – Mound builders – N.A.G.P.R.A. – Norse colonization of the Americas – Piasa – Pueblo dwellings – Southeastern Ceremonial Complex – Three Sisters agriculture – Thunderbird – Underwater panther
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- Mounds in the United States
- Native American history of Tennessee
- Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee
- National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee
- Geography of Williamson County, Tennessee
- Natchez Trace
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