Brick Church Mound and Village Site
Encyclopedia
The Brick Church Mound and Village Site (40DV39) (also known as the Love Mounds and the Brick Church Pike Mound Site) is a Mississippian culture
archaeological site
located in Nashville
in Davidson County, Tennessee
. It was excavated in the late nineteenth century by Frederic Ward Putnam
. During excavations in the early 1970s the site produced a unique cache of ceramic figurines very similar in style to Mississippian stone statuary
which are now on display at the Frank H. McClung Museum
. It was added to the NHRP
on May 7, 1973 as NRIS number 73001759 although this did not save the site from being almost totally destroyed by residential development.
village with an encircling defensive palisade
. The site had a large platform mound (Mound A) 23 feet (7 m) high and 155 feet (47.2 m) on the north south axis by 147 feet (44.8 m)on the east-west axis and several smaller mounds. On a ridge next to the mound were many stone box grave
s of a type found throughout the Cumberland region. Most sites during this time and in this general location were located along tributary streams of major rivers. Larger sites such as this were not drastically different from the dispersed hamlets of their hinterlands but they did offer increased protection during times of instability. While politically autonomous from each other, sites in the area still shared a material cultural with other sites in the region such as Sellars
, Old Town
, and Mound Bottom
. Brick Church Pike Mounds was first described and excavated in 1877 by Frederic Ward Putnam
and given a brief mention in the writings of William E. Myer in the early twentieth century though it is unclear if he actually visited it. After this the site remained mostly undisturbed except for farming until the latter half of the twentieth century. During the last 30 years of the twentieth century the site was almost completely destroyed, razed for the building of a residential area and the Ewing Baptist Church, although salvage archaeology did take place.
conducted a field school and did limited archaeological sampling at the site, although the results of his studies remain unpublished. A few years later in the summer of 1971 a local youth discovered a unique set of ceramic figurines at the site. John Dowd, a respected avocational archaeologist from Nashville, was contacted and after vising the location started the first photographically recorded excavations at the site. In the fall 1971 Mack Prichard the State of Tennessee’s first modern state archaeologist visited the site and was instrumental in getting it added to the NHRP
but was not able to raise the funds need to buy and save the site form residential development. In 1983 the rest of the site not already destroyed was purchased for the purposes of building a new residential neighborhood. Over the next several years a series of salvage archaeology operations were undertaken by Robert Jolley and later the Division of Archaeology. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s periodic excavations took place as the site was further developed, especially after changes in state law afforded Native American graves protections equal to Euro-American graves and forced the construction companies to do archaeological surveys to find possible grave sites.
warrior images. The figures sit in a cross-legged fashion, with their hands on their knees, similar to Mississippian stone statuary
found throughout the Tennessee-Cumberland region. Dowd was eventually able to acquire the figurines from the young man who had discovered them and has loaned them to the Frank H. McClung Museum
of the University of Tennessee
in Knoxville
, where they are on display.
Excavations throughout the 1970s by Jolley turned up many examples of Mississippian culture pottery
, including two common varieties Mississippi Plain or Neelys Ferry Plain. Other finer wares were also found including examples Bell Plain, Kimmswick Fabric Impressed, Manly Punctate, Matthews Incised, a hooded water bottle fragment, one plate fragment with a grooved rim, several ceramic disks and a ceramic cylinder. Numerous examples of stone tools were found, including several hoes and a dagger of Dover chert
. Excavations of a midden deposit in October 1999 produced a wealth of cultural material, including a unique perforated owl effigy rattle.
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
archaeological site
Archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...
located in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
in Davidson County, Tennessee
Davidson County, Tennessee
Davidson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 626,681. Its county seat is Nashville.In 1963, the City of Nashville and the Davidson County government merged, so the county government is now known as the "Metropolitan Government of Nashville and...
. It was excavated in the late nineteenth century by Frederic Ward Putnam
Frederic Ward Putnam
Frederic Ward Putnam was an American naturalist and anthropologist.-Biography:...
. During excavations in the early 1970s the site produced a unique cache of ceramic figurines very similar in style to Mississippian stone statuary
Mississippian stone statuary
The Mississippian stone statuary are artifacts of polished stone in the shape of human figurines made by members of the Mississippian culture and found in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast...
which are now on display at the Frank H. McClung Museum
Frank H. McClung Museum
The Frank H. McClung Museum is a general museum located on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Built in 1963, exhibits focus on natural history, archeology, anthropology, decorative arts, and local history...
. It was added to the NHRP
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on May 7, 1973 as NRIS number 73001759 although this did not save the site from being almost totally destroyed by residential development.
Site
Like many other sites in central Tennessee during the Mississippian period the Brick Church Pike Mounds Site was a multi-moundPlatform mound
A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity.-Eastern North America:The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years starting in the Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period...
village with an encircling defensive palisade
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
. The site had a large platform mound (Mound A) 23 feet (7 m) high and 155 feet (47.2 m) on the north south axis by 147 feet (44.8 m)on the east-west axis and several smaller mounds. On a ridge next to the mound were many stone box grave
Stone box grave
Stone box graves were a method of burial employed by Native Americans of the Mississippian culture in the American Midwest and Southeast. Their construction was especially common in the Cumberland River Basin around Nashville, Tennessee-Construction:...
s of a type found throughout the Cumberland region. Most sites during this time and in this general location were located along tributary streams of major rivers. Larger sites such as this were not drastically different from the dispersed hamlets of their hinterlands but they did offer increased protection during times of instability. While politically autonomous from each other, sites in the area still shared a material cultural with other sites in the region such as Sellars
Sellars Indian Mound
Sellars Indian Mound is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located in Wilson County, Tennessee near Lebanon. The mound was the site of a settlement from about 1000 to 1300 CE. Today, the site is a satellite unit of Long Hunter State Park...
, Old Town
Old Town (Franklin, Tennessee)
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...
, and Mound Bottom
Mound Bottom
Mound Bottom is a prehistoric Native American complex in Cheatham County, Tennessee, located in the Southeastern United States. The complex, which consists of platform and burial mounds, a central plaza, and habitation areas, was built between 950 and 1300 AD, during the Mississippian period.The...
. Brick Church Pike Mounds was first described and excavated in 1877 by Frederic Ward Putnam
Frederic Ward Putnam
Frederic Ward Putnam was an American naturalist and anthropologist.-Biography:...
and given a brief mention in the writings of William E. Myer in the early twentieth century though it is unclear if he actually visited it. After this the site remained mostly undisturbed except for farming until the latter half of the twentieth century. During the last 30 years of the twentieth century the site was almost completely destroyed, razed for the building of a residential area and the Ewing Baptist Church, although salvage archaeology did take place.
Excavations
In 1877 a crew of 6 to 8 men led by Putnam tunneled into Mound A looking for an interior burial chamber. Upon not finding one, they then filled in their excavations and restored the shape of the mound. Putnam noted many of the features of the site when he published his findings in 1878. The site would not be professionally investigated again for almost a century. In the summer of 1969 Dr. Charles Fletcher of Vanderbilt UniversityVanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
conducted a field school and did limited archaeological sampling at the site, although the results of his studies remain unpublished. A few years later in the summer of 1971 a local youth discovered a unique set of ceramic figurines at the site. John Dowd, a respected avocational archaeologist from Nashville, was contacted and after vising the location started the first photographically recorded excavations at the site. In the fall 1971 Mack Prichard the State of Tennessee’s first modern state archaeologist visited the site and was instrumental in getting it added to the NHRP
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
but was not able to raise the funds need to buy and save the site form residential development. In 1983 the rest of the site not already destroyed was purchased for the purposes of building a new residential neighborhood. Over the next several years a series of salvage archaeology operations were undertaken by Robert Jolley and later the Division of Archaeology. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s periodic excavations took place as the site was further developed, especially after changes in state law afforded Native American graves protections equal to Euro-American graves and forced the construction companies to do archaeological surveys to find possible grave sites.
Important finds
In 1971 an unusual and unique set of ceramic figurines was discovered in the platform like ridge adjacent to Mound A. Excavations by John Dowd at the site of their discovery revealed a 17 feet (5.2 m) by 8 feet (2.4 m) clay floor from Mississippian period house that had burned down. The figurines themselves were of an adult male and adult female pair and two children of each sex, as well as pieces from additional figurines. In total, pieces of 11 whole or partial figures were discovered in the house floor. The male has an elaborate hair style which includes the beaded forelock seen on figures in Southeastern Ceremonial ComplexSoutheastern Ceremonial Complex
The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex is the name given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture that coincided with their adoption of maize agriculture and chiefdom-level complex social organization from...
warrior images. The figures sit in a cross-legged fashion, with their hands on their knees, similar to Mississippian stone statuary
Mississippian stone statuary
The Mississippian stone statuary are artifacts of polished stone in the shape of human figurines made by members of the Mississippian culture and found in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast...
found throughout the Tennessee-Cumberland region. Dowd was eventually able to acquire the figurines from the young man who had discovered them and has loaned them to the Frank H. McClung Museum
Frank H. McClung Museum
The Frank H. McClung Museum is a general museum located on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Built in 1963, exhibits focus on natural history, archeology, anthropology, decorative arts, and local history...
of the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
in Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, where they are on display.
Excavations throughout the 1970s by Jolley turned up many examples of Mississippian culture pottery
Mississippian culture pottery
Mississippian culture pottery is the ceramic tradition of the Mississippian culture found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. It is often characterized by the adoption and use of riverine shell-tempering agents in the clay paste. Shell tempering is one of...
, including two common varieties Mississippi Plain or Neelys Ferry Plain. Other finer wares were also found including examples Bell Plain, Kimmswick Fabric Impressed, Manly Punctate, Matthews Incised, a hooded water bottle fragment, one plate fragment with a grooved rim, several ceramic disks and a ceramic cylinder. Numerous examples of stone tools were found, including several hoes and a dagger of Dover chert
Chert
Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , but most often manifests as gray, brown, grayish brown and light green to rusty red; its color is an expression of trace elements...
. Excavations of a midden deposit in October 1999 produced a wealth of cultural material, including a unique perforated owl effigy rattle.
See also
- Mississippian stone statuaryMississippian stone statuaryThe Mississippian stone statuary are artifacts of polished stone in the shape of human figurines made by members of the Mississippian culture and found in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast...
- List of Mississippian sites
- Southeastern Ceremonial ComplexSoutheastern Ceremonial ComplexThe Southeastern Ceremonial Complex is the name given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture that coincided with their adoption of maize agriculture and chiefdom-level complex social organization from...