Bat Creek Inscription - Geographic and Historical Context

Geographic and Historical Context

The Little Tennessee River enters Tennessee from the Appalachian Mountains to the south and flows northward for just over 50 miles (80 km) before emptying into the Tennessee River near Lenoir City. The completion of Tellico Dam at the mouth of the Little Tennessee in 1979 created a reservoir that spans the lower 33 miles (53 km) of the river. Bat Creek empties into the southwest bank of the Little Tennessee 12 miles (19 km) upstream from the mouth of the river. While much of the original confluence of Bat Creek and the Little Tennessee was submerged by the lake, the mound in which the Bat Creek Stone was found was located above the reservoir's operating levels.

The lower Little Tennessee Valley is one of the richest archaeological regions in the southeastern United States. In the 1880s, the Smithsonian Institution team led by Emmert conducted several excavations in the valley, uncovering artifacts and burials related to valley's 18th-century Overhill Cherokee inhabitants and prehistoric inhabitants. The Tellico Archaeological Project, conducted by the University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology in the late 1960s and 1970s in anticipation of the reservoir's construction, investigated over two dozen sites and uncovered evidence of substantial habitation in the valley during the Archaic (8000-1000 BC), Woodland (1000 BC - 1000 AD), Mississippian (900-1600 AD), and Cherokee (c. 1600-1838) periods. The expedition of Hernando De Soto likely visited a village on Bussell Island at the mouth of the river in 1540 and the expedition of Juan Pardo probably visited two villages further upstream (near modern Chilhowee Dam) in 1567.

The Bat Creek site, designated 40LD24, is a multiphase site with evidence of occupation as early as the Archaic period. According to Emmert, the site consisted of one large mound (Mound 1) on the east bank of the creek and two smaller mounds (Mound 2 and Mound 3) on the west bank. Mound 1— which had a diameter of 108 feet (33 m) and a height of 8 feet (2.4 m)— was located on the first terrace above the river, and is thus now submerged by the reservoir. Mound 2, which had a diameter of 44 feet (13 m) and height of 10 feet (3.0 m), and Mound 3, which had a diameter of 28 feet (8.5 m) and height of 5 feet (1.5 m), were both located higher up, on the second terrace. According to Emmert's notes, the Bat Creek Stone was found in Mound 3. The stone consists of "ferruginous siltstone", and measures 11.4 centimetres (4.5 in) long and 5.1 centimetres (2.0 in) wide. The inscription consists of at least eight characters, seven of which are in a single row, and one located above or below (depending on which way the stone is turned) the main inscription.