Mound Bottom in Recorded History
Early Tennessee historian John Haywood noted Mound Bottom's importance as an aboriginal site in 1823, and early settlers reported seeing large fortifications and towers at the site. In the late 1860s, Joseph Jones of the Smithsonian Institution investigated several prehistoric sites in Tennessee, and reported "extraordinary aboriginal works" at Mound Bottom.
In 1923, William E. Myer, also working with the Smithsonian, carried out the first modern investigation of the Mound Bottom site. Myer uncovered evidence of a structure and hearth atop one of the mounds at the Pack site and evidence of 10 ancient houses at Mound Bottom. Tennessee state archaeologist P.E. Cox followed up on Myer's finds in 1926, uncovering a number of burials and baked clay floors. In the 1930s and early 1940s, excavations conducted by the University of Tennessee uncovered several house sites, graves, and sections of the palisade.
In 1972, the State of Tennessee purchased the Mound Bottom site to preserve it as a state archaeological area. The Tennessee Division of Archaeology dispatched Carl Kuttruff and Michael O'Brien to conduct major excavations at Mound Bottom in 1974 and 1975. Kutruff and O'Brien discovered another clay floor and excavated more of the palisade and a row of houses. A radiocarbon date showed that the Mound Bottom site was occupied as early as 800 AD
Over the years, various movements to establish a state archaeological park at Mound Bottom arose and fizzled. In 2004, Harpeth River State Park was organized as a "linear park" connecting several archaeological, historical, and natural areas along the lower Harpeth, including Mound Bottom. The site is closed to the public, although guided tours are available by request during the winter months.
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