The UTK Agriculture Farm Mound site is an archaeological site on the agriculture campus of the
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...
in
Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...
. The site is a burial mound made by people of the
Woodland period, and has been dated as early as ca. 644 AD.
[University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture] Today, the site is a landmark on the UTK campus and is listed in the
National Register for Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
[City of Knoxville]
Location
The site is located at the Agricultural Campus at the corner of Joe Johnson Drive and Chapman Drive.
[Gamma Sigma Delta] In 2011, a garden was built around the site to protect it from "construction damage"
[Cherokee One Feather] and attract interest and attention to the mound. The design of the garden was developed by Hendrik van de Werken and Don Williams, professors of Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design at UT, and was revised by Sam Rogers, who is an associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences.
The president of the Tennessee Chapter of
Gamma Sigma Delta
Gamma Sigma Delta (), or more fully, the Honor Society of Agriculture, Gamma Sigma Delta, is an honor society for Agriculture students and those in related fields. Founded in 1913, it is the oldest and largest such society for its academic discip ...
(The Honor Society of Agriculture), Fred Allen, proposed the project to the UT Chapter in 2008 "as a long term service project to enhance the educational opportunities and aesthetic beauty of the site".
[Gamma Sigma Delta] Project directors enlisted the help of the
Eastern Cherokee tribe and Tribal Historic Preservation. Principal Chief Michell Hicks attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and elder Mertyl Driver blessed the site.
[Cherokee One Feather]
According to the UT Institute of Agriculture, "The goal of the project is to honor the Native American tradition dating back to 644 A.D. when the Woodland People used burial mounds as a way of burying and honoring their deceased."
The mound is considered a valuable piece of the UT Gardens.
See also
*
Mound builder (people)
A number of pre-Columbian cultures are collectively termed "Mound Builders". The term does not refer to a specific people or archaeological culture, but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks erected for an extended period of more than ...
*
Earthwork (archaeology)
Notes
References
“Activities and Projects: Indian Mound Adopt-a-Spot” Gamma Sigma Delta, Retrieved November 18, 2012
# Fielder, George F., ''Archaeological Survey with Emphasis on Prehistoric Sites of The Oak Ridge Reservation Oak Ridge'
Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Research Library, Retrieved November 18, 2012
Media Advisory University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, June 13, 2011
“Preservation of Works: Mayor’s Task Force on Historic Preservation” City of Knoxville, Retrieved November 18, 2012
“Ribbon Cutting held at UT’s Native American Mound Garden” Cherokee One Feather, June 22, 2011
University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, June 23, 2011
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:University Of Tennessee Agriculture Farm Mound
Mounds in Tennessee
Native American history of Tennessee
Culture of Knoxville, Tennessee
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee
National Register of Historic Places in Knoxville, Tennessee