The Beasley Mounds Site ( 40SM43) (also known as the Dixon Springs Mound Site) is a Mississippian culture

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...

located at the confluence of Dixon Creek and the Cumberland River near the unincorporated community of Dixon Springs in

Smith County, Tennessee Smith County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, the population was 19,166. Smith County is located in the region of the state known as Middle Tennessee. Its county seat is Carthage. The county was organized in ...

. The site was first excavated by amateur archaeologists in the 1890s. More examples of

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 (800 to 1600 CE) and found in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. Two distinct ...

have been found at the site than any other in the Middle Tennessee area. The site was listed on the

National Register of 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 ...

in 2010.

Site

The Beasley site was a large village area with one large

platform mound Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

in height and in diameter and three smaller ones. The first of the smaller mounds was located east of the larger mound and was high and in diameter. The other two mounds were located to the south and southeast of this mound and were both about to in height and about in diameter. The site was surrounded by a low embankment with regular rises thought to have once been a wooden defensive palisade with bastions. Located outside the palisade on a steep bluff overlooking the Cumberland were two small stone mounds, similar to ones found at the Castalian Springs and Sellars Mound sites. In this area several large

stone box grave Stone box graves were a method of burial used by Native Americans of the Mississippian culture in the Midwestern United States and the Southeastern United States. Their construction was especially common in the Cumberland River Basin, in settle ...

s and mortuary caves have also been found.

Excavations

The site was excavated in 1895 by Sam Stone Bush, an amateur archaeologist and friend of William E. Myer. Myer supplied the only description of the site from this period, important now because much of the site has been leveled and farmed extensively since then. no modern excavations have taken place at the site, making it one of the most poorly studied burial centers in the Middle Cumberland Valley.

Important finds

Bush's excavations at the site produced stone pipes, stone discoidals used for the game of

chunkey Chunkey (also known as chunky, chenco, tchung-kee or the hoop and stick game ) is a game of Native American origin. It was played by rolling disc-shaped stones across the ground and throwing spears at them in an attempt to land the spear as cl ...

and numerous examples of

Mississippian culture pottery Mississippian culture pottery is the ceramic tradition of the Mississippian culture (800 to 1600 CE) found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. It is often characterized by the adoption and use of riverine ( ...

specific to the Nashville Basin area. This pottery, Matthew Incised var. ''Matthews'', gives a rough chronology for the sites occupation as belonging to the 14th century up to the early 15th century. In 1898 a farmer plowing fields on the site discovered five

stone statues A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

and the fragment of the head of another all within a area just from the main platform mound. This area is theorized by archaeologists to have been the location of a large civic or mortuary structure. All of the statues and fragments were later acquired by Myers. Another statue, number 7, was also plowed from the same location at some time prior to 1923, which Myer also subsequently acquired. After his death Myers widow sold four of the statues to the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1927 and are now part of the collection of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. This is the largest collection of Mississippian stone statues found in the Middle Tennessee area.

References

External links

Collection of the Smithsonian-Stone Image (human form)
{{Pre-Columbian North America Middle Mississippian culture Mounds in Tennessee Geography of Smith County, Tennessee Archaeological sites in Tennessee