Old Town is an

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 an ...

in Williamson County,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

near

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

. The site includes the remnants of a Native American village and mound complex of the

Mississippian culture The Mississippian culture was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern United States, Midwestern, Eastern United States, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from appr ...

, and is 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 v ...

(NRHP) as Old Town Archaeological Site ( 40WM2).

Background

Since the early days of settlement in

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the s ...

, the "Old Town on the Big Harpeth River" has been a critical component of a common understanding of the area's prehistory.Smith, Kevin E. "Archaeology at Old Town 0Wm2 A Mississippian Mound-Village Center in Williamson County, Tennessee". ''Tennessee Anthropologist'' 18.1 (1993): 27-44. The earliest archaeological investigations of the site were in 1868 by physician Joseph Jones, who was then Nashville's municipal health officer; his efforts were largely frustrated because much of the site's most significant mound was occupied by the owner's wife's flower garden, but he was able to find a frog effigy from part of the mound outside the garden. W.M. Clark mentioned the location in an 1878 publication, but no more substantial excavations were conducted until 1928: while building a bridge over Brown Creek at its

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

with the river, Williamson County road crews accidentally dug into a large burial ground, and a local man worked hard to record as much information about the site as possible. Since the late twentieth century, no substantial excavations have been conducted, but the owners have permitted the recovery of artifacts from small portions of the site when construction has demanded work on the periphery; among this work has been a project to place a water pipeline in 1984 and the 1991 renovation of the Thomas Brown House on the property.

Site description

The

village and mound complex is located at the confluence of the

Harpeth River The Harpeth River, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 8, 2011 is one of the major streams of north-central Middle Tennessee, United States, and one of the major ...

and Dolorson Creek on the Harpeth River branch of the

Natchez Trace The Natchez Trace, also known as the Old Natchez Trace, is a historic forest trail within the United States which extends roughly from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi rivers. ...

. Archaeological investigations of the site have uncovered artifacts dating from approximately 900 to 1450. In his book ''Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee'', published by 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 ...

in 1876, Joseph Jones produced a detailed account of the site. The village area was surrounded by steep earthworks running in a semicircle, portions of which were topped by a wooden

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade' ...

that is interpreted as having been intended as a protective

fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

. Within the enclosure, the village area includes several large earthen mounds a plaza and associated village areas. Jones described the mound grouping as including two platform mounds and two burial mounds. Mississippian mound complexes such as the Old Town complex are thought to have been regional centers for civic and ceremonial activity, as well as serving as the permanent residences of ruling elites. The mounds are located within the embankments. The largest of the rectangular platform mounds, Mound A, was on its longer side by on the shorter side and in height. The second, Mound B, was by at its base and in height. Located across a plaza area was a by in diameter high burial mound. The remaining burial mound is the location of the Thomas Brown House. In 1984 and 1991, the

Tennessee Division of Archaeology The Tennessee Division of Archaeology (TDOA) is a division of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation responsible for managing prehistoric archaeological sites on lands owned by the U.S. state of Tennessee, conducting archaeologic ...

conducted brief salvage excavations at the Old Town site in anticipation of construction and renovation projects. The artifacts collected allowed researchers to place Old Town's primary period of habitation at between 1250 and 1450.

Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

uncovered from a prehistoric trash pit returned a date of 1214.

Stone box graves

Burials at the site were of a type known as

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 settleme ...

s. Jones opened up at least 50 examples during his investigations. In this type of burial, which was commonly used by Mississippian people in the central basin of Middle Tennessee, the dead were interred in shallow rectangular excavations lined with large thin slabs of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. A "nearly form-fitting" pit was dug to hold the person's remains, the bottom and sides were lined with appropriately sized rock slabs, the person's remains were laid inside, and the resulting box was covered with another stone slab.Nashville's Native American History: Noel Creek Cemetery
Native Nashville website, accessed April 2, 2010 Most of these individual graves were located along the banks of the river and creek.

NRHP sites at location

A larger, , area was listed as the "Old Town Archaeological Site" on the National Register in 1989 as part of the Mississippian Cultural Resources of the Central Basin (900 to 1450) Multiple Property Submission.Tennessee Historical Commission, , January 31, 1989 "Old Town" also is a name given to the Thomas Brown House, built nearby to the mound complex site in the 1840s or 1850s,The Williamson County MRA gives a date of 1842; NRIS gives the date as 1846; McGuinness gives the date as "circa 1854." "Old Town" is also reflected in the name of the nearby

Old Town Bridge Old Town Bridge (Norwegian: Gamle Bybro or Bybroa) is located in Trondheim, Trøndelag County, Norway. History Gamle Bybro crosses the Nidelva River from the south end of the main street Kjøpmannsgata connecting to the Trondheim neighbor ...

that carried the

branch of the

over Brown's Creek.Kelly McGuinness
Old Town
FranklinIs.com website, accessed April 13, 2011

Background

Site description

Stone box graves

NRHP sites at location

See also

References

Further reading