Shell Ornament from the Breast of a Skeleton found in a carefully constructed Stone Coffin in a Mound near Nashville, Tenn.
Plan of Oldtown Works.
Stone Pipe, Murfreesboro, Tenn. ¼ Natural Size.
Pottery from Oldtown, Tenn.
The art of painting seems to have been extensively practised by the mound people of Tennessee, not only in the decoration of pottery, but in representing ideal conceptions, which they spread out in extensive pictures upon the smooth faces of rocky walls overhanging the rivers. The material generally used was red ochre. Prof. Jones says: “The painting representing the sun on the rocks overhanging the Big Harpeth River, about three miles below the road which crosses this stream and connects Nashville and Charlotte, can be seen for a distance of four miles, and it is probable that the worshippers of the sun assembled before this high place for the performance of their sacred rites.”[45] The Professor’s vast collection of relics in stone and clay, including several images, we cannot here describe. We refer the reader to the Memoir itself. The Professor has clearly shown that the Mound-builder people and the Indians were distinct, and has set at rest a question upon which some few doubts were still entertained by a certain school of Archæologists, which has really never been very strong. The connection with or identity of the Mound-builders and the Toltics or the same family of people is also shown satisfactorily. We will add that the Professor is disposed to consider the Natchez as the connecting link between the Mound-builders and the Nahuas. We regard the Memoir one of the most important which has ever appeared on the subject of mound exploration. The rich collection of crania will be referred to in a future chapter.
