Antiquities of the Southern Indians (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VI. Mounts on the Etowah River.?Temple for Sun-worship.?Stone Images.?Fish- preserves.?Tumuli in the Valley of Little Shoulder-bone Creek.?Circular Earth-work on the Head-waters of the Ogeecheu.?Stone Tumulus near Sparta. ?Mounds on the Savannah River.?Meeting between the Cacica of the Savannah and De Soto. Passing from these general observations, we proceed to consider the physical peculiarities of some of the most interesting and prominent groups of ancient mounds and enclosures within the present geographical limits of Georgia. The first we shall notice are located upon the right bank of the Etowah River, on the plantation of Colonel Lewis Tumlin, a few miles from Cartersville, in Bartow County. Viewed as a whole, this group is the most remarkable within the confines of the State. These mounds are situated in the midst of a beautiful and fertile valley. They occupy a central position in an area of some fifty acres, bounded on the south and east by the Etowah River, and on the north and west by a large ditch or artificial canal, which at its lower end communicates directly with the river. This moat (G G, Plate I.) at present varies in depth from five to twenty-five feet, and in width from twenty to seventy- five feet. No parapets or earth-walls appear upon its edges. Along its line are two reservoirs (D D), of untoimoaufHicai . lotunma rmute) MOUXD3 IX THE ETOWAII VALLEV. 137 about an acre each, possessing an average depth of not less than twenty feet, and its upper end expands into an artificial pond (P), elliptical in form, and somewhat deeper than the excavations mentioned. "Within the enclosure formed y this moat and the river are seven mounds. Three of them are preeminent in size, the one designated in the accompanying plan (Plate I) by the lett...