Ancient slabs unearthed in Midstate tell history of area

Six incised limestone slabs are known to have been found in Middle Tennessee since 1874, and all were found in Davidson County, Sumner County and Trousdale County. They are extremely rare artifacts. Archaeologist Tracy Brown is looking for No. 4. Here are details of the six:
Stone No. 1

This incised stone was found on Rocky Creek in Trousdale County in 1874. Rocky Creek is about five miles east of a large mound site at Castalian Springs in Sumner County. The stone dates to the same prehistoric time period as the mound site (Mississippian Period -1000-1450 A.D.). This incised stone is well-known in the professional archaeological literature of Tennessee and is often referred to as the Thruston Tablet. It is in the collections of the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville.

Stone No. 2

The second stone was found at the mound site at Castalian Springs in 1892. The incised picture on the stone shows the upper body of a human figure ceremonially dressed as a raptor, perhaps a peregrine falcon. Kevin Smith in the department of anthropology at Middle Tennessee State University has conducted field school excavations at this site for the past two summers.

Stone No. 3

This stone was found at the Arnold site in Brentwood in the early-middle 1960s. It is the first incised stone slab found in situ in its original archaeological context (3-D spatial relationship of artifacts, ecofacts and features to each other beneath the ground surface in an archaeological site) and documented on paper by archaeologists at the time of excavation. The site was excavated by members of the Southeastern Indian Antiquities Survey, a professionally affiliated group of avocational archaeologists then working in the Nashville area. The incised stone was found in a stone box burial. The incising consists of deep, wide, curvilinear lines in association with a "death's head" symbol. This is a human skull shown in profile with clenched teeth and attached hair.

Stone No. 4

This is the stone that Tracy Brown is searching for. It was found at a large Mississippian site in east Nashville in autumn 1968. Malcolm Parker, former director of The Parthenon, found this incised slab in situ in a stone box burial. This incised stone slab is unique because it is the only one that does not have clear SCC symbols on it.

Stone No. 5

In 1975, this large, elongate incised stone was found on the ground at a small Mississippian archaeological site in a residential neighborhood near the Cumberland River in east Nashville. This incised stone bears a large and elaborate representation of a raptorial bird (again perhaps a peregrine falcon) with an unusual, multi-pronged "weeping eye" motif. In addition, it has a small but marvelously well-executed human head in profile with long hair and a circular ear spool ornament. Although this symbol does not have the more typical jagged neckline, it is most likely a "severed head" symbol. The severed-head motif, weeping eye motif, and raptorial bird are typical SCC symbols. This stone is in a private artifact collection in Nashville.

Stone No. 6

This stone was reportedly found by a local artifact collector at the same Mississippian site as Stone No. 5. The incised picture on this stone is a small, circumscribed cross surrounded by large "star points" for lack of a better term. Some archaeologists have interpreted these points as attachment locations for an animal pelt being dried on a circular hoop. This incised stone is presumed to be in a private artifact collection in the Nashville area.

SOURCE: TRACY BROWN

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