View From The Front Porch-Stan Hitchcock-February 25, 2013

I live in an area of Tennessee where the ancient ones buried their dead in rock sided graves, often, several bodies on top of each other. This same civilization, dating back to before Christ, in some cases, also built fortified rock walled villages, with huge dirt mounds as a centerpiece. Their huts were constructed of slim, pliable cedar boughs, striped of their furry substance, placed in the ground and bent over in a U shape to be put in the ground again on the other side. Then cane reeds were split and woven through the frame work, diagonally, to be able to hold the mud daub that was then slathered over them.

I have found many pieces of this hardened mud daub, still with the imprint of the split cane reeds plainly visible on one side.


I am long fascinated by the ingenuity and creativity of this ancient, and some believe, ignorant savage breed. I have found so much of their handiwork, in stone, and am sure they were far superior to our own civilization in many ways.

They respected the Earth, Wind, Sky, Water, Sun and The Clan. They used Nature, for every need, but were always thankful for the bounty.

They were a fierce, terrible enemy to anyone that threatened the Clan, cruel and no quarter given fighters.

But, they tamed a wilderness, never imagined a wheel, but survived for thousands of years, with nothing but what they could make with their own hands.

We do not know where they came from, these mound builders, nor where they went when they left. The Indians that were here when the first white men came down the Cumberland, only knew them as the Ancient Ones, and spoke of them with awe. They are a mystery worth pursuing. The pictures below are from my collection of artifacts found on my own property and not taken from graves. Many of my friends, here in Middle Tennessee, have vast collections of historic ancient stone art.  Stan