Lebanon in Wilson County, Tennessee — The American South (East South Central)

Sellars Farm

A Mississippian Period Middle Cumberland Village Site

Photographed by Darren Jefferson Clay, May 2, 2021

1. Sellars Farm Marker

Inscription. Just down the trail you will find a remarkable thing - the village site of a civilization that prospered here between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1300. This village was built by people from the well-advanced Mississippian culture, the last of the Native American cultures to have flourished on this continent before it was "discovered" by Europeans.

Try to imagine, as you enter this space, that at one time this area would have been filled with people. Life here would have been a rich and rewarding human experience. There would have been the sounds of people laughing, singing, playing, crying, celebrating, working and worshiping. The inhabitants' lives were controlled by nature. As an agricultural people, the sun and moon, the signs of nature, and the changing season regulated their lives and life styles.

People would be experiencing the joys of new births and the sadness of burying loved ones. The smells of wood fires and cooking food would have filled the air. The people may have been exquisitely adorned with tattoo and jewelry of copper, feather, bone, and shell. A palisade surrounded the village is evidence that there was

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probably occasional conflicts from neighboring peoples. Through the encircling palisade's entrances there would have passed hunters bearing game for meals and feasts, traders bearing exotic shells and copper for trade, and perhaps warriors returning from conquests or defeats. The mounds, on which there were located religious structures or the houses of elevated leaders, bear evidence that this was a stratified society with people of rank or special status, supported by those of lesser standing.

This was also the site of sacred ground. At various times in the relatively recent past, farmers plowing the nearby field have turned up four remarkable stone human effigy statues, some of the finest examples ever discovered in the United States. These statues echo long passed ceremonies, probably honoring revered ancestors, or promoting fertility of crop or family.

These people would likely have had dark copper complexions and jet-black hair. Their ancestors would have walked onto this continent from Asia perhaps 10,000 years earlier via a land bridge. These passages were exposed by the lowered sea levels caused by the accumulation of

Photographed by Darren Jefferson Clay, May 2, 2021

2. Sellars Farm Marker

ice in the glaciers of the last ice age. By the time that this site was thriving, three previous cultural periods had developed, flourished, and faded. This Mississippian Culture, so called because it developed mainly along banks and tributaries of the river we now call the Mississippi, was the most advanced of the pre-historic cultures developed within what was to become the United States. Unlike the people of previous periods who were hunter-gatherers, these people were very successful farmers, supplementing their hunting with crops of maize, squash, beans and other cultigens.

The people are gone now, the civilization having failed in this area even before European explores entered the continent. The names of these people are shrouded in the fog of time; their ceremonies, language, and culture are not recoverable from the objects they left behind here. We can tell from this site, however, that they were a complex and sophisticated people, experiencing the triumphs and tragedies of life - in some ways not that different from us.

Mississippian Period More than 1000 years ago, the native peoples of eastern North America developed

Mississippian Mound at Sellars Farm image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Darren Jefferson Clay, May 2, 2021

3. Mississippian Mound at Sellars Farm

a complex civilization supported by the surplus food provided by cultivation of "maize" or corn. Similar to the better known Maya civilization in Mexico, local peoples labeled by archaeologists as part of the Mississippian civilization" built massive earthen platforms to support buildings that served as temples, courthouses, and residences for wealthy and influential members of their societies. These important monuments were built around enormous open "plazas" where public ceremonies and events took place, and were surrounded by the houses of the hundreds and even thousands of citizens of these towns. In Middle Tennessee, these towns flourished from about A.D. 1000 through A.D. 1500.

Middle Cumberland Mississippian Culture The Mississippian village in the bend of Spring Creek southeast of Lebanon Tennessee, known today as the Sellars Farm site, was 900 feet by 850 feet and it was 10 acres in size. It was occupied from AD 1000 to AD 1300 on an important trade route from the south to the other villages In the Middle Cumberland River valley.

Middle Cumberland Mississippian Culture While local Mississippian period towns and

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villages exhibit all of the basic characteristics of this widespread southeastern culture, many developed their own unique characteristics. Local peoples buried their dead in stone-lined graves, created the largest stone statuary north of Mexico, and produced some of the most spectacular prehistoric artwork in pottery and marine shell known from North America. Major towns had emerged in Middle Tennessee by A.D. 1000 at places like Mound Bottom, Castilian Springs, and Sellars with populations in the thousands scattered in villages and farmsteads. By A.D 1500, however, these towns were abandoned. When European settlers arrived in the 1700s, the region was largely uninhabited by native peoples but was shared as a hunting reserve by tribes throughout the eastern United States - including the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Shawnee.

Captions
1. Platform Mound - Dominating the village was the fifteen feet high truncated platform earthen mound upon which was constructed a large building of governmental and/or religious importance. Built in at least three stages, it measures 138 by 120 feat at the base and 85 by 75 feet at the top. It was constructed from soil brought in baskets. No artifacts or burials were found in it.
2. Plaza - At the eastern edge of the platform mound was an open space surrounded on three sides by dwellings. Measuring approximately 200 by 300 feet, it was used for public events, ceremonies and games.
3. Burial Mound - At the southwestern edge of the plaza was a three feet high and 47 feet in diameter mound in which were 61 single burials, all but one in stone box graves arranged around the edge in three tiers in a square of two to three irregular rows. In 1877 Putnam removed the skeletal remains and the burial artifacts and took them to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.
4. Earthen Walls and Wooden Palisade - The village was surrounded by a 2,700 feet long three to four feet high outer earthen wall, a three to four feet deep ditch and a four to five feet high inner earthen wall topped by a wooden posts, probably cedar. At approximately 100 feet along the inner wall was a projecting bastion for observation purposes.
5. Entries Into Village - Three entries through the palisade were to the south, south- east and east. Earthen causeway across the ditch connected to the entries.
6. Earlier Palisade - During a State archaeological dig, an earlier palisade, dating from A.D. 1000 was discovered inside the later one, indicating that the village was smaller at that time.
7. Houses - Putnam noted that there were 100 "house rings" within the palisade. Actually these houses were square, 15 to 25 feet on a side. They were constructed of wooden posts, cane matting plastered with mud and topped with a thatch roof.
8. Spring Creek - On three sides of the village, Spring Creek flows northward toward the Cumberland River. It served as a protective barrier and a source of food, fish and freshwater mussels. The mussel shells were ground and used to temper ceramics.
9. Low Rock Mounds - Overlooking the creek, outside the south wall were six low rock mounds and one outside the north wall. Excavations have revealed that there were no artifacts in them, but large fires had burned on the rocks.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Anthropology & Archaeology • Indigenous Peoples and Communities.

Location. 36° 9.928′ N, 86° 14.569′ W. Marker is in Lebanon, Tennessee, in Wilson County. It can be reached from Poplar Hill Road 0.4 miles east of Sparta Pike (U.S. 70), on the left when traveling east. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 445 Poplar Hill Rd, Lebanon TN 37090, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Middle Tennessee

and in Greater Nashville.

It is also in the American South

and specifically in the Upper South.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

one of the Confederate States of America,

and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 3 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: A different marker also named Sellars Farm (here, next to this marker); Sellars Farm Site (within shouting distance of this marker); Welcome to Sellars Farm State Archaeological Area (within shouting distance of this marker); Cobblers Shop (approx. 2.6 miles away); Tates Crossing Flag Station (approx. 2.6 miles away); Pete Smith Store (approx. 2.6 miles away); Tuckers Gap Depot (approx. 2.6 miles away); Train Caboose (approx. 2.6 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Lebanon.

Credits. This page was last revised on May 17, 2023. It was originally submitted on May 11, 2023, by Darren Jefferson Clay of Duluth, Georgia. This page has been viewed 332 times since then and 59 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on May 11, 2023, by Darren Jefferson Clay of Duluth, Georgia. • James Hulse was the editor who published this page.