Brick Church Mound and Village
Brick Church Pike Mound (40Dv39) · Kellytown Brick Church
Mississippian (Thruston phase 1000–1370 CE)·Mississippian (Middle Cumberland – Thruston)·🇺🇸 Tennessee, Davidson County, United States
About
About Brick Church Mound and Village
Mississippian mound-and-village on Mansker Creek near Nashville: platform mound 6 m high (50×35 m) rebuilt four times, truncating earlier Woodland component; village 4 ha with 300+ stone-box graves, dense midden, shell-tempered Nashville Negative Painted pottery, and large central plaza. Salvage excavation ahead of I-65 construction (1971) documented palisade, wall-trench houses and elite burials with copper mace and marine-shell gorgets linking to Spiro. Among few Davidson County mounds spared urban sprawl, now preserved as city park.
Why it mattersLargest surviving mound in Davidson County; demonstrated stone-box cemetery organization and Spiro-Cumberland long-distance exchange.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Association with nearby Long Hunter fortified towns
- 02Cranial deformation prevalence
Theories
- 01Subordinate center to Mound Bottom polity
- 02Independent Nashville Basin chiefdom coalescence
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1150–1300 CE
- Period
- Mississippian (Thruston phase 1000–1370 CE)
- Culture
- Mississippian (Middle Cumberland – Thruston)
- Purpose
- Urban town mound for Nashville Basin chiefdom
- Excavation
- Excavated
c.1150–1300 CE
Initial construction
c. 1431 CE
Abandonment
On the ground
Structures & features
36.2858° N · 86.7714° W · 155 m · 2 mapped features
Platform mound summit
pyramid50×35 m mound 6 m high with 4 construction stages
36.2860° N · 86.7713° WStone-box cemetery (Loop)
cemetery300+ limestone slab graves 50 m east of mound
36.2856° N · 86.7710° W
Gallery