Fewkes Mounds
Fewkes Group · Boiling Springs Site (40Wm1)
Middle Mississippian (c.1000–1450 CE) – Thruston phase Middle Cumberland·Mississippian (Middle Cumberland culture)·🇺🇸 Tennessee, Williamson County, Brentwood, United States
About
About Fewkes Mounds
The Fewkes Group (Boiling Springs, 40Wm1) is a fortified Middle Mississippian town on the Harpeth River near Brentwood, Tennessee, at 210 m. 1000–1450 CE during the Middle Cumberland Thruston phase, it had five earthen platform mounds (Mound A 8m) arranged around a plaza, encircled by an earthwork palisade with bastions, a burial mound with stone-box graves, and artisan zones producing greenstone celts and marine-shell gorgets (Braden-style Fenestrated).
Excavated by William Myer (1920s) and Kevin Smith (Tennessee Division of Archaeology), it is Tennessee's largest Mississippian center west of the Appalachians after Mound Bottom and Castalian Springs, illuminating Mississippian periphery interaction.
Why it mattersThe Fewkes Group (Boiling Springs, 40Wm1) is a fortified Middle Mississippian town on the Harpeth River near Brentwood, Tennessee, at 210 m. Occupied c.1000–1450 CE during the Middle Cumberland Thruston phase, it had five earthen platform mounds (Mound A 8m) arranged around a plaza, encircled by an Type-site defining regional sequence.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Chronology and phasing of construction
- 02Function of elite vs communal architecture
Theories
- 01Regional capital coordinating irrigation and exchange
- 02Ritual-ceremonial amphitheatre aligned to astronomy
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.1000–1200 CE primary
- Period
- Middle Mississippian (c.1000–1450 CE) – Thruston phase Middle Cumberland
- Culture
- Mississippian (Middle Cumberland culture)
- Builders
- Mississippian (Middle Cumberland)
- Purpose
- Five-mound town on Harpeth River with Mississippian palisaded plaza, burial mound and greenstone celt workshop
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.1000–1200 CE primary
Initial construction
c.800–900 CE
Major occupation / refurbishment
c.1000–1532
Late horizon / Inca incorporation where applicable
On the ground
Structures & features
36.0210° N · 86.7970° W · 210 m · 2 mapped features
Mound A (Principal Platform)
pyramid8m high platform mound 70m base with summit elite residence above plaza
36.0212° N · 86.7969° WStone-Box Grave Cemetery Mound
cemeteryMortuary mound with limestone slab stone-box graves and Braden gorgets
36.0208° N · 86.7971° W