Site 1 - Old Macedonia Cemetery, Towns Co. Prior to construction of Lake Chatuge in 1941, the TVA surveyed cemeteries that could be affected by the coming lake.   Macedonia Baptist Church began in the 1830s, and their first cemetery was on a hill near the original church.   The TVA identified 35 graves, most marked only by fieldstones, from the early 1800s.   There is a large stone pile at the center of the hill top that was identified as an "Indian mound".

1941 TVA survey of the Old Macedonia Cemetery

The "Indian mound"

This stone mound essentially divides the graveyard in two.

Site 2 - Nacoochee Mound, White Co. (9WH03) First occupied as early as 100-500 CE by Woodland people, the site was later occupied more intensively from 1350 to 1600 CE by peoples of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture.   The latter people built a characteristic platform mound at the site, and evidence of related villages was found both east and west of the mound.   An archeological excavation in 1915 revealed a total of 75 human burials, with artifacts that support dating of the site.   The original gazebo was installed on top of the mound in 1890 by a European-American owner of the land; after the excavation, a reconstruction was built by L. G. Hardman.

Nacoochee Mound - 2013 with Mt. Yonah in the background.

Nacoochee Mound - September 2017

Site 3 - River valley mound, Towns Co. This property was farmed in the historic era for at least 150 years, and, unlike some nearby locations where mounds were flattened by the plows, the owners / farmers here always plowed around this mound. I have seen at least one other mound in the nearby river bottom lands that sadly had a house built on top of it.   I don't understand why anyone would build a house on a Native mound, regardless of whether its original function was burial, ceremonial or other cultural, or whatever.   Just seems like bad juju to me.

Native American mound - November 2023

Mound, from another viewpoint.

Mound, from another viewpoint.

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