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Burial Mounds May Still Be Intact

Monday, March 18, 2013

FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE—The Tennessee Division of Archaeology is working with students from Middle Tennessee State University and the Native History Association to preserve two 1,800-year-old burial mounds. The small-scale excavations could show that the two man-made hills, known as the Glass Mounds, are intact and therefore eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Scientists are concerned that farming, mining, and nineteenth-century excavations may have caused too much damage, but so far, archaeologist Aaron Deter-Wolf thinks that the mound still holds undisturbed burials. “For the Native American community, whether (the site) gets on the National Register or not, it’s still a sacred place. Our feelings about it won’t change,” commented Toye Heape, vice president of the Native History Association.

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