Duck River Cache
The Duck River Cache was the archaeological discovery of 46 Mississippian culture artifacts by a worker on at the Link Farm Site in Middle Tennessee in December 1894.[1]
Chert objects
The cache has been called "perhaps the most spectacular single collection of prehistoric Native American art ever discovered in the eastern United States".[2] "Nearly four dozen ceremonial stone knives, daggers, swords, maces, and other striking examples of prehistoric stonework".[2] The ceremonial objects are made from Dover chert, a type of flint found exclusively in the nearby Dover, Tennessee area.[3]
Stone statues
A few months later in March 1895 the same but slightly deeper location was also the site of the discovery of a paired male and female set of Mississippian sandstone statues nicknamed "Adam" and "Eve". The male statue is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the female statue has been lost. The site is preserved as part of the Johnsonville State Historic Park.[4][5]
References
- "Duck River Cache, Page 1 - Lithic Casting Lab.Com". lithiccastinglab.com. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
- "Duck River Temple Mounds". Tennessee Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
- Eric E. Bowne. "The Late Mississippian Period 1400 - 1600". Mound Sites of the Ancient South: A Guide to the Mississippian Chiefdoms. p. 184.
- "Link Farm State Archaeological Area". Tennessee Department of Enviroment and Conservation.
- Kevin E. Smith; James V. Miller (2009). Speaking with the Ancestors-Mississippian Stone Statuary of the Tennessee-Cumberland region. University of Alabama Press. pp. 144–146. ISBN 978-0-8173-5465-7.