Beasley Mounds Site facts for kids
 Location in Tennessee
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| Location | Dixon Springs, Tennessee, Smith County, Tennessee,  USA |
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| Region | Smith County, Tennessee |
| Coordinates | 36°20′32.86″N 86°4′31.26″W / 36.3424611°N 86.0753500°W |
| History | |
| Cultures | Mississippian culture |
| Site notes | |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural styles | Platform mounds, palisade |
| Responsible body: private | |
The Beasley Mounds Site is an ancient place where people from the Mississippian culture once lived. It is also known as the Dixon Springs Mound Site. This important archaeological site is located where Dixon Creek meets the Cumberland River. This is near Dixon Springs in Smith County, Tennessee.
People first started digging here in the 1890s. These early diggers were not professional archaeologists. Many amazing stone statues have been found at this site. More statues have been found here than anywhere else in Middle Tennessee. The Beasley Mounds Site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. This means it is a special place that is protected.
What the Site Looked Like
The Beasley site was once a large village. It had one big platform mound. A platform mound is a large, flat-topped hill built by people. This main mound was about 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall and 125 feet (38 meters) wide.
There were also three smaller mounds. One was about 300 feet (91 meters) east of the main mound. It was 3 feet (0.9 meters) tall and 125 feet (38 meters) wide. The other two mounds were to the south and southeast. They were both about 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 meters) tall and 100 feet (30 meters) wide.
The whole village was surrounded by a low wall of earth. This wall likely had a wooden fence, called a palisade, on top of it. This palisade probably had strong towers, called bastions, for defense.
Outside this fence, on a high cliff overlooking the Cumberland River, were two small mounds made of stone. Similar stone mounds have been found at other ancient sites nearby. In this area, people also found large stone box graves. These were graves made from stone slabs. There were also caves used for burials.
Digging Up the Past
The site was first dug up in 1895 by Sam Stone Bush. He was an amateur archaeologist, meaning he studied old things as a hobby. He was friends with William E. Myer, another early researcher. Myer wrote down the only description of the site from that time. This is very important today because much of the site has been flattened for farming since then.
As of 2009, no modern scientific digs have happened at the site. This means it is one of the least studied ancient burial places in the Middle Cumberland Valley.
Cool Things Found Here
Sam Stone Bush's digs found many interesting items. He found stone pipes, which were used for smoking. He also found stone discoidals. These were round, polished stones used in a game called chunkey. In this game, players would throw spears at the rolling discoidal.
Many pieces of Mississippian culture pottery were also found. This pottery is special to the Nashville Basin area. It is called Matthew Incised var. Matthews. This pottery helps experts guess when the site was used. They think people lived here from the 14th century (1300s) to the early 15th century (early 1400s).
In 1898, a farmer was plowing his fields at the site. He found five stone statues and a piece of a head from another statue. All these were found in a small area, about 50 feet (15 meters) across. This was only 30 feet (9 meters) from the main platform mound. Archaeologists believe this spot might have been where a large public building or a special burial building once stood.
William E. Myer later bought all these statues and fragments. Another statue, number 7, was also found in the same spot before 1923. Myer also got this one. After Myer passed away, his wife sold four of the statues in 1927. They are now part of the collection at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. This is the biggest collection of Mississippian stone statues found in the Middle Tennessee area.
