Seeking Help / Cave Mounds

[Limitool]

Hello... My name is Brad and I've been trying to figure out what this mound is for and/or its significance (if any). I've posted in Treasure Signs / Symbols, Spelunking / Caves, and my main thread in Todays Finds.... Metal Detecting TN. Cave / Anybody Done This? Nobody knows for sure or can give me any clear idea.... thus far. So I thought I'd try here per someone's suggestion. I sent photos, emails and left voice mail at Universities and nobody has returned any of my contact tries. I have MD'ed all around mound w/no hits.

This mound is located about 54 yards inside cave after 2 turns. It's just past natural light. It's 48" long and 18" high. It's in a very hard to reach spot. Very low ceiling and up against wall. On my main thread (Todays Finds) the mound pics begin on page 8 and then are scattered on other following pages of thread. Were hoping maybe someone can shed some new light on this mound. Any ideas would be appreciated... Thank you.

Pic "Closeup 2" is of the left side of mound just left of the "branch like" figure. Very hard to see in regular pics. I have no idea what it is.
Pic ending 643 is of the mound when approaching it. It's in far background center of photo.

 

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[S P Blossom]

Hello... My name is Brad and I've been trying to figure out what this mound is for and/or its significance (if any). I've posted in Treasure Signs / Symbols, Spelunking / Caves, and my main thread in Todays Finds.... Metal Detecting TN. Cave / Anybody Done This? Nobody knows for sure or can give me any clear idea.... thus far. So I thought I'd try here per someone's suggestion. I sent photos, emails and left voice mail at Universities and nobody has returned any of my contact tries. I have MD'ed all around mound w/no hits.

This mound is located about 54 yards inside cave after 2 turns. It's just past natural light. It's 48" long and 18" high. It's in a very hard to reach spot. Very low ceiling and up against wall. On my main thread (Todays Finds) the mound pics begin on page 8 and then are scattered on other following pages of thread. Were hoping maybe someone can shed some new light on this mound. Any ideas would be appreciated... Thank you.

Pic "Closeup 2" is of the left side of mound just left of the "branch like" figure. Very hard to see in regular pics. I have no idea what it is.
Pic ending 643 is of the mound when approaching it. It's in far background center of photo.

[h=3]Bradley T. Lepper[/h]Curator of Archaeology
614-298-2064
[email protected]

 

[Limitool]

[h=3]Bradley T. Lepper[/h]Curator of Archaeology
614-298-2064
[email protected]

S P Blossom... Thank you for the information... I tried (2 times) to send Mr. Lepper a message inquiring about his opinion of the mounds. And both times they came back to me as "undeliverable". I haven't call yet because I really need to be able to send photos... I'll try one more time. But thank you.... Brad

 

[tennessee digger]

I have no idea but it is pretty cool to see something like this. Hope you find some info on it.

 

[EccentricInTexas]

I am not sure I know that if the cave was inhabited by Native Americans there will be a few "Trash" piles or mounds on the out side of the cave near the entrance usually to one side or both sides. Theses "Trash" piles will have lots of flint and worked material and bone fragments in them left over from meals or tool making. Its hard to say on your mounds they look in the photos to be made of clay. I have heard stories of Confederate troops and supporters hiding Arms in caves. I have heard lots of storys about Confederate Gold being buried but a lot of those are exaggerated as most of the south was out of gold by the end of the war. Several of the caves I have seen were "Silted" in and the area that would have artifacts was several feet below the current floor level. A lot of the time in those kind of caves the Graffiti will help and date it by actual dates people carved or the style of the writing. It is possible that those are graves of some long past person. Its pretty interesting site I hope you figure it out!!!

 

[Limitool]

I am not sure I know that if the cave was inhabited by Native Americans there will be a few "Trash" piles or mounds on the out side of the cave near the entrance usually to one side or both sides. Theses "Trash" piles will have lots of flint and worked material and bone fragments in them left over from meals or tool making. Its hard to say on your mounds they look in the photos to be made of clay. I have heard stories of Confederate troops and supporters hiding Arms in caves. I have heard lots of storys about Confederate Gold being buried but a lot of those are exaggerated as most of the south was out of gold by the end of the war. Several of the caves I have seen were "Silted" in and the area that would have artifacts was several feet below the current floor level. A lot of the time in those kind of caves the Graffiti will help and date it by actual dates people carved or the style of the writing. It is possible that those are graves of some long past person. Its pretty interesting site I hope you figure it out!!!

Thanks for the comment: There are signs Native Americans used the cave. Up at entrance there is easily seen evidence of a large fire being used for a long time just inside cave. The ceiling bears this out. I haven't excavated down yet at the entrance but am going to start soon. I'm working on sifter now. And there was evidence on the outside of the cave of it being used also. But in 2010 a LARGE landslide occurred during our historic floods and a lot of earth "skipped" over the entrance and covered it ALL UP! The mounds are a mud/clay mixture. The one shown used to have much more etched on it but those "drawings" have faded over time. Only when I blew up a photo did I discover the one above (closeup 2 above). The original thread here on TreasureNet (reference on 1st post here) will enlighten you a lot on what I've done thus far. I just haven't figured out yet what these mounds are... The one shown has the most etching on it. Thanks for your time and interest.... Brad