Mississippian Period The Glass Mounds Site is the best documented Native American site in Franklin. A time of great population increase, the Harpeth Meadows Site is an excellent example of a large Mississippian Village. BCE CE The Glass Mounds Site (NRHP 2015) is the best documented Native American site in Franklin. In the 1870s, Tennessee residents W.M. Clark and Edwin Curtis excavated the mounds on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University. In the twentieth century, the site was impacted by phosphate surface mining and looting. Located adjacent to the Westhaven Golf Course, the Glass Mounds Site is currently protected by a conservation easement granted to the Tennessee Ancient Sites Conservancy in 2012. The Mississippian period (circa CE 1000–1500) in Franklin was initially a time of great population increases, centralized communities, and intensive agriculture. The Harpeth Meadows Site is an excellent example of a large Mississippian village with evidence of numerous structures, fortifications, and dedicated burial grounds. An increase in warfare—perhaps due to overstretched resources—is evident at later Mississippian period sites. Once white and Black settlers moved into Middle Tennessee, the Mississippian culture was essentially dissolved. Native Americans constructed the Glass Mounds Site along the Harpeth River. (Source: Native History Association) Glass Mounds Site (100 BCE – 200 CE) 1000 100 1500 500 BCE 300 BCE 41
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