Yesterday I took a Confederate Tour of Mt Olivet Cemetery here in Nashville, TN. It gave me some clarity on Eugene Lewis, the gentlemen who had the Cheops built at Centennial park and had it rebuilt as his tomb at the cemetery. It turns out that he was an engineer that worked with the railroad system on Queen and Crescent project. He lived in Dickson County and his home and property are currently up for sale to developers. Researching him, his surveying craft used on the railroad, his interest in the pyramids, and connection to New Orleans let me to another site of historical significance in Middle TN. The 3 pyramid structures at Pack Site, Mound Bottom, and Paint Rock Bluff.
This video provides a good overview of burial practices connecting the mounds, astronomy, and teken type structures among the Native Americans. These were the features I found striking at the Mt Olivet cemetery The Obelisk, the Pyramid, cross in the circle symbol, and astronomical alignments. The Mace ritual in Egypt was developed before the 1st Dynasty as evidenced in the Narmer's Palette and Macehead, more on this dicussed in this article. In the Pyramid Text the mace is a ritual
instrument symbolizing spiritual illumination.The Mound Bottom Mace inscribed near Nashville, TN is believed to belong, according to this TN Site, to the Native American culture from AD 1,000-AD 1300. Their societies were collectively known as the Mississippian Culture or the Temple Mound Builders. Agricultural innovation was happening at the site with new strains of maize, beans, and squashes being developed to produce surpluses for the rising population concentrated at the site. It is also at Harpeth River State Park that "Montgomery Bell created this engineering masterpiece he named Pattison Forge in 1818: a 200-foot tunnel chiseled by slaves through solid rock at the “narrows” of the Harpeth River. " This site "was the first "full-scale" water diversion tunnel built in the United States. It is also apparently the first "full-scale" tunnel of any type in the United States, according to histories of tunneling. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1994.[2][3]It is now included in Harpeth River State Park.[4] It was built at about the same time, but apparently slightly before, the 450-foot (140 m) Auburn Tunnel of Pennsylvania's Schuylkill Navigation Canal, which began use in 1821." (Wiki). For my personal family tree my ancestors were brought into Savannah from Africa because of their skills with iron. Seeing this ingenuity in Middle TN having been built by those of African descent is only a reminder to me of the theft of skilled labor taken from Africa do drive industry in America.
In The Harpeth River: A Biography by James Crutchfield, he recounts that the tunnel was 16 by 8ft high and delivered 2500 cubit ft of water per minutes. To get the water back into the original channel Bell built the Narrows of the Harpeth. He was a holder of as many as 300 slaves which helped build the tunnel. He was known as the "Iron Master". Or dare I say the Master of the Ironworkers. Crutchfield states, "At some point Bell became a convert of the idea of freeing all of the slaves and helping them return to Africa." This was popular during the period of 1820-1847, the liberation of slaves to Liberia, where my step-father is from. He continues "Bell presented the offer to his slaves but only about 50 of them were interested in the idea..He tool them to Nashville to catch a boat to New Orleans" then presumably off to freedom. In 1850 he was awarded by London the "The Best Iron in the World" Award.
The Narrows of the Harpeth River has rock art that is reachable by canoe. This is notable because this piece of art is of the sun and crescent moon. The petroglyphs painted here are called Paint Rock Bluff and are on the perpendicular side of the cliff 200 ft above the river and visible for several miles. Chrutchfield notes that they were somehow used in religious ceremonies. "The sun is estimated to be about five feet across and the distance that the symbols lie below the overhang of the cliff makes it difficult to imagine how the primitive artist reached this place in order to paint these images." He continues, "the Natchez Indians of Mississippi were also sun worshipers Their society was broken down into castes, the highest of which, the nobles, were actually called "Suns". The principal chief himself was called the Great Sun. He was thought to be the younger brother of the Sun, and every morning would find him on top of a large mound welcoming his older brother upon his arrival in the eastern sky and directing his journey across the skies by a wave of the arm from east to west"(Chrutchfield, 68). This story reminds me of the astrological significance of the story of O'siris and Set. Not the myth of later dynasties but the early story indicators that can be unraveled by astronomy in the crossing of the sun across the sky from morning to sun set telling time like on the sundials dividing (dismembering) the day into the hours-HR (Horus).
The site in Middle TN is very similar to the Cahokia site.
The Nashville Site is not as well preserved as the Pack site that it is a part of is privately owned by separate individuals and not a state park.
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| Pattison Forge Tunnel created by slaves 1818 for Iron industry |
instrument symbolizing spiritual illumination.The Mound Bottom Mace inscribed near Nashville, TN is believed to belong, according to this TN Site, to the Native American culture from AD 1,000-AD 1300. Their societies were collectively known as the Mississippian Culture or the Temple Mound Builders. Agricultural innovation was happening at the site with new strains of maize, beans, and squashes being developed to produce surpluses for the rising population concentrated at the site. It is also at Harpeth River State Park that "Montgomery Bell created this engineering masterpiece he named Pattison Forge in 1818: a 200-foot tunnel chiseled by slaves through solid rock at the “narrows” of the Harpeth River. " This site "was the first "full-scale" water diversion tunnel built in the United States. It is also apparently the first "full-scale" tunnel of any type in the United States, according to histories of tunneling. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1994.[2][3]It is now included in Harpeth River State Park.[4] It was built at about the same time, but apparently slightly before, the 450-foot (140 m) Auburn Tunnel of Pennsylvania's Schuylkill Navigation Canal, which began use in 1821." (Wiki). For my personal family tree my ancestors were brought into Savannah from Africa because of their skills with iron. Seeing this ingenuity in Middle TN having been built by those of African descent is only a reminder to me of the theft of skilled labor taken from Africa do drive industry in America.
In The Harpeth River: A Biography by James Crutchfield, he recounts that the tunnel was 16 by 8ft high and delivered 2500 cubit ft of water per minutes. To get the water back into the original channel Bell built the Narrows of the Harpeth. He was a holder of as many as 300 slaves which helped build the tunnel. He was known as the "Iron Master". Or dare I say the Master of the Ironworkers. Crutchfield states, "At some point Bell became a convert of the idea of freeing all of the slaves and helping them return to Africa." This was popular during the period of 1820-1847, the liberation of slaves to Liberia, where my step-father is from. He continues "Bell presented the offer to his slaves but only about 50 of them were interested in the idea..He tool them to Nashville to catch a boat to New Orleans" then presumably off to freedom. In 1850 he was awarded by London the "The Best Iron in the World" Award.
The Narrows of the Harpeth River has rock art that is reachable by canoe. This is notable because this piece of art is of the sun and crescent moon. The petroglyphs painted here are called Paint Rock Bluff and are on the perpendicular side of the cliff 200 ft above the river and visible for several miles. Chrutchfield notes that they were somehow used in religious ceremonies. "The sun is estimated to be about five feet across and the distance that the symbols lie below the overhang of the cliff makes it difficult to imagine how the primitive artist reached this place in order to paint these images." He continues, "the Natchez Indians of Mississippi were also sun worshipers Their society was broken down into castes, the highest of which, the nobles, were actually called "Suns". The principal chief himself was called the Great Sun. He was thought to be the younger brother of the Sun, and every morning would find him on top of a large mound welcoming his older brother upon his arrival in the eastern sky and directing his journey across the skies by a wave of the arm from east to west"(Chrutchfield, 68). This story reminds me of the astrological significance of the story of O'siris and Set. Not the myth of later dynasties but the early story indicators that can be unraveled by astronomy in the crossing of the sun across the sky from morning to sun set telling time like on the sundials dividing (dismembering) the day into the hours-HR (Horus).
The site in Middle TN is very similar to the Cahokia site.
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