Boy, I'll bet the head landscaper is pissed.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/190/nation/Remnants_of_prehistoric_villag:.shtml

Remnants of prehistoric village unearthed on grounds of Biltmore Estate

By Associated Press, 7/9/2001 16:21

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) Arrowheads, shards of pottery and other remains of a prehistoric Indian village have been unearthed on the grounds of the Biltmore Estate.

In four weeks of digging at a site in a corn field, estate curators and archaeologists from Appalachian State University found 30,000 pieces of pottery, stone tools, animal bones, arrowheads and other artifacts.

The area once was home to a group of people known as the Connestee, but historians do not know much about them, said Scott Shumate, assistant director of the university's archaeological laboratories.

''The vast majority of Connestee is 200 B.C. to 600 A.D.,'' Shumate said. ''These people don't have a written record so we have to affix a name to them. Whether they're direct ancestors of the Cherokee, we're not sure.''

The site contains a series of clay floors, representative of successive structures built 10 to 20 years apart. The main structure was possibly a teepee-like structure, Shumate said.

The estate was built more than a century ago by George Vanderbilt, a grandson of the railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt.

On the Net:

Biltmore Estate: http://www.biltmore.com

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2001