During the period between about AD 1000 and 1425, a thriving Native American culture known to archaeologists as the Middle Cumberland Mississippian lived along the Cumberland River and its tributaries in today's Davidson County. Earthen mounds built to hold the houses or burials of the upper class overlooked both banks of the Cumberland near what is now downtown Nashville. Surrounding densely packed village areas, including family homes, cemeteries, and public spaces, stretched for several miles through Shelby Bottoms and the McFerrin Park, Bicentennial Mall, and Germantown neighborhoods. Other villages were scattered across the Nashville landscape, including in the modern neighborhoods of Richland, Sylvan Park, Lipscomb, Duncan Wood, Centennial Park, Belle Meade, White Bridge, and Cherokee Park.

This book is the first public-facing effort by legitimate archaeologists to articulate the history of what happened here before Nashville happened.

The book is published by Vanderbilt University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.