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Tanasi (also spelled Tanase, Tenasi, Tenassee, Tunissee, Tennessee, and other such variations) () was an historic Overhill Cherokee village site in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The village was the namesake for the state of Tennessee. Abandoned by the Cherokee in the 19th century, since 1979 the town site has been submerged by the Tellico Lake impoundment of the Little Tennessee River. Tanasi served as the de facto capital of the Cherokee from as early as 1721 until 1730, when the capital shifted to Great Tellico. The Cherokee town of Chota developed immediately north of and later than Tanasi (the two sites were divided by an unnamed stream); by the 1740s had become the more prominent of the two towns, holding the townhouse where chiefs would meet with colonial emissaries. Although Chota and Tanasi had distinct political, social, and demographic traits, excavators in the late 1960s determined that the two towns are archaeologically indistinguishable. They were among what were called the Overhill Towns by English colonists, who traveled over the Appalachian Mountains from the east to reach them.〔Gerald Schroedl (ed.), ''Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee'' (Report of Investigations 38, University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology, 1986), p. 5.〕 The two towns are grouped as a single listing on the National Register of Historic Places, although Tanasi was given its own site designation (40MR62) in 1972.〔Schroedl, ''Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee'', p. 29.〕 In the 1980s, the Tennessee Valley Authority placed a monument on the shoreline above the submerged site of Tanasi that commemorates its history and its legacy as the origin of the name Tennessee. This monument is approximately south of Vonore, just off Highway 455 (Citico Road). The site is managed by the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation.〔Gerald Schroedl, "(Overhill Cherokees )." ''The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: 26 March 2008.〕 ==Geographical setting== The Little Tennessee River flows northwestward from its source in the Appalachian Mountains and traverses a stretch of northern Monroe County before emptying into the Tennessee River near Lenoir City. In 1979, the construction of Tellico Dam at the mouth of the river created a reservoir that spans the lower of the Little Tennessee and the lower of its tributary, the Tellico River, flooding the former town sites.〔Richard Polhemus, ''The Toqua Site — 40MR6'' Vol. 1 (Knoxville, Tenn.: The Tennessee Valley Authority, 1987), p. 1.〕 Tanasi is located along the west bank of the Little Tennessee upstream from the river's mouth.〔Schroedl, ''Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee'', p. 5.〕 The site is opposite a sharp bend in the river known as Bacon's Bend. Tanasi was situated on a relatively flat terrace flanked by the river on one side and a series of high, steep hills on the other. These hills, noted on Timberlake's 1762 map, are part of the Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley Province, which spans much of the upper Tennessee Valley. The Appalachian Range proper rises a few miles south of the Chota-Tanasi site. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tanasi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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