Overhill towns, including their capital, Chota. The Cherokee rebuilt Chota by 1784, but it never recovered its former status. In 1788, Old Tassel— who had become the leader of the Overhill towns, was murdered with another chief by Americans under a flag of truce at Chilhowee. Largely in response to this atrocity, the Cherokee moved their capital south to Ustanali, near what developed as modern Calhoun, Georgia. In the late 1790s, the Duke of Orleans paid a visit to the American fort known as Tellico Blockhouse while on a tour of East Tennessee. There the duke watched more than 600 Cherokees engage in a ritual "ballplay" at Chota; he bet six gallons of brandy on the outcome. By this time, only five dwellings remained standing in the town. Archaeology In the 1880s, Cyrus Thomas, working for the Smithsonian Institution, conducted a survey of ancient earthwork mounds in the Little Tennessee Valley. Thomas excavated a mound at the Chota site and uncovered several artifacts. The site was undisturbed for decades. In 1939, a University of Tennessee team, mainly under the auspices of Thomas Lewis and Madeline Kneburg, conducted excavations at the Chota site. Laborers were paid by the Works Projects Administration during the Great Depression. Their findings, which Lewis and Kneburg hoped would provide comparison data for their Hiwassee Island findings, included 85 pit features, 12 burials, and one structure. After the Tennessee Valley Authority announced plans in 1967 to build Tellico Dam, which would flood several historic Cherokee sites, the University of Tennessee initiated a plan to conduct salvage archeological excavations throughout the Little Tennessee Valley. Excavations were conducted at Chota between 1969 and 1974, as litigation stalled the dam project. The excavations uncovered 783 features (mostly refuse pits), the postmold layouts of 31 structures, and 91 burials. Burial 10, uncovered in 1969, was identified by its grave goods (namely a pair of wire spectacles) as that of Chief Oconostota. Thousands of stone and ceramic artifacts were uncovered, including projectile points dating to the Archaic period (8000–1000 B.C.). The structures uncovered at Chota included two townhouses, one of which had a diameter of and another a diameter of just over . The smaller townhouse, which was slightly older, may have been the Tanasi townhouse. Other structures included a x summer pavilion flanked by a x village plaza, and 11 rectangular summer dwelling/circular winter dwelling pairings. Dwellings were spaced between and