SHOVELMONKEY'S TEST PIT

Sunday, February 5, 2006

I recently attended the Current Research in Tennessee Archaeology conference at the Ellington Agriculture Center in Nashville, Tennessee. This year there were several good, exciting papers.....lets face it they can't all be winners. Several papers caught my interest such as:

Nance, Benjamin (Tennessee Division of Archaeology). 1997. SURVEY OF CIVIL WAR PERIOD MILITARY SITES IN EAST TENNESSEE. The Tennessee Division of Archaeology is currently studying Civil War period military sites in East Tennessee. The goal of this project is to record those sites related to military activity that still retain some archaeological integrity, and add the information to the Division's site files. This project is a continuation of previous surveys of Middle and West Tennessee, each of which resulted in a completion report. The final report for the current survey will be a synthesis of information covering all three regions of the state.

Beahm, Emily L. and Kevin E. Smith (Middle Tennessee State University). 2006. CASTALIAN SPRINGS (40SU14): A MISSISSIPPIAN CHIEFDOM IN THE NASHVILLE BASIN OF TENNESSEE. Artifacts from Castalian Springs (40SU14) have played a prominent role in discussions of the chronology of Mississippian shell gorgets and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. This extensive mound site was investigated by Ralph Earl in 1820 and William Myer in 1891, 1893 and 1916 1917. While these investigations produced some of the most widely illustrated Mississippian artifacts from Tennessee, contextual information has generally been limited to two brief articles by Myer. Using Myer's unpublished fieldnotes and correspondence and the results of summer 2005 test excavations, the authors provide a more detailed interpretation and description of this chiefdom center.

Allen, Daniel S., IV (Cumberland Research Group, Inc). 2006. APPLIED ARCHAEOLOGY AT THE HERMITAGE SPRINGS SITE (40DV551); A MIDDLE ARCHAIC THROUGH EARLY WOODLAND AGGREGATION SITE IN THE CUMBERLAND RIVER VALLEY. Toward the end of the Early Archaic cultural period in southeastern North America the climate became warmer and dryer than today. Termed the Altithermal, this climatic change marks the beginning of the Middle Archaic period (ca. 7500 5000 B.P.). It is currently believed that the changing climate of southeastern North America forced hunter/gatherers in the early stages of horticulture to adapt to the climate by shifting between upland hunting camps on the edges of river valleys and floodplain camps during drought and the heat of summer and fall. This type of settlement pattern is thought to have resulted in permanent aggregation sites, especially on upland formations overlooking the confluence of spring branches with productive river valleys, and carefully delineated group territories expressed archaeologically by prehistoric cultural sites including corporate cemeteries. The Hermitage Springs site (40DV551) is a prehistoric aggregation site discovered in 2001 during grading for residential development in northeastern Davidson County. Archaeological relocation of the human remains, sampling of the archaeological features, and salvage of archaeological data commenced in mid-October 2004 and continues to date. Archaic and Woodland period people intensively harvested fish, shellfish, gastropods, and turtles, and subsisted largely by hunting deer, turkey, bear and smaller mammals, also relying on acorns, nuts, and a variety of other plant resources. Preliminary analysis suggests the site represents an extensive corporate aggregation site and cemetery used from the Middle Archaic through Early Woodland periods. The project is on going in the field and this presentation is designed to provide up to date highlights of the project.

Avery, Paul G. (MACTEC Engineering and Consulting). 2006. WOOD'S MINE: BARITE MINING IN MONROE COUNTY, TENNESSEE. Barite is a dense white mineral with several industrial uses. Mining activities aimed at the extraction of barite ore began as early as the 1870s in east Tennessee, with the center of this industry located near Sweetwater in Monroe County, Tennessee. The remains of Wood's Mine (40MR700) were recorded during a survey for the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Historically known as the Ballard Mine, the site represents one of the earliest barite mines in the county. This paper examines the history of barite mining in Monroe County with particular emphasis on Wood's Mine and its role in the industry.

McKee, Larry (TRC, Inc.). 2006. TWO CEMETERIES AND A KILLED BUILDING: THREE RECENT TRC PROJECTS. In 2005 the Nashville office of TRC excavated burials at two separate nineteenth century cemeteries in Middle Tennessee and also participated in a salvage operation at Evergreen Place (the Jim Reeves Museum) in northeast Nashville. Work at one of the cemeteries, on the outskirts of Franklin, was done under the sponsorship of a descendent who wanted to move her ancestors and their large stone monument to a church graveyard. The second cemetery, near Alamaville in Rutherford County, was a family burial ground on the site of a new school complex. The salvage operation at Evergreen Place was carried out as part of a settlement over a disputed demolition permit issued to tear down what was probably Davidson County's oldest standing building. Not only were all three interesting archaeological exercises, but these also illustrate the wide range of clients seeking help from our profession.

Peres, Tanya M. (Middle Tennessee State University). 2006. A ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CONTEXTS FROM THE FEWKES SITE (40WML). The Fewkes site faunal assemblage, excavated by DuVall and Associates as part of a Phase III data recovery for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, was analyzed and evaluated in light of its potential to provide significant information about Middle Mississippian subsistence practices and environmental conditions of the area around the Fewkes site during the time of occupation. Specific goals of the analysis included: (1) defining the subsistence strategies and practices of the people whom inhabited the site; (2) determining the relationship of the site to the surrounding ecological habitats, and (3) determining the seasonality of the site. Additionally, the Fewkes faunal assemblage was compared to animal exploitation practices as outlined for the Cumberland River drainage model of Mississippian period sites. The results of the analysis of selected contexts will be presented in this paper.

Simek, Jan F. Alan Cressler, Joseph C. Douglas, Amy Wallace, Ken Oeser, and Annette Oeser (University of Tennessee, Knoxville). 2006. FIVE NEW PREHISTORIC CAVE ART SITES IN TENNESSEE. Over the past twelve months, five new prehistoric cave art sites have been discovered in Tennessee, designated 43rd - 47th Unnamed Caves in our regional nomenclature. These additions bring the total number of art caves known in the Southeast to 52. Three of the caves are owned by the State of Tennessee, their discovery and analysis sanctioned by state archaeological permits. A fourth is under Federal stewardship. The sites contain a variety of art, including both petroglyphs and pictographs. Most appear to date late in Tennessee's prehistoric sequence (i.e., Mississippian), although there may be at least one early site among the new discoveries.

Anderson, David G. (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), John E. Cornelison, Jr. (National Park Service), and Sarah C. Sherwood (UT Archaeological Research Laboratory). 2006. SHILOH INDIAN MOUNDS NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK: RESEARCH RESULTS OF THE 1999 2004 FIELD PROGRAM AT MOUND A. Multidisciplinary research associated with excavations into threatened portions of Mound A at Shiloh Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark have revealed a wealth of information about the chronology, natural environment, associated material culture and architecture, and appearance of the mound when it was under construction and in use. Mound A was a complicated and symbolically charged structure, whose upper stages were built between ca. A.D. 1100 and 1300. While the focus of local populations, occasional contact with societies at great distances occurred. The ongoing support of the Chickasaw Nation and the National Park Service proved critical to the success of the project.

Pike, Meta G. and Scott C. Meeks (University of Tennessee, Knoxville). 2006. NEW RADIOCARBON DATES ON HUMAN COPROLITES FROM BIG BONE CAVE (40VB103): EXAMINING TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL TRENDS OF EARLY AGRICULTURAL BEHAVIOR IN THE MIDSOUTH. Nine accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates recently obtained from human paleofecal remains at Big Bone Cave range from 220-320 cal B.C. (2170-2270 cal B.P.), indicating a terminal Early Woodland temporal association. These dates are consistent with a suite of eleven previous radiocarbon dates from Big Bone Cave, which places the primary utilization of the site during the Early Woodland period. Macrobotanical remains from the paleofecal specimens, combined with information from the regional paleoethnobotanical record, are examined with regard to the timing and spread of plant food production in the Midsouth.

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