Paleoindian Site Formation in the Tennessee River Valley

Summary

The Paleoindian occupation of the unglaciated eastern woodlands has generally been characterized by distributions of projectile points and few true sites. While this perception has begun to change in recent history, the Late Pleistocene archaeological record beyond projectile points including sites and settlement patterns remain poorly studied and reported. This paper provides an evaluation of the natural and cultural formation processes associated with Paleoindian occupation in the Tennessee River Valley. Natural process emphasize dynamic environmental conditions, coupled with resource availability, primarily including changes in riverine drainage dictating Paleoindian site location. The cultural processes involved in site formation have often been juxtaposed as aggregations of small bands of highly mobile hunter-gatherers vs. re-occupation by single bands of hunter-gatherers. Evaluation of the data derived from the Late Pleistocene Carson-Conn-Short site (40Bn190) in the Lower Tennessee River Valley suggests other factors beyond the traditional aggregation/re-occupation models are important in site formation. The data presented here also raises important implications for modeling the development of sedentism and horticulture in the Midsouth.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21457