Situating the Gap: A Legacy Data–Based Bayesian Regional Chronology for the Appalachian Cumberland Gap

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As Bayesian modeling has taken a prominent position in the interpretation of the archaeological record, there is a growing need for the reconsideration of archaeological chronologies. The Cumberland Gap, the major natural passage across the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, has been a major bottleneck in human movement since long before European Contact. However, the Gap, and thus the archaeological discourse of the region, sits along the extreme edges of three distinct states (and, importantly, their databases). As a result, few region-scale investigations have centered the role of the Gap in Indigenous interactions and movements. In this paper, we evaluate the state, and potential, of the extant radiocarbon record for situating the Gap and its environs into larger regional histories. This paper also presents new radiocarbon dates from two Mississippian sites in Virginia, Carter Robinson and Ely, and places their establishments and declines within the broader region. This refined chronology and the need for continued efforts it conveys, along with multiple seasons of previous excavation data affords a more nuanced view of relations and movements through the largest pass in the central Appalachian Mountain range.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53883