The Castalian Springs Mounds Eclipse Events: Mississippian Era and August 2017 (original) (raw)
Tennessee Archaeology 6(1-2):149-163, 2012
Although the Beasley Mounds site (40SM43) has been known since the early nineteenth century, only brief antiquarian notes and limited collections have been available to evaluate its relationship to the Middle Cumberland culture sites of the Central Basin. As part of the on-going efforts of the Middle Cumberland Mississippian Survey to refine the boundaries and chronology of the region, we directed a small-scale mapping and excavation project at Beasley Mounds in early 2008. Resulting ceramic samples suggest that the site residents were more closely affiliated culturally to those of the upper Cumberland and East Tennessee than to their nearer neighbors to the west. A single radiocarbon date from platform mound construction at the site suggests that it served as a socio-political center contemporaneous with those at the nearby Castalian Springs and Sellars sites to the west and south -- but was occupied by people whose material culture was (ethnically?) distinct from those to the west and south and more closely related to those from the east and north.
Recent road cutting activity for private development along a Cumberland River bluff in western Davidson County exposed four structures and a large pit feature. Tennessee Division of Archaeology salvage efforts at the Ganier Tract site (40DV620) retrieved a modest assemblage of ceramic, lithic, faunal, and floral materials. The ceramic sample included Mississippi Plain loop and flattened loop handles suggestive of a Mississippian occupation that pre-dated AD 1325. A refined chronology for Middle Cumberland Mississippian sites was recently offered based upon critical data obtained through the 19 th-century Peabody Museum (Harvard) explorations across middle Tennessee (Moore and Smith 2009:202-210). This provisional framework defined five unnamed regional periods (I-V) in place of previously published chronologies (i.e. Dowd and Thruston phases/regional periods). Radiocarbon samples from three structures and the pit feature yielded corrected dates between AD 1213 and 1273. These dates place 40DV620 within the proposed Regional Period III (AD 1200-1325), a time of significant population expansion across the Middle Cumberland Region. The recovered ceramic assemblage with loop and flattened-loop jar handles meshes well with these date results.
Recent Research in the Middle Cumberland River Valley: Introduction to the Special Volume
Tennessee Archaeology Vol. 6(1-2):5-17, 2012
The Cumberland River flows 688 miles (1,107 km) westward from its headwaters in Letcher County, Kentucky through southern Kentucky and northern Middle Tennessee before emptying into the Ohio River near Paducah, Kentucky. Since the late seventeenth century, the Cumberland River has served as a vital resource and transportation corridor for European and Euro-American settlement, development, and commerce in Tennessee and the surrounding region. However, the history of human activity along the Cumberland River begins long before European exploration west of the Appalachians, or proto-historic settlement of the region by the Shawnee, Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw. Consistent human occupation and reuse of natural levees and adjacent terrace landforms since the late Pleistocene has resulted in the formation of numerous deeply-buried, stratified, multicomponent archaeological sites. The density of prehistoric settlement along the Cumberland River and its tributaries is particularly notable within the Middle Cumberland River valley in Tennessee, where archaeological evidence has revealed that initial human occupations occurred by at least 12,100 cal BP. With such a rich and ancient history, one would think a published synthesis of archaeology along the Cumberland River would have occurred years ago. Unfortunately, primary data and site information are found mainly within the “grey literature” -- technical reports, state site files, and field notes -- and no synthesis, or attempt at a synthesis, exists. We offer this special guest-edited volume of Tennessee Archaeology as an effort to highlight the distinct archaeological record of the Middle Cumberland River valley and encourage future scholarship. In this Introduction we offer a description and definition of the Middle Cumberland River valley, a brief overview of the history of archaeology in the region, and highlight the current state of archaeological research and resource management addressed by the contributors to this volume.
Archaic Shell-Bearing Sites of the Middle Cumberland River Valley of Tennessee
2015
The Middle Cumberland River Valley of Tennessee comprises a unique regional environment that has supported human occupation for at least 14,000 years. Consistent human occupation and reuse of natural river levees and adjacent terrace landforms from the late Pleistocene epoch (ca. 12,000 BC) through the 15th century AD resulted in the formation of numerous archaeological sites along the Cumberland River and its tributaries. The occupants of these sites relied on the abundant natural resources of the region, and particularly vertebrate and invertebrate species that inhabited the streams and waterways for subsistence and raw materials. Over thousands of years the inhabitants of the Middle Cumberland River Valley harvested these various species and took an active role in managing riverine resources. The cumulative result of this process appears in the archaeological record of the region as abundant zooarchaeological remains, principally consisting of animal bone and shellfish. One visually-striking archaeological facet of the Middle Cumberland River Valley is the densely deposited remains of freshwater shellfish that appear at Archaic sites throughout the region. These deposits span the period from approximately 6500 to 1000 BC, and comprise a regional manifestation of the cultural phase traditionally known as the Shell Mound Archaic. Recent survey and excavation efforts along with site file research have identified 22 sites within the Middle Cumberland Valley that exhibit intact Archaic shell-bearing components. An additional 59 sites in the region also exhibit a high probability for containing intact Archaic shell-bearing deposits, but require additional testing to determine their integrity. The Archaic shell-bearing sites in the Middle Cumberland River Valley provide unique opportunities to examine research topics including how mid-Holocene occupants of the region adapted to changing environments, modified the natural landscape, and altered the local ecology both deliberately and indirectly. In addition, data preserved within these sites has the potential to address numerous research questions regarding settlement patterning, regional population density, social structure, initial plant domestication, the development of regional trade networks, and environmental change within the Middle Cumberland River Valley, and more broadly in the American Southeast, between approximately 6500 and 1000 BC. Because of this information potential, the archaic shell-bearing sites of the Middle Cumberland River Valley are worthy of acknowledgement, protection, and preservation under Criterion D of 36 CFR 60.4.
Subdivision construction in 2003 within the Little Harpeth River headwaters of northeast Williamson County uncovered several Mississippian stone-box graves. Subsequent consultant investigations exposed a Mississippian period village yielding artifacts suggestive of a mid-14th to mid-15th century occupation. A charred maize sample from inside a fish-effigy vessel on a probable structure floor returned a date of cal 430+/-30 BP (AD 1440-1455 at one-sigma). Inglehame Farm (40WM342) represents another example of an upland Mississippian habitation in the Middle Cumberland River valley. Interestingly the Little Harpeth River drainage has a number of substantial Mississippian settlements including the Fewkes Mounds, Brentwood Library (Jarman Farm), Arnold (Emily Hayes Farm), and Kellytown sites. This paper presents a complete reanalysis of the Inglehame Farm artifact assemblage, as well as a preliminary review of the Mississippian period settlement pattern within the Little Harpeth River.
One Hundred Years of Archaeology at Gordontown: A Fortified Mississippian Town in Middle Tennessee
Southeastern Archaeology, 2006
Archaeological research on Mississippian culture in Tennessee’s Middle Cumberland region during recent years has provided a revised chronological sequence as well as new information about settlement shifts. Excavations at one fortified Mississippian town, Gordontown, and a reanalysis of past site investigations from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries indicate the site area included one platform mound, a substantial burial mound, and a sizable habitation zone enclosed by a palisade with bastions. Radiocarbon assays and ceramics conclusively date this site occupation to the Thruston regional period (A.D. 1250–1450). Mortuary and other analysis results reveal a dynamic, yet somewhat stressed, native population within the Middle Cumberland River Valley.