Early Mississippian Settlement of the Nashville Basin: Archaeological Excavations at the Spencer Site, 40DV191 (original) (raw)
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Tennessee Archaeology 3(1):3-24, 2008
Salvage excavations at the Spencer site in Nashville recorded evidence of an early (and possibly emergent) Mississippian period occupation. Radiocarbon assays from selected structures and features date the primary site occupation between A.D. 900 to 1150. The shell-tempered wares from Spencer favorably compare with ceramic assemblages from other early Mississippian sites in the Middle Cumberland River valley. A small percentage of chert and limestonetempered ceramics, along with a feature date of cal A.D. 403-567 (one-sigma), denote the presence of a Middle Woodland component.
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.
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.
Tennessee Archaeology 2(1) pp. 19–31, 2006
The Nashville office of TRC, Inc. conducted archaeological excavations and geoarchaeological deep testing at prehistoric site 40DR226 during the summer of 2004. This site, located along the Tennessee River in Decatur County, yielded intact and deeply stratified midden deposits along the top bank of the Tennessee River. Radiocarbon dates and recovered artifacts indicate the site was occupied between the Middle Archaic and Mississippian periods (ca. 8000–400 BP). A sequence of ceramic sherds associated with the Late Gulf Formational, Copena, and Miller III ceramic traditions (spanning the period ca. 2250–950 BP) are of particular interest.
The Ames Site (40FY7): A Very Unobtrusive Mississippian Settlement Located in Southwestern Tennessee
…, 2011
Research at the Ames Mound and Settlement Complex (40FY7), located at the headwaters of the North Fork of the Wolf River, a tributary of the Mississippi, utilized a gradiometry survey, controlled surface collections, test-pitting, and large scale excavation to examine prehistoric landuse ca. 1000-1200 AD. The study resulted in the discovery of a large palisaded settlement associated with a small mound complex. Although the mound complex has been known to archaeologists for over half a century, the village remained undiscovered until recently. Our research demonstrates that in the Loess Plains of Western Tennessee, discovery methods such as shovel testing and controlled surface collecting can produce results that underestimate the significance of buried archaeological deposits, to the point that large settlements are being missed. The implication is that western Tennessee probably had several small mound complexes with associated villages during the Early Mississippian period.
The Kelley's Battery site (40DV392) is a multi-component prehistoric site located on the Cumberland River in western Davidson County, Tennessee. Salvage excavations were conducted in 1998 prior to destruction of the site by development. Evidence of Paleoindian through Mississippian period occupations was recovered. Of particular interest is the excavation of two Mississippian stone-box cemeteries and associated village. An overview of the excavation is presented along with investigation results. A single radiocarbon date of 670+60 B.P. with a single-sigma calibrated range of AD 1282-1390 was obtained for the Mississippian occupation. The excavation and analysis results determined the Mississippian occupation of Kelley's Battery comprised a nucleated village primarily occupied during the period of regional decentralization (AD 1325-1425).