RAPID:Emergency Shoreline Assessment and Sampling of Archaeological Sites Along the Cumberland River in Middle Tennessee

Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro TN

Investigators

Abstract

With NSF support, Dr Tanya M. Peres, Mr. Aaron Deter-Wolf, and Dr. Shannon C. Hodge, will conduct an emergency survey and assessment of prehistoric sites along the banks of the Cumberland River in Middle Tennessee. The main goal of this survey is to evaluate damage to archaeological resources as a result of the catastrophic flood and subsequent looting activity, and to recover data from sites which are in the greatest danger of being destroyed. The project will include an examination of all known site locations, recordation of previously unrecorded archaeological deposits, and documentation of both natural and human-made site disturbances. In May of 2010, heavy rains throughout the Midsouth resulted in severe flooding in Middle Tennessee. In Nashville, the Cumberland River left its banks and impacted or destroyed more than 9,000 homes and businesses while causing more than $1.5 billion in damages. The human tragedy and economic impact of the Middle Tennessee flood have been well publicized and the response to those in need has been widespread. However, little attention has been given to the immediate and ongoing destructive impacts to the archaeological record of the region as a direct result of the May 2010 floods. The banks of the Cumberland River in Middle Tennessee have been home to human occupation since the late Pleistocene (ca. 10,000 BC). Thousands of years of repeated human occupation resulted in the creation of deeply stratified archaeological deposits along the riverbank. The force of the May 2010 flood caused large sections of Cumberland bankline to erode away. Many of these displaced areas consisted almost entirely of previously intact archaeological deposits. Initial reports suggest that substantial portions of numerous archaeological sites in the Nashville area eroded away entirely during the flood, carrying with them much of the archaeological record of the region. The flood also revealed previously-unexposed archaeological deposits along the Cumberland riverbank, including substantial shell middens. More than thirty sites in the vicinity of Nashville contain thick layers of freshwater snail and river mussel deposited by prehistoric peoples during the later portion of the Archaic Period (ca. 5000-1000 BC). Shell deposits such as these reduce the natural acidity of soils, resulting in excellent artifact preservation. For this reason, shell midden sites have long been the target of looters intent on obtaining the unique artifacts sometimes included in prehistoric burials. Since the flood, the Tennessee Division of Archaeology has received reports of widespread looting at newly-exposed Cumberland River shell middens, and documented extensive disturbances to human remains contained within shell deposits. The intellectual merit of this project will be to provide baseline data for the Co-PIs long-term research program and allow us to more specifically target endangered archaeological resources. Ultimately, the Co-PIs will use animal and plant remains, wood charcoal, snails and river mussels, human skeletal remains, and material culture to interpret the prehistoric environment of the Cumberland River in Middle Tennessee; to reconstruct past drought/flooding cycles; look at changes in subsistence economies and technologies; understand why these groups became larger and more sedentary, and how these changes impacted the local resources. The broader impacts of the study also include training of undergraduate students in laboratory techniques and will allow them to increase their knowledge of Tennessee and Southeastern US prehistory.