Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Investigating the origins of the Shell Mound Archaic: Occupational histories and interaction among shell-bearing sites in western Tennessee

University Of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. David G. Anderson, Thaddeus Bissett will study the origins of cultural traditions associated with the midcontinental Shell Mound Archaic (SMA), using archaeological materials from four stratified shell mound sites in western Tennessee. Freshwater shell mounds first appeared in that region during the early centuries of the Mid-Holocene Warm Interval (ca. 8,900 - 5,700 cal years before present [cal yr BP]), corresponding to the Middle Archaic cultural period. Sites of the SMA are known from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama, and collectively span more than 6,000 years of history (ca. 8,900 - 3,200 cal yr BP). However, despite extensive archaeological investigation of these often massive accumulations of shell, stone, cultural material, and human burials for nearly a century, the origins and nature of the cultural practices associated with the creation of such sites are not well understood. This study will assess how models of social interaction and group identity formation can be applied to archaeological data, and will address key questions regarding the history of population movement, group interaction, and ethnogenesis during the early development of the SMA. The work will refine methods used to investigate stratified shell sites, which are known from nearly every region of the world. Finally, this research will produce a high resolution chronology for the early Mid-Holocene in the Midsouth that will serve as a baseline for future research in the region. Traditional models have viewed shell mounds as accumulated refuse from routine subsistence behaviors, but recent alternative models suggest that SMA sites were ritual locations where hunter-gatherer social groups gathered periodically for ceremonial feasting using shellfish and for ritual interment of the dead. These models further posit that such practices originated from the active renegotiation of group identities, representing the development of new cultural traditions after the arrival of outsiders to the area and their subsequent interaction with peoples already inhabiting the region. The proposed research will evaluate these arguments. Multiple AMS 14C dates from cultural strata at four Middle Archaic shell mounds will be used to estimate the duration of occupation at these sites. These data will permit the comparison of depositional rates of shell and other artifact classes within and between strata to assess relative occupational intensity and history of site use. Intra-site variation in deposition rates will be compared to determine if changes in site use occurred over time. Contemporaneity of strata will be assessed to evaluate whether these changes occurred during the same period over a large area. Stylistic analyses of artifacts from strata of similar age at multiple sites will address whether changes in cultural practices resulted from interaction between groups, and whether and how differing cultural traditions may have emerged in the region. Because SMA sites are threatened by natural factors like flooding and from ongoing looting, an important contribution of this study will be the documentation of their utility for understanding the origins of complex societies and the effect of Mid-Holocene climate change on human populations in eastern North America. The results are of broad public as well as academic interest, and will be useful in teaching and public education. This work will make use of under-reported museum collections from fieldwork dating to the New Deal era, and all results will be made available to the general public, and will be presented at scientific meetings and in peer-reviewed journals.