The millennia-long use history of triangular bifaces

Relatively small, triangular bifaces often considered to be projectile points have a demonstrable use history that includes the Middle Archaic, Late Archaic, Early Woodland, late Middle Woodland, Late Woodland, and Contact periods of regional archaeology. Radiocarbon dates and other data are used to document this extensive history using the Upper Delaware Valley of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York as a case study. Observed trends are evaluated in a broader regional context. The degree to which triangles of different ages can be distinguished from one another is addressed and suggestions for future research are made.

Geoarchaeology and Bayesian Statistical Modeling of Radiocarbon Dates from 40CH171, a Multicomponent Shell-Bearing Site in Cheatham County, Tennessee

Using multiple lines of evidence from 40CH171, including opportunistic sampling, geoarchaeology analysis, and Bayesian radiocarbon modeling, this chapter constructs a site formation process narrative based on fieldwork conducted from 2009 to 2010 by the University of Tennessee, Middle Tennessee State University, and the Tennessee Division of Archaeology. This chapter argues that the shell-bearing strata were deposited relatively close to an active channel of the Cumberland River and/or Blue Creek during the Middle Holocene (ca. 7170–6500 cal BP). This was followed by an abrupt shift to sandier sediments, indicating that deposition after the termination of the shell-bearing deposits at the Middle Archaic/Late Archaic boundary took place in the context of decreasing distance from the site to the Cumberland River and Blue Creek.

Modeling Archaic Settlement Patterns and Ecology in the Middle Cumberland River Valley of Tennessee

Spatial analysis provides a greater understanding of relationships between people and environment. This chapter discusses settlement patterns and settlement ecology of the Middle Cumberland River Valley of Tennessee through spatial analysis and a settlement ecological approach. Multiple lines of evidence are necessary to distinguish between survey bias and archaeological patterns. This chapter examines Archaic settlements at local and regional scales using GIS-based analyses, exploring the environments that people chose to settle and the possible relationship of these choices to horticulture and gathering, and highlighting Archaic patterns with consideration of data limitations. The lower number of sites in the region during the Middle Archaic could suggest a return to a residential mobility strategy, while the Late Archaic yielded more logistical mobility. Decrease in site numbers and elevation from the Early to Middle Archaic could be tied to temperature fluctuations during the Altithermal. Some Late Archaic sites occur at slightly higher elevations, indicating perhaps more varied resources.

Reassessing Middle Archaic Stratigraphy and Chronology of the Anderson Site

The Anderson site (40WM9) is located on the Harpeth River in Williamson County, Tennessee, and is the only shell-bearing Archaic site off the main channel of the Cumberland River in the Middle Cumberland River Valley to have undergone controlled archaeological testing. The site is further significant in that it is the oldest known shell-bearing Archaic site in the region and despite its size and depth presents a mid- to lateMiddle Archaic component with no direct evidence of occupation before or after that time. In addition, the Anderson sitehas produced some of the earliest evidence from the interior Southeastern United States for long-distance trade of marine shell. However, while the Anderson site has been widely cited in the literature on Archaic adaptations in the interior Southeastern United States, much of the data from the site have never been synthesized in a modern professional setting. This chapter presents a modern reexamination of the data from Anderson, for the first time fully correlating the site stratigraphy and associated cultural phases. When combined with Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon data, this effort clarifies the duration and sequence of site occupation and places it within the framework of more recent data from the region.

Determining onset of significant facial pathology using dental wear and microwear texture analysis: a case study from the Middle Archaic (~5,500 BP) of Indiana.

Paleopathologists face complicated presentations of osteological conditions that ac-crued over a considerable period of ill-health. Determining the relative sequence of symptoms and how long the individual lived with them is critical to understanding disease onset and progression in the body and may help to identify a specific disease. This paper describes an atypical presentation of the dentition associated with a 5,000-year-old case of treponemal disease. This circumstance led to a cessation of macrowear, which allowed for an estimation of the age when the jaw began to profoundly deform. This paper also summarizes molar microwear texture analysis (DMTA) that was employed in order to determine if the diet of the victim prior to death was con-sistent with other people from the site.