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.

Archaeological Investigations at 40DV7

The Middle Cumberland Archaeological Project is a multi-institution research effort launched in 2010 that includes archaeologists with Florida State University, the Tennessee Division of Archaeology, and Middle Tennessee State University, working together to identify and assess Archaic shell-bearing sites in the western Middle Cumberland River Valley of Tennessee. In 2012, the project investigated the substantial Archaic shell-bearing deposits at archaeological site 40DV7, located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, Tennessee. This interdisciplinary project gathered basic site-level data regarding the horizontal and vertical extent of cultural deposits, radiocarbon assays to determine site chronology, bulk and column samples for flotation and water-screening to aid in zooarchaeological analysis and paleoethnobotanical analysis, and geomorphological samples of the immediate environment. The results of the 2012 excavations, combined with earlier data collected by the senior authors, provide significant new data about the occupation history and freshwater shellfish composition of this site. In addition, radiocarbon data presented in this chapter reveal that 40DV7 manifests the longest continuous Archaic shell-bearing occupation yet identified in the region, spanning the period ca. 6500–4500 cal BP.