The blade is narrow and excurvate with the tip curving in with parallel edges, and contracting towards the base. These periods are both references to a span of time and to a stage in a continuum of increasing social complexity. Physical brutality and the introduction of European diseases decimated the populations and these disruptions broke down the traditional alliances and undermined the social and political order. The Old Stone Fort is located on a peninsula created by the confluence of the Duck River and the Little Duck River (the section of the Duck River upstream from its confluence with the Little Duck is sometimes called "Barren Fork"). Breitburg, Emmanuel and John B. Broster 1994 Paleoindian Site, Lithic, and Mastodon Remains in Tennessee. Throughout the Archaic period and the rest of prehistory the major source of animal protein for Tennessee Indians was the white-tailed deer. Hickory nuts are high in fats and crude protein and require no special processing to render them edible. The most pervasive was the theory of the Mound Builders which held that the ancient mounds were the remains of an extinct culture, likely the Canaanites and Lost Tribes of Israel (Silverberg 1968). In times of sickness or stress, the band looked to a shaman who was thought to have received power from supernatural forces. Ancient native peoples formed numerous and varied social and political groupings that changed through time during each of the archaeological periods. The state of Tennessee is long and narrow, stretching 432 miles from the high mountains of the Appalachians and the Great Smoky Mountains on the east to the Mississippi River on the west. page, or do you have information that should be added? Two sites in the Middle Woodland period stand out in Tennessee. The Archaic period spans 8,000 years (11,000–3,000 YBP), a long period of time which archaeologists divide into Early, Middle, and Late. Authentic Axe Arrowhead Relic Arrowheads Duck River. By 10,000 years ago the climate and vegetation had reached essentially modern conditions producing changes in the ways the native peoples lived and sought food. ovifera) (Figure 10) is native to eastern North America and was utilized by Middle Archaic peoples around 7,000 years ago. In the last two decades evidence has mounted that suggest an earlier, pre-Clovis arrival of people into the New World (Malakoff 2008). To the north of Tennessee, the Early Woodland Adena culture included burial mounds that contained tombs of probable lineage founders and burials of other kin. 258 page book Arrowhead Adventures by William Bauer, indian artifact hunter. PaleoIndians have been often referred to as big game hunters, focusing on the now-extinct large animals of the last Ice Age (Figure 5). In Tennessee, pottery is introduced from two sources. The larges was found at Etowah in northern Georgia. © McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In some areas, society became less egalitarian and a degree of social stratification emerged. I have been told that it is not considered trespassing to walk along the tennessee river and hunt the banks and shores by several people that have been doing it around here for a long time. Monte Verde, a site in Chile, is dated 14,500YBP (Dillehay 1989, 1997). 3. Certain sites became centers from which the chief would coordinate social, economic, and religious activities. Certain kinship groups were accorded more power and prestige than others. Harrington, M.R. You can find Native American arrowheads for sale. It is just over 270 miles in length and meanders it way through Middle Tennessee. Of particular importance would be ceremonies designed to assure success in the hunt and continued abundance of game. 23 Vintage Indian Arrowheads Collection Glued On … These activities would be focused on the plaza and mound and would bring clan members from the surrounding hamlets to the mound centers. The second site is Old Stone Fort in Coffee County which is a 50 acre plateau enclosed by 4,600 feet of stone and earthen embankments (Figure 19). Analysis of human burials from the Middle and Late Archaic periods reveal an average life expectancy of 25 years. The following essay was sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2009 and the Tennessee State Museum, For more on Tennessee history visit: http://www.tn4me.org, by Jefferson Chapman, McClung Museum, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Figure 5, This scene is based upon the excavations at the Coats-Hines site in Williamson County, Tennessee, where two mastodon skeletons were found. burial context. The famous Duck River cache of this type was found in the 1890s on the Duck River in Tennessee with lengths up to 30 inches. The result of the past 150 years of archaeological work is that we now know a lot about the prehistoric Indian occupation of Tennessee. By the 1690’s the Washita Tribe had been entirely driven out. The flagship campus of the University of Tennessee System and partner in the Tennessee Transfer Pathway. Although the term usually brings up images of lost tombs and gleaming treasures in the popular imagination, most artifacts tend to be more low-key. The Link Farm State Archaeological Area (), also known as the Duck River Temple Mounds or Duck River Site, is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located at the confluence of the Duck and Buffalo Rivers south of Waverly in Humphreys County, Tennessee.The site is most widely known for the stone artifacts found during excavations in the late 19th century. Although ancestral to native peoples of today, the ethnic and tribal affiliations of these ancient societies are unknown. These lineages would come together from time to time for the purpose of warfare or ceremony. © McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Beginning in the Middle Archaic, freshwater mussels and gastropods were collected in enormous numbers, especially in the western Tennessee River valley. Human feces from Paisley Caves, Oregon, have been dated 14,300YBP (Curry 2008); and genetic studies comparing modern Native American genes to native Siberians show that the populations diverged 15-20,000 years ago (Goebel et al. Beware of reproductions. It is best to skim through the surface. The shift from an Archaic period way of life to that of Woodland culture did not occur everywhere at the same time. 20. Decked out in their finery, the leaders of the Late Mississippian Period town of Toqua are assembled in front of the civic buildings on the summit of Mound A. Fish such as suckers, drumfish, and catfish were also eaten. ABOVE: This is a piece of red pipestone from Minnesota found near the Missouri/Arkansas border after recent floods. This period saw the establishment of professional archaeology in the state and increased enormously our understanding of the prehistoric Indian occupations locally. Arrowheads can easily be mistaken for flat rocks and stones. Collecting Native American artifacts can offer an inspiring peek into how hunters once hunted in this country The First Tennesseans: The PaleoIndian Period, Figure 3. The social organization was essentially egalitarian and community leadership rested with individuals who exhibited prowess in hunting or warfare. Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-3200 Phone: 865-974-2144 • Fax: 865-974-3827 1993 The Importance of Native Crops during the Late Archaic and Woodland Periods. Figure 15. By the late 1600s we have left prehistory and entered recorded history. Gulf and Atlantic marine shells (Figure 14) and Lake Superior copper, apparently sought for their prestige value have been found with burials of assumed high ranking individuals. These blades … The 1960s and 1970s saw a series of state and federal laws enacted that are designed to protect, preserve, and manage archaeological sites (TCA 11-6-101 et seq., The Reservoir Salvage Act of 1960, National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, The Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act of 1974, and the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979). Early in the Woodland period, if not earlier in the later part of the Archaic, bands began to group together to form sociopolitical units called tribes. Throughout the Southeast it was the pinnacle of religio-socio-political complexity of the Native American societies. The earliest is a fiber-tempered and sand tempered ware associated with Late Archaic/Early Woodland cultures to the south and appearing first in southwestern Tennessee about 3000 YBP. The clouds were high and the birds weren't flying, so Shell's companion suggested they look for arrowheads. Corn, the mainstay of the American Indian throughout most of North America, was first domesticated in Mexico some 5000 years ago The first evidence for corn in the eastern U.S. is around 2300 YBP; in Tennessee, the earliest corn comes from eastern Tennessee and dates to 1825 YBP, but it apparently did not become a major part of the diet until the Mississippian period. This social group had little political organization except for a nominal leader chosen perhaps for his hunting prowess. This may be due to the high-quality chert resources in the western valley and the availability of mineral-rich soils, springs, and licks in the Central Basin where animals such as the mastodon, an extinct Ice Age elephant, likely congregated (Breitburg and Broster 1994). Carbonized seeds of domesticated sunflower (Helianthus annua) (Figure 11) were found at the Hayes site on the Duck River and dated to 4,315 YBP. One must realize that these bands did not wander aimlessly. These blades are usually found in ceremonial or burial context. In. Moving from east to west, the state is divided into six major physiographic provinces (Figure 1): the Unaka Mountains (Appalachians), the Great Valley, the Cumberland Plateau, the Highland Rim which surrounds the fifth, the Central Basin, and the Gulf Coastal Plain of West Tennessee (Folmsbee, Corlew, and Mitch… Ernest J. Sims Collection. As with the Archaic, the Woodland period is divided by archaeologists into Early (3000–2200 YBP), Middle (2200–1600 YBP), and Late 1600–1100 YBP). Find a 12,000-Year-Old Arrowhead With These 10 Tips. By 1100 a complex iconography had emerged that symbolically depicted deities, events, and religious concepts and these are manifest in an array of stone (Figure 24), shell (Figure 25), textile, copper (Figure 26, and ceramic (Figures 27, 28) objects, and recent research has identified a whole realm of cave art using iconographic designs (Figure 29) (Simek and Cressler 2008). The Washita Valley Indian Tribes began to disappear in the 1600’s. McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture In eastern Tennessee, the Mississippian occupation continued into the early 1600s. Social organization continued to be bands occupying base camps and ranging out to exploit various natural resources (Figure 9). It is one of the longest rivers contained entirely within the Tennessee borders and showcases scenic pastoral lands, steep rock cliffs, and forested banks. This is considered a In David Dye, Yarnell, Richard A. A photo of the Duck River looking northwest. Broster, John B. and Mark R. Norton 1993 The Carson-Conn-Short Site (40BN190): An Extensive Clovis Habitation in Benton County, Tennessee. ABOVE and BELOW: A great arrow point I found in 2018. During the Woodland period, pottery manufacturing and container styles changed reflecting regional differences among Woodland cultures. Gathering wild plant foods was as important as hunting, and of primary importance were nuts, especially nuts and acorns. Among other things, these laws required that for any project on state or federal land, or that is funded by or permitted by state or federal agencies, the project must identify and mitigate the impact on archaeological sites. The Tennessee and Cumberland rivers and their tributaries flow through the state and a number of rivers in West Tennessee are tributaries of the Mississippi River. If so, please. The meat is being processed for both consumption and drying for future use. This type was named in a professional publication and has limited professional references, possibly due to the small number of examples found. The Woodland period has been broadly characterized by the manufacture of pottery, the beginnings of intensive agriculture, and the construction of burial mounds and ceremonial earthworks (Figure 15). Check flight prices and hotel availability for your visit. These centers were connected through a web of alliances and were also ranked, with lesser centers subject to a principal chief at a primary town. The Mississippian period was the final chapter in the long human prehistory of Tennessee. Sumpweed or marshelder (Iva annua). With the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933, there began a massive archaeological recovery program using federal relief workers (CWA, WPA) in valleys to be inundated. These blades are usually found in ceremonial or Throughout the state mound centers/towns appeared, some quite large extending over several to several tens of acres, each with associated outlying hamlets and farmsteads. A shell gorget was found at Hixton site in Hamilton County, Tennessee All are made of dover flint. Called radiocarbon dating (Libby 1955), archaeologists were now able to determine how long ago sites had been occupied—and suddenly the Indian occupation of Tennessee became very long. Duck River Cache 4, McClung Museum, Knoxville, Tennessee This image is for personal use only, and may not be reproduced by any publisher. Brown (1976) named this type for the Duck River cache found in Humphreys County, Tennessee in 1894.In the cache that consisted of 46 ceremonial pieces, the largest sword was 1 ¾ inches wide and 28 inches long.The larger blades are believed to have been used as ceremonial dance swords held by winged eagle dancers.The shorter blades were believed to have been used as knives.The … Know your arrowheads. Around 13,000 years ago, bands of hunters with their families crossed into North America and radiated across the continent, their presence recorded by Clovis points (Figure 3)—a distinctive lanceolate stone spear point with flutes or grooves on each face and named for the Clovis site in New Mexico where they were found in association with extinct mammoths. Social rank would be most apparent at this time and religious/political paraphernalia would be exhibited (Figure 23). In Mississippian villages the year would be accented with many ceremonies and activities in which music, dance, and ritual would be combined. These sites were part of a broader exchange system among Middle Woodland peoples that reached as far south as Crystal River, Florida. On the plaza before them a single-pole stick ball game is in progress. The objects held in the hands are described by Madeline Kneberg as "a long blade of the Duck River Cache type and in the other hand a crescent shaped object which represents the type of eagle claw mace in the Duck River Cache." The tip is commonly acuminate. By 1100 YBP a shift from Woodland to Mississippian lifestyles was occurring through either migration of new peoples or the diffusion of ideas from the Mississippian heartland in the middle Mississippi River valley. Archaeologists recognize this as the start of the Archaic period. As populations increased, bands established territories within river valleys. 1800's Owyhee River Fur Trade Buffalo Bone Arrowhead From Nevada. The base is convex. The famous Duck River Cache was initially discovered in December 1894 along a ridge south of the mound complex. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. One must realize that for all the culture periods, we are missing a significant portion of the record; except in rare instances, gone are the perishable materials – wood, fiber, feathers, hides, furs, and basketry. Paleoethnobotanist Richard Yarnell analyzed the contents of Early Woodland human feces found in Salts and Mammoth caves in Kentucky and concluded: “the relative proportions of plant foods in the diet during the period of about 650-250 BC was 40 percent oil-seed crops (sunflower, sumpweed, cucurbits), 36 percent small grains (chenopod, maygrass, amaranth), 2 percent weedy greens (probably at least eight species), 2 percent fleshy fruits (at least ten species), and 20 percent nuts (hickory, acorn, and hazlenut). Any field has the potential of holding arrowheads and other Indian artifacts. In the foreground, women are processing hickory nuts. 2008). By the 1870s, antiquarian collecting and speculation were replaced with more systematic excavations in Middle (Jones 1876, Putnam 1878, Thruston 1890) and East (Thomas 1894) Tennessee and these clearly demonstrated that the prehistoric mounds and villages were constructed by the American Indians and that the occupants may have been ancestors of historic tribes of the Southeast. Authentic Artifacts - Trading, Buying, Selling, and Collecting Authentic Indian Artifacts for over 40 years. Many of these large sites span the Early, Middle and even Late periods as village sizes grew and contracted and successive mound layers were added. The Link Farm site is currently under management of Johnsonville State Park. Flint Celt - River Stained Indian Artifact / Arrowheads. The Early Archaic (10,000–8,000 YBP) was a time during which bands of hunters and gatherers adapted to the post glacial environment. These blades were used in ceremonial dances held by winged eagle dancers. A typical band may have numbered twenty to twenty-five persons and been comprised of a mother and father, their unmarried children, their married sons with their families, a few uncles and aunts, and a grandparent or two (this assumes that the society was organized along male lines; later societies were organized along female lines). In March 1895, two stone statues (named Adam and Eve by the finders) were discovered several feet beneath the Duck River Cache deposit. Do you see information that is incorrect on this Towards the end of the Late Woodland, use of corn as an agricultural crop increases dramatically. This cylinder is a drill core produced while drilling pipe stems. Middle Woodland cultures in Tennessee were engaged in some interaction with the Hopewell culture to the north. Acorns are high in fats and carbohydrates and complemented hickory nuts as a food source although the bitter tannic acid in them must be leached out to make them edible. The best archaeological evidence for this comes from the increased burial ceremonialism and marked differences between the way some individuals were treated. The band moved occasionally to take advantage of the seasonal availability of certain plants and animals, but probably also had a base camp where a greater portion of their time was spent. This point is primarily most commonly associated with ceremonial centers and burials. At the same time, the circle symbolized the sun, one of the principal deities, and the cross symbolized the sacred fire. Thus it appears that at least 75 percent of the plant foods (and perhaps two-thirds of all foods) were from garden produce.” (Yarnell 1993:17) Hunting, gardening, and foraging for wild plant foods continued to be important through the rest of prehistory. an almost collateral flaking pattern (no median ridge) with fine pressure flaking on the edges. The material culture of the Archaic people becomes more diverse over time with an array of stone and bone tools for a myriad of tasks. Ancient man … Norton, Mark R., John B. Broster, Emmanuel Breitburg 1998 The Trull Site (40PY276). Excavations at Pinson in West Tennessee and at Icehouse Bottom in East Tennessee yielded pottery and stone tools of Ohio Hopewell origin. Many of the Early Archaic sites have been found deeply buried in the alluvial floodplains of the major river valleys (Figure 6), camps preserved as the river bottoms built up by successive flood deposits over the millennia. Figure 12. Condition is Used. The story becomes one of the Cherokee, Yuchi, Shawnee, Creek, Chickasaw, and others and their relationships with Euro-Americans and a new nation. The PaleoIndian period saw climatic fluctuations that brought changes in the environment of Tennessee and the extinction of the remaining Ice Age fauna such as mastodons. 1922 Cherokee and Earlier Remains on Upper Tennessee River. The 46 "ceremonial" artifacts that make up the flaked stone bifaces in the cache date to the Late Mississippian period. This blade The most commonly hunted birds were turkeys and passenger pigeons, and where abundant along the flyways in the western part of the state, migratory waterfowl like ducks and geese. A wide range of other plants were collected by the Indians and through continued human selection became domesticated: a variety of squash/gourd (Cucurbita pepo ssp. Get directions, maps, and traffic for Duck River, TN. May 12, 2020 - The Duck River Cache, so-named for its area of origin, is thought by many to be the greatest archaeological find in Tennessee. These periods are both references to some span of time, and to some stage in a continuum of increasing social complexity. Part of my family collection, found on the banks of Duck River. showed two feathered dancers. Our knowledge of the prehistoric Indians of Tennessee is a result of over 150 years of archaeological investigations. Changes that had begun in the Archaic culminated in the Woodland and increasing population necessitated changes in political and social organization. Moving from east to west, the state is divided into six major physiographic provinces (Figure 1): the Unaka Mountains (Appalachians), the Great Valley, the Cumberland Plateau, the Highland Rim which surrounds the fifth, the Central Basin, and the Gulf Coastal Plain of West Tennessee (Folmsbee, Corlew, and Mitchell 1969). Woodland communities, however, continued to thrive across Tennessee and the construction of burial mounds continues in eastern Tennessee (Figure 20). Sumpweed (Iva annua) (Figure 12), another cultigen important for its oily seeds, was domesticated about the same time as sunflower. Concentrations of these artifacts may indicate the location of base camps where a number of activities would have occurred. This point commonly has a random flaking pattern which is formed by valid type. Today many of the Mississippian sites are inundated by TVA reservoirs, but sites such as Chucalissa, Obion, and Shiloh in west Tennessee; Mound Bottom and Sellers in Middle Tennessee, and Hiwassee Island in eastern Tennessee still remain. Close examination of the bones showed that one showed clear cut marks – evidence of the association of humans with this now extinct Ice Age elephant. Simek, Jan F. and Alan Cressler 2008 On the Backs of Serpents: Prehistoric Cave Art in the Southeastern Woodlands. In the background, a mastodon is being butchered in the marshy area where perhaps it had been trapped. This is a very large ovoid Closely related to social stratification was an increase in the interregional exchange of certain objects. Figure 1. Malakoff, David 2008 Rethinking the Clovis. and the Spiro Mound in eastern Oklahoma. These first line plant food staples remained important through all subsequent culture periods. I have a question about hunting for artifacts along rivers. The prehistoric peoples of Tennessee may well be the ancestors of several southeastern tribes. 200 to 350 mm,  Width - 30 to 40 mm (***based on small sample Thus we believe that PaleoIndians were organized into bands in which several related families occupied and exploited a certain territory. His partner found a small, perfectly formed point after a few minutes of looking, and Shell has been hooked ever since. While there are many differences in the prehistoric Indian cultures found in East, Middle, and West Tennessee, there are general characteristics that they shared over time. Authenic arrowheads #4. The highest part of the upland limestone hills, where the Duck River cache was found, is known as Link Hill. Some say that arrowheads are meant to stay in the place they were found so be cautious about this. In the foreground, men are repairing and remounting stone spearpoints onto foreshafts that tip spears used in hunting. Stage in a continuum of increasing social complexity partner in the Woodland and increasing population necessitated changes in and... Is introduced from two sources and would bring clan members from the Cherokee... Art in the place they were found so be cautious about this glacial environment an.. Pack, and ritual would be ceremonies designed to assure success in the marshy area where perhaps it been. The background, a mastodon is being butchered in the 1940s a technique date. Was made up of several southeastern Tribes breitburg, Emmanuel breitburg 1998 the Trull site ( 40PY276 ) Enoch. 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