Archaic (4500 to 3700 B.C.) occupations in the Tennessee-Tombigbee region of Alabama, Missis- sippi, and Tennessee (McNutt 2008). The Eva site in Benton County (40BN12) con- tains three components that span the Middle to Late Archaic (6000 to 1000 BC): Eva, Three Mile, and Big Sandy (Lewis and Kneberg Lewis 1961). The Eva phase has been radiocarbon dated to the Middle Archaic, and while projectile points were recovered in significantly lower percentages than the later two phases (42 percent compared to 76 and 78 percent, respectively [Lewis and Kneberg Lewis 1961:25]), combining chipped stone tools classified at the time of excavation as “biface blades” brings the Eva phase percentage up to 78. Variants of projectile points included Eva I (80.8 percent), Cypress Creek I (6.3 percent), and Kirk Serrated (4.4 percent) (Lewis and Kneberg Lewis 1961:29). The Three Mile phase at the Eva site dates to the Late Middle Archaic. The advent of new cultural traits is seen in the archaeological record, such as cylindrical pestles, large chert pounders, stemmed scrapers, fishing and mussel collecting, and the con- tinued utilization of faunal remains as tools (Lewis and Kneberg Lewis 1961:173). The transition from the Middle to Late Archaic also saw the transition from large biface blades to smaller projectile points. The Three Mile phase stratum also contained a wider variety of projectile points. For example, Big Sandy (16.7 percent), Cypress Creek II (9.4 percent), Eva I (8.7 percent), Morrow Mountain I (8.0 percent), and Eva II (8.0 percent) (Lewis and Kneberg Lewis 1961:29). The Late Archaic is marked by several techno- logical developments. Perhaps foremost of these was the domestication of several plant species in eastern North America around 5,000 to 3,800 B.P. (Smith 2011; Smith and Yarnell 2009). These species are sometimes referred to collectively as the “eastern agricultural complex,” which consisted of squash, sunflower, marsh elder, and chenopod. By Late Archaic times, the regionalized hafted biface sequences that characterized the Early and Middle Archaic periods were replaced by more localized temporal trajectories of mostly stemmed bifaces. For instance, Savannah River Stemmed was widely distributed along the South Atlantic Slopes, while early in the sequence, Ledbetter and Pickwick
were disbursed in an area extending from the south- western slopes of the Appalachians into the Coastal Plain of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. Near the end of the Late Archaic in the westerly region, a multitude of other stemmed types were manufac- tured including Cotaco Creek, Flint Creek, Little Bear Creek, McIntire, Motley, and Wade. 3.3 Woodland (800 B.C. to 800 A.D.) The Woodland stage is perhaps best known for the Adena and Hopewell earthworks and mortuary practices in the Ohio Valley. Additionally, the Early and Middle periods of the stage were marked by the emergence of widespread exchange networks in which exotic artifacts and raw materials were dis- tributed across much of eastern North America. In the middle Tennessee Valley, Middle Wood- land times were marked by earthwork constructions, mound and cave burials, and increased interre- gional exchange. Middle Woodland burial mounds and cave burials have been recorded throughout the middle Tennessee Valley (Cole 1981; Danforth et al. 2007; Walthall 1980). Some burials contained extralocal artifacts and materials such as cop- per reel-shaped gorgets, earspools, bracelets, celts, and beads, marine shell cups and beads, ground galena nodules, mica, steatite pipes, and greenstone celts. The items provide evidence of participation in the network of Middle Woodland interregional exchange. The Pinson Mounds (40MD1) in Madison County include seventeen mounds built during the Middle Woodland period and is the largest ceremo- nial mound site in the United States (Mainfort 1986). Between 1981 and 1984, Mainfort and colleagues performed excavations at Mounds 5, 6, 10, 31, and the Duck’s Nest Sector. Mounds 5, 6, and 31 all contained hearths and surface fires, while Mounds 6 and 31 additionally contained cremations and a burial. Mound 10 and the Duck’s Nest Sector were determined to be anomalies that were constructed at a later period and not related to the larger mound complex (Mainfort 1986:26). Walthall (1980:116-131) distinguished the Co- pena phase for Middle Woodland manifestations in the middle Tennessee Valley, largely on the basis of pottery assemblages containing large proportions
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