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.