Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T14:09:23.178Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Archaic Culture in the Middle South

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

T. M. N. Lewis  and
Madeline Kneberg
T. M. N. Lewis
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.
Madeline Kneberg
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Data from 22 Archaic sites in four ecologically similar regions in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia are compared to provide a synthesis of Archaic materials dating from the Anathermal to the first centuries of the Christian era in the Middle South. Stratigraphic evidence and radiocarbon dates make possible the establishment of two local sequences in western Tennessee where 15 components from ten sites can be assigned to six phases. These components are compared in terms of 83 traits through the use of the Z-coefficient described by Kroeber. Both the archaeological and the statistical analyses suggest the presence of two contemporaneous Archaic traditions in the area. The validity of this interpretation is tested by comparing the Tennessee materials with those from the Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia regions, again with the aid of the Z-coefficient. The Archaic phases of all four regions are assigned to the two traditions: Midcontinent tradition—Eva, Three Mile, Big Sandy (Tenn.), Indian Knoll, unnamed phase which includes the Parish, Ward, and Chiggerville sites (Ky.); Eastern tradition—Stallings Island (Ga.), Lauderdale (Ala.), Kays, Weldon, Ledbetter (Tenn.). The contacts between the Archaic and Woodland traditions and the lack of contact with Early Lithic cultures are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , October 1959 , pp. 161 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1959

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Claflin, W. H. Jr. 1931 The Stallings Island Mound, Columbia County, Georgia. Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. 14, No. 1. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, C. H. 1942 The Taxonomic Position of Stallings Island, Georgia. American Antiquity, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 223–31. Menasha.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, M. L., Winters, Howard, and Parmalee, P. W. 1956 Modoc Rock Shelter, Preliminary Report. Illinois State Museum, Report of Investigations, No. 4. Springfield.Google Scholar
Kneberg, Madeline 1954 The Duration of the Archaic Tradition in the Lower Tennessee Valley. Southern Indian Studies, Vol. 6, pp. 40–1. Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Kneberg, Madeline 1956 Some Important Projectile Point Types Found in the Tennessee Area. Tennessee Archaeologist, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 17–28. Knoxville.Google Scholar
Kroeber, A. L. 1940 Statistical Classification. American Antiquity, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 29–44. Menasha.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, T. M. N. 1954 A Suggested Basis for Paleo-Indian Chronology in Tennessee and the Eastern United States. Southern Indian Studies, Vol. 6, pp. 11–13. Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Lewis, T. M. N. and Kneberg, Madeline 1947 The Archaic Horizon in Western Tennessee. University of Tennessee Record, Extension Series, Vol. 23, No. 4, Tennessee Anthropology Papers, No. 2. Knoxville.Google Scholar
Miller, C. F. 1949 The Lake Spring Site, Columbia County, Georgia. American Antiquity, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 38–51. Menasha.Google Scholar
Miller, C. F. 1958 Russell Cave: New Light on Stone Age Life. National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 113, No. 3, pp. 426–37. Washington.Google Scholar
Neilson, W. A., Knott, T. A., and Earhart, P. W. (editors) 1944 Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language. Second edition. G. and C. Merriam Co., Springfield.Google Scholar
Newman, M. T. and C. E., Snow 1942 Preliminary Report on the Skeletal Material from Pickwick Basin, Alabama. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 129, pp. 393-507. Washington.Google Scholar
Phillips, Philip and Willey, G. R. 1953 Method and Theory in American Archeology: An Operational Basis for Culture-Historical Integration. American Anthropologist, Vol. 55, No. 5, pp. 615–33. Menasha.Google Scholar
Quimby, G. I. 1954 Cultural and Natural Areas Before Kroeber. American Antiquity, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 317–31. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Rouse, Irving 1955 On the Correlation of Phases of Culture. American Anthropologist, Vol. 57, No. 4, pp. 713–22. Menasha.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soday, Frank 1954 The Quad Site. Tennessee Archaeologist, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 1–20. Knoxville.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. H. 1954 Archaic Cultures in Kentucky [Abstract]. Southern Indian Studies, Vol. 6, pp. 7–8. Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Transeau, E. N. 1935 The Prairie Peninsula. Ecology, Vol. 16, pp. 423–37. Brooklyn.Google Scholar
Webb, W. S. 1945 Indian Knoll. University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology, Vol. 4, No. 3, Part 1. Lexington.Google Scholar
Webb, W. S. 1950a The Carlson Annis Mound. University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology, Vol. 7, No. 4. Lexington.Google Scholar
Webb, W. S. 1950b The Read Shell Midden. University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology, Vol. 7, No. 5. Lexington.Google Scholar
Webb, W. S. 1951 The Parrish Village Site. University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology, Vol. 7, No. 6. Lexington.Google Scholar
Webb, W. S. and De Jarnette, D. L. 1942 An Archaeological Survey of Pickwick Basin in the Adjacent Portions of the States of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 129. Washington.Google Scholar
Webb, W. S. and W. G., Haag 1939 The Chiggerville Site. University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology, Vol. 4, No. 1. Lexington.Google Scholar
Webb, W. S. and W. G., Haag 1940 The Cypress Creek Village. University of Kentucky Reports in Anthropology, Vol. 4, No. 2. Lexington.Google Scholar
Willett, H. C. 1949 Long-Period Fluctuations of the General Circulation of the Atmosphere. Journal of Meteorology, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 34–50. Lancaster.Google Scholar