American
Indian Archaeology
Ancestors of
American Indians have lived in East Tennessee for at least 13,000 years. Their culture and how it has changed are documented
from stone, bone, and pottery artifacts and from traces of their settlements
still evident in the ground. The earliest cultures are called Paleoindian and
occupied the region at the end of the last glacial period. They hunted now
extinct animals such as mastodons and made a variety of large distinctive stone
spear points such as Clovis.
The Archaic
period begins around 11,500 when Native Americans hunted deer, bear, and wild
turkey and gathered many plants such as acorns, hickory nuts that still
characterize the region. They occupied
seasonal settlements, mostly in river valley, and also established a variety of
temporary camps in upland areas. As the
climate warmed after about 8,900 years ago, there are changes in tool
technologies and greater variety in the distribution and character of
settlements. As the climate cooled to
modern conditions around 5,800 years ago, Archaic populations increased and
began to domestic native plants such as chenopod and sunflower. The first use
of pottery also occurred.
The succeeding
Woodland period from 3,200 to 1,000 years ago exhibits over 50 pottery styles
in East Tennessee alone. Woodland people
occupied small villages year round and cultivated small gardens. Burial mounds
and ceremonial objects suggest greater social and ceremonial complexity and
widespread interaction with other groups in eastern North America. Large palisaded villages, public plazas,
ceremonial mounds, elaborate mortuary ritual, and corn agriculture are
characteristic of the succeeding Mississippian period. It persisted until about A.D. 1600 when European
contact and diseases devastated Native America populations. Among their descendants, the Cherokee,
Creeks, Chickasaw, and Yuchi, lived in Tennessee. Although some archaeological
sites are attributed to them, identifying their specific ancestors in the prehistoric
archaeological record is difficult because material things seldom show unbroken
and unambiguous continuity from the present to the past. At Marble Springs small numbers of stone
artifacts attest to temporary encampments during the Archaic period, but no
other occupations are presently known.
American Indians stopped at the local springs for many thousands of
years before John Sevier made the area his home.
