Lithic artifact burning and archeological deposit formation on three early archaic sites in East Tennessee

The accurate interpretation of archeological data requires investigations of processes that may have altered artifacts and deposits since their formation. Failure to investigate along these lines may lead to the misinterpretation of behaviorally relevant archeological patterning. This thesis evaluates deposit integrity on three wooded, Early Archaic sites on the Cumberland Plateau of East Tennessee. These sites are 40ST76, 40ST79, and 40ST80. As an initial step to avoiding pattern misinterpretation on these sites, this thesis (1) investigates present and past environmental features that may have influenced preservation on sites in the region, (2) determines that forest fire, bioturbation, cryoturbation, and trampling were active on the sites, (3) determines by experimentation how these natural and cultural processes have caused post-depositional artifact burning and breaking, and (4) by cross-mending burned and subsequently broken chert artifacts, evaluates the extent of postdepositional deformation that has occurred on the sites.

The study reveals that forest fires, trampling, and possibly freezing have caused artifact breakage. The cross-mending experiment and artifact distributional studies reveal that the deposits of the three sites have been homogenized to the degree that much of the original special patterning attributable to human behavior is distorted beyond reconstruction and interpretation.