The Rime of the Ancient Miners

Terminal Archaic hunter-gatherers explored and heavily utilized deep passages of 3^rd Unnamed Cave, which lies at the bottom of the Western Cumberland Plateau Escarpment in north central Tennessee. Footprints, torch stoke marks, chert mining pits with digging stick marks, flintknapping debris accumulations and associated fireplaces, and petroglyphs remain as evidence of this intensive utilization. The focus of this thesis is largely technological, centering on the chert mining and subsequent reduction activities that followed. Specifically, insight into four major issues is developed, including the nature of the flintknapping activities practiced deep within 3^rd Unnamed Cave, the goal(s) of the reduction episodes, the chronology of the mining exploitation, and the possible reasons for this exploitation. The first two issues concern techniques and technology and are addressed primarily through core refitting. Refitting is the most reliable and straightforward means by which to address the technological questions. Core refitting has demonstrated that the prehistoric miners tested and reduced cobbles using bipolar, or split cobble, technique. Objects of export were relatively large exterior flakes. Refitting was also used to test the general utility of three other methods of lithic analysis. Results suggest that refitting provides a much finer-grained analysis and that other methods may not be generally applicable. Mass analysis was used as an independent line of analysis to complement the refitting and to test whether the flintknapping concentrations are primary accumulations or secondary deposits. Mass analysis indicates a homogeneous assemblage composed of generalized core reduction accumulations in primary position. Periodicity of chert mining in 3^rd Unnamed Cave was determined by radiometric dating of numerous and stratigraphically variable flintknapping concentrations as well as core refitting. Lastly, although no archaeological site can be properly understood apart from its cultural and economic milieu, it is suggested that the exploitation of this source was not solely a response to raw material constraints.